My six little feet and I took to the trail on the flat Florida ground.
Sometimes I wonder if these guys will turn out alright. I mean, there are no hills here.
No hills.
No bumps, no lumps.
No hills.
So, I wondered, "Can a boy grow up alright without experiencing what it's like to build a slap-dash, rip-slash, rough-shod scooter just for the sole purpose of careening at break-neck speed clear to the bottom of the biggest hill around, the wild wind and his equally wild brothers yee-hawing in his ears the whole wild way?"
"And what about hamstrings?" I wondered some more. "Will they even know that they have hamstrings if they've never hiked up an incline that's steep enough to use them? Every boy should know about his hamstrings!"
All this was flat-out worrisome to me as we walked along on this flat Florida ground.
Alongside the lake, we took the hog trail that cuts off through the palmettos, like we do when we're feeling adventursome, which is most of the time. We kept our eyes peeled for anything new we hadn't seen before.
We weren't disappointed.
Evidence of the food chain was found near the eagle's nest. Thank you, Mr. Rabbit, for your sacrifice.
Not too far beyond that, we came upon the Mystery of the Corn...
Hard corn kernels on the ground in the middle of the woods. Hmmm.
Never did figure that one out. (I'm sure the forest animals enjoyed it without trying to figure it out.)
Never figured it out, because the swamp was right there, just beyond the corn. Or, what used to be the swamp. Now it was all dried up, and we could hike back in where we hadn't been able to hike before! This was clearly more exciting to put one's mental effort toward. Corn, schmorn.
The newness of this wild place piqued every nerve. We were alert, walking through brush, dead grass, and small southern pines.
Then, we saw them.
Humps.
Honest-to-goodness Seuss-looking hills!
Really, they were a stand of 10-15 foot-tall pine trees that had succumbed to the suffocation of a wildly invasive vine that had completely engulfed the trees in a feathery-green net. Seuss-hills.
Gasp! Did I say hills?
I definately did!
You know what's comin.'
You do.
Hills were made for climbin'!
These guys were brave. They were gallant. They were tough.
They were using their hamstrings to my heart's content!
A hill, is a hill, is a hill--to a boy!
Even if it looks like it came straight from the pages of Hop on Pop!
And, you know, what goes up, must come down...
Landing on a green mattress? What's not to love?
Weeeell, uh, it's a little steep from way up here, he's thinking.
Some prefer a little caution in their adventure.
Others aren't sure what caution is, and they don't want to stop to find out.
They climbed, they slid, they jumped, then did it all over again.
The sun was setting, it was dinnertime, and they wanted to stay.
Could I blame them?
They were climbing hills in Florida!
