A Walk In Northlandia

You've seen some of my walk route at Bedlam. I take the Route 19 frontage road up to East Bay, then turn left all the way to Belcher, then down to Ulmerton and back up to Bedlam for my just short of 10,000 steps. There is never-ending traffic, ceaseless noise, things to look at, sirens blaring and often lost coins along the way.

Now see where I walk in Northlandia.

This stretch of the walk is disarming. Absolute quiet -save for the occasional breeze rustling whatever is there to rustle. I'd forgotten how deadly silent it is in the country, or just never realized it. The birds chirping is about all that makes any discernible noise.

Also along this country road is a house in somewhat poor condition. Every time I go by there is no sign of life. No observable yard work besides the mowing. To the left of the house is a very deep ravine full of undergrowth and what looks like a small pond some ways away. While walking once I glanced through the leaves and was startled by what looked like someone standing. Then it looked like they were tied to a post. Then my Blair Witch irrational gene kicked in and I started to get "weirded out". OK, so it must be a scarecrow. Having never seen one I'm sure I can get excused for being confused at first. No pass, however, for the over zealous imagination. It was 10 in the morning.

But then I saw this as I was walking away.

A voice in my head said, keep walking old man. Don't look back.

I have no idea what this used to be when it was alive. A small deer perhaps? A large bird. It's hard to see but that is a ribcage. Nature is tough; in the next few days, this morphed into something else. As long as we are discussing this, I am also amazed at the amount of road kill I have to step around out here. Granted, this is a major country road north of Emerald City, but still, I have seen very little for a while and even when I lived up here I didn't walk the paved country roads much. Hope you aren't reading this over breakfast.

All in all quite a different view on things in Northlandia. Floriduh is not without its pleasures, but besides the occasional penny the North is more in tune with nature, with all its brutality and beauty.

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