Written June 14, 2011
This morning’s exercise walk may have been one of the best ever. My wife and I were treated to God’s splendor manifested not only in our being out in the great outdoors, but also thru His amazing animal kingdom as well. We chose to walk at close-by OP Schanabel Park and we started our 3 mile walk around 8:00 a.m. when the weather conditions were still tolerable heat wise. We were about 15 minutes into our walk on the Oxbow trail portion of the park when Barbara spotted a turtle on the side of the trail. He was a good size turtle, maybe 10 inches long, and with his high domed shell, maybe 6 inches tall. We stopped to just watch him as he watched us. It appeared that he eventually was going to cross the concrete trail to get to the other side but like a turtle, he wasn’t in a hurry.
As we moved on, enjoying our conversation and the rugged, scraggly south Texas scenery the next thing we encountered were the usual gecko lizards darting across the trail. We’re so used to the little green guys that they hardly register with us but they do seem to enjoy surprising us. A little rabbit (a bunny I suppose) darted by too after standing perfectly still, thinking we couldn’t see him. And to top that scene off we saw a beautiful Cardinal tending to the nest in a low tree just off the trail.
The sun on this day was pretty intense early. Some days we get some cloud cover until the late morning which helps, but not today – it was crystal clear (which means that it heated up quickly). By the time we hit the half way point in our brisk walk we were soaked with sweat, and we were a bit tired and thirsty. As we stopped to take a break we enjoyed the bottled water that I had carried in my backpack. The walk back would be a little more challenging since a good portion of the Oxbow trail wound down and thru a valley, on the way back of course, we had to walk up an incline.
The walk back brought us the most joy however. We came across a family of deer, just off to our right side. They were semi-hiding in the bush grazing quietly. The family appeared to be two adults, and the most amazing sight – a fawn! It was awesome to just watch as they watched us. The deer at OP (Opie as we call it) are pretty familiar with humans. It seems that they have little fear of us. We were only steps away (maybe 12 feet) from them and although they didn’t flinch or run away, they watched us closely (and I hope, for their sake, warily). We stayed to watch them for a few moments, thinking about how awesome it is to see God’s animals in the wild. As we made our way back to the parking lot and our car we made sure to tell who ever we came across that there was a family of deer up ahead.
How awesome is it that we can share this great earth with the animals? I can’t wait to do more walking or hiking this week (even if it is 100 degrees everyday).
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