Over four miles--yay!

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" --Matthew 4:4

Trail head at Lake Millwood for both trails

The Wildlife Lane Nature Trail is located at Lake Millwood State Park and is about a 90-minute drive from our home. Millwood is a fisherman and camper's dream, located less than half an hour northeast of Texarkana.

We picked up our walking stick medallion, got instructions for locating the trail head at the State Park office and headed down that way. The park office is located right off State Highway 32 just a few miles outside of Ashdown.

We started our walk at 9:46 a.m. and it took just over 90 minutes to complete the hike. We were going for distance, not time. We learned a couple of important lessons from Saturday's hike:

• Carry insect repellant when walking in a forest that goes through a swamp and alongside a major fishing lake! The buzz of mosquitos around our ears accompanied us pretty much the entire hike. We decided to purchase some of the pre-treated towelettes to pack in our water bottle lumbar packs.
• Keep first aid supplies with us when we walk! Sharon developed what became a pretty bad blister on her little toe, and some moleskin would have been nice to have. We've since purchased a first aid kit and transferred it to the lumbar pack. Note to self: get the bug repellant!

It's said there are 12 footers here!

 We had packed a lunch of some of our favorite 17 Day Diet foods. But about 11 a.m., nearing the end of the trail, I made a comment to Sharon: "You know, if we hurried, we could be sitting at Ta Molly's in Texarkana by 12 noon if we hurried a bit." Sounded like a plan to her too, so it gave us the incentive to get off the trail.

All in all it was a good hike and we were thrilled to have walked this far, especially since just two months ago we could hardly walk for 15 minutes.  We hope to walk an hour most weekdays and plan more long hikes on the weekends to build up our stamina. Next weekend we're heading over to Smackover for the 41st Annual Oil Town Classic 5k Run and Walk. Woo hoo!

A Godly Meditation
Thomas More, 1478-1535 

Didn't seem like paradise!

Give me grace, good Lord
To count the world as nothing,
To set my mind firmly on you
And not to hang on what people say;
To be content to be alone,
Not to long for worldly company,
Little by little to throw off the world completely
And rid my mind of all its business;
Not to long to hear of any worldly things;
Gladly to be thinking of you,
Pitifully to call for your help,
To depend on your comfort,
Busily to work to love you;
To know my own worthlessness and wretchedness,
To humble and abase myself under your mighty hand,
To lament my past sins,
To suffer adversity patiently, to purge them,
Gladly to bear my purgatory here,
To be joyful for troubles;
To walk the narrow way that leads to life,
To bear the Cross with Christ,
To keep the final hour in mind,
To have always before my eyes my death, which is always at hand,
To make death no stranger to me,
To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell,
To pray for pardon before the judge comes;
To keep continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me,
For his benefits unceasingly to give him thanks;
To buy back the time that I have wasted before,
To refrain from futile chatter,
To reject idle frivolity,
To cut out unnecessary entertainments,
To count the loss of worldly possessions, friends, liberty and life itself as absolutely nothing, for the winning of Christ;
To consider my worst enemies my best friends, 
For Joseph's brothers could never have done him as much good with their love and favor as they did with their malice and hatred.