'Gators!

Dad and I took a ride to Magnolia Springs State Park a little while back to reconnoiter its potential as a day or overnight trip with Miss Lilly.  Lil’s not quite so adventurous as me and doesn’t seem to enjoy riding just for the sake of riding so there’s got to be some kind of payoff at the end to make it all worth the worry.  When Lil was young, she had no use for riding whatsoever until, one day when Mom was babysitting a  friend’s dogs which, for some reason, entailed a lot of swimming and sunbathing in their pool and invited dad and us to join her that Lil’s attitude changed dramatically.  That was a bittersweet experience for all of us.  First, we had been promised a pizza and that, I’m sorry to say, never happened for whatever reason.  Lil, however, discovered their “cement pond”.  Now Miss Lilly loves to swim!  I’ve seen her dive six feet out and eight feet down into the water without hardly leaving a ripple and she fell right in love with that big old cement pond.  Me, not so much. Here I am doing what comes naturally for my breed, pottering around at the edges of the water when, overcome by concern for my missing pizza, I lost my footing and fell into the deep end with a loud splash and more than just a little ripple.  Now I’m a great swimmer too but I usually prefer to initiate the activity myself and  like to do it with just a little more style.   Point is,  that despite my embarrassment and the dearth of pizza (Did I mention that we were promised pizza?), I wouldn’t have stayed at the house for anything.  Lil though, like I say, has to have that end reward.

  I digress.

With our original objective  in mind, we set off to explore the park.  To say the least, it was a disappointment on many levels.  We could have lived with the fact that it is kind of run down.  A lot of the park fixtures like benches and the observation deck are decades old and evidently still sporting their original paintjob.  The advertised crystal clear water was not in evidence anywhere.  I’m sure that wherever it first comes out of the ground that it is clear but it quickly turns into the blackwater that is so prevalent in this part of the country.  At the far end of the spring, we could see evidence of a well-kept lodge and manicured grounds but this was not open to the public, not even dogs.  Another thing that looked to  be a great feature of this park was the abundance of squirrels in need of learning respect for little red dogs.  Again, this turned out to be a source of disappointment.  Dad wouldn’t let me tutor any of them, not because of the leash requirement (for some reason, dad drops the leash quite a lot ) but because of the ‘gators.  Yeah, the ‘gators.  I guess the sign saying not to feed the fish or the ‘gators should have been a tipoff but even though ‘gators are all around here, you usually think of them being in or close to the water.  It wasn’t until we’d reached the point of no return on the trail and were, by then, some distance from the water that we noticed the profusion of ‘gator tracks on the soft sand path.  “Gators didn’t only live here, they abounded!  With me having lost a good deal of my interest in enlightening a few squirrels and dad having fond remembrances of his revolver which he left at the house, we hightailed it out of there, never to return.  I’m not saying it’s a terrible place but definitely not what we had in mind for sitting outside the cabin (which actually looked pretty decent) by the fire relaxing with a pizza and maybe a cold beer.

That’s the difference between me and Lil. The destination today was a disappointment but the day was not.  We had a nice ride, had and survived an adventure and were happy to spend time together which, of course, was the point all along.  Dad says that before our next long adventure, he’s going to take me and Lil in to town for ice cream so Lil knows she’s not being excluded and meanwhile, we’ll keep on the lookout for a better day/overnight trip.  Dad’s been looking online for some affordable beachfront cabins but says all he’s found so far is a new oxymoron.  I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about and just wag my tail and look at him sweetly when he gets like that.

 

Our next planned adventure is Jekyll Island which claims to be the most dog-friendly place in Georgia.  We'll see ya soon.