One Of My Favorite Places

I keep taking this picture above over and over. I take a picture from that spot every time I visit this place. I've posted these similar pictures a few times already. So why do I do it? Why do I keep sharing this so many times?

It's because I think it's such a beautiful scene. It shows me a beautiful scene of what's to come. As I take the picture I'm standing in the middle of the forest looking out into a beautiful valley, and even farther out to the wonderful Loess Hills, that seem to stretch on forever. It seems as if I'm looking at this through a giant picture window.

I'm looking out at the place I call home, the place I come from. I spent most of my life away from this place. I wasn't even born here, and I didn't grow up here. But my entire family is from here. I only got to see this place from all too brief visits to see my family. I always knew I belonged here. Now I get to live here.

The next part of the trail obscures the view from within the trees, but that view is back when you travel around a few more turns in the path. I haven't gone much farther than this place lately because I'm still a little too out of shape to get back up the hill after such a long hike. There are so many birds down in that valley, and I miss seeing them.

I haven't been able to even get to this place for the past several days because of the flood. The waters have receded a bit, revealing all of the ruined crops, but we get thunderstorms every night that refill it all quite a bit. I'll be back on the trails when the weather lets me.

I don't want to end things on a down note so I'll talk about a few other things. I've been seeing a lot of good nature things that I'll be writing about soon. I still haven't visited a few other good places that are close by, like the nature center that is just down the road from me, the whole time I've been here, really. And I also have a visit scheduled to the Sioux City Museum. That's going to be fun. I'll talk to you later.