I must have needed some Rumpelstiltskin-like sleep last night. I woke up late enough to look at a second clock. I still drank coffee and ate shredded wheat, even though it really was time for lunch.

You see, we spent the day in Brown County yesterday.
Beautiful, beautiful Brown County.

My grandparents used to live in Brown County, in a large lake community called Cordry-Sweetwater, where I spent most of my summers growing up.
That place is one that still feeds my soul, even though my grandparents passed more than a decade ago.
Every year, about this time of year, I get the urge to go. Afterall, it’s time to wash Grandma’s windows and rake the leaves up, right?
I hadn’t been out that way for about eleven years, because babies and Georgia, and I rejoiced in driving through the winding hills just to see Grandma’s house again.
My heart was full of happy.

We drove across the Cordry-Sweetwater dam where Fall’s foliage never fails.

And since Grandma’s house is only a hop, skip and jump from Nashville, Indiana and the Brown County State Park, we did those things, too.
Walk, walk, walk, hike, hike, hike, walk, walk, walk.
All day.

But Oh! The scenery!

The Mister and I encountered a map neither of us could read — the park map. It took him awhile to find an entrance to any trail, and I can’t take any credit for his finally finding one, because after we’d both looked at the map, I said, “Any map that neither you nor I can understand is a stupid, stupid map!”
By the end of our hike, I hated bedrock steps. And all the wooden decks between them.

We only tooled around Nashville for a short while.
Much like any other place with unique boutiques and shops, it’s too crowded and overpriced to stay long.

Besides, after all the hiking, we needed real food, and not so muches with the ice cream and fudge…
We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner, and followed the Harvest Moon home.

It really was a full day.
Which I’m sure explains why I needed all that Rumpelstiltskin-like sleep. I’m just so glad my beard didn’t grow at all.