Total Pageviews

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Hiking the Lower Miller Creek Trail

We finally went on a hike again, the first one since leaving the White Mountains almost two months ago. I hadn't been on this trail since coming back from Texas and momentarily forgot how to get there!

We took all three dogs on leashes up the trail, which meanders along Miller Creek. I had forgotten how beautiful that trail is. The dogs had fun; they drank when they wanted to from the creek. This was Sadie's longest hike to date: three miles.

At one point we had to stop near some horses crossing the creek and took a bypass to avoid scaring one of the horses that looked apprehensive of the dogs. The owner had to calm it down by petting it and speaking calmly to it.

The hike took us 1:20 hours. Sadie pulled the entire time as Kevin held her back. (I had the two big dogs)

We were back by 1pm and I resumed my gardening, laying more Bermuda grass down in anticipation of today's storms. It took seven more hours before the downpour, but then it lasted two hours. We hadn't had rain all week so this was nice. The wilting beans and squash should come back to life.

It was an otherwise quiet weekend. I neither went hiking with Brenda in Tucson, nor joined the Garden Club for their picnic yesterday. I just didn't feel like driving anywhere, even though the price of gasoline is dropping and $20 less now than it was at its peak two months ago. ($3.86 in town).

We gardened lightly all weekend. Yesterday we went to WalMart and Target to get a few more garden and pet supplies. K suggested we stop at El Paso Steakhouse and we had a surprisingly good meal there: I had two Blue Moon Wheat Beers (with orange slices), some brisket and potato skins we shared. The bill came to $24 with tip. We hadn't had such an affordable and tasty meal in months. El Paso is now our new hang-out. Even though "Colonel" Bill was not there, several other senior patrons who once hanged out at Applebee's are now hanging out at EP.

Sadie's "pre school" is coming along fine, too. She pays intense attention to Kevin and learns fast, although food is her primary lure that she still fights with the other dogs over. She now parks at other dogs and wants to be a tough little German Shepherd. She's going to be one beautiful dog.

No comments: