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.
