Trail running with a 14 month old takes some preparation. Of course there's the preparing bottles for both of us, diapering, dressing, feeding, rediapering, harnessing, driving, unharnessing, removing, unfolding, and harnessing. Along the way my son tends to remove one or more socks, so there's also sometimes the added fun of locating and replacing said sock(s). Even with all of that done, I still have to stretch. That's what we did yesterday before our run at Gring's Mill. I was just beginning the stretching portion of my day when a helpful, albeit unwelcome, voice from the car parked next to me said, "You do know that trail is closed, right?" No, I did not know that, Mr. Voice. I told him that I knew that certain areas of the trail were closed, but I knew nothing about this one. He told me there was a sign proclaiming it so at the entrance, but I must have missed it. Regardless, we had come this far, so at the very least I was going to see this supposed "closed" trail for myself.
It's a short walk downhill from the parking lot to the entrance to the trail. It didn't take long to see why we were not going to be using this trail today (or any day soon, for that matter). The trail is usually next to the Tulpehocken Creek. On this day, it was under it. I'm not talking about a random puddle or two or a few overrun sections- the trail was the creek.
On our way out of the park (after unharnessing, folding, stowing, and reharnessing), I finally saw the sign proclaiming the trail out of order- all 8 and 1/2 by 11 inches of it. Thanks, Parks Department. We returned home and proceeded to run around our neighborhood. Dryly.
After lunch and a shower, we had an uneventful band practice at school. We surprised one of my son's fans who teaches in the building, possibly making her day, and continued on our way. It was time for a very late nap, but along the way we stopped in THE BIG CITY to pick up medicine for one of our dogs. I figured his nap would last long enough for me to study a little bit and then take him home before working the field hockey game that evening. He did not agree. Soon after pulling into the Chick-Fil-A parking lot, he awoke. I ordered a sandwich for me and a piece of chicken for him, and we left for the nearby high school.
He got a chance to run around on our artificial track and field for a while before the girls began hitting balls all over the place. He also made a few friends along the way. As much as he loves looking at girls, it was great seeing the look on his face as he discovered that this event consisted of nothing but girls. He walked up to many of them, pointed at them, and moved on to others. Good boy. I cut up his chicken and fed it to him while he wandered around. He met all of the people with which I work at the games, and work began. Though I held him for the duration, there were plenty of volunteers to take over for me.
Soon Mommy arrived to take him home. The game got a whole lot less exciting after he left but thankfully did not go into overtime. This was even more important because we still had to take his monthly picture before he went to bed. I got home just in time, and the day had come to a close.
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