Gracie will be 3 yrs old in July. These are recent pictures of her while we were hiking in East Granby this past weekend. She loved it. I didn't love it quite as much. For the first time in all these years of going there I didn't really have a good time. Turns out the place was rather over run by families that brought their kids. Ordinarily that is not a problem but this time it seemed like everyone brought kids that didn't want to be there or were determined to make the place their own personal war zone for entertainment purposes.
Over and over again I kept running into families with really rowdy kids; being loud; hitting each other with sticks; throwing rocks, etc. They were rather a nightmare and certainly not what I wanted to be around. Sometimes I could clearly HEAR these kids but not even see them because they were far enough away to be out of eyesight. I was very disappointed.
I go to the woods for peace and quiet; for exercise and to make sure my dog has a good life as well. But like so many times since Covid hit a few years ago, these places that I once used to travel alone or nearly alone are now well known by the local rabble (as I call them).
There was one bright spot while I was there. I met a very old man walking towards me on my way back out of the woods. I noticed him for two reasons....first of all because he looked to be VERY old, like shouldn't be going anywhere alone old, let alone be in the woods alone and secondly because although he looked very old the guy had a big smile on his face and he was really moving along very well for someone who looked that old! We said a few words to each other in passing and he kept that smile on his face the whole time and never broke stride either. Good for him! I hope he enjoyed his time in the woods.
I can't exactly put my finger on why but he made me feel so much better.
