After my grand mini-adventure last weekend to West Virginia I have had a peaceful week full of even tinier mini-adventures. More than anything, I've been trying to work on the idea that Ohio is an adventure, to truly savor the things in my daily life that are wonderful and unique and exciting.
For example, this Monday I wanted to check a particular book out from the library (I told you, always adventure armed with plenty of literature!). The Athens branch library is closed on Mondays, but the library in Nelsonville is open on Mondays. Now, for those of you following along from afar, Nelsonville is the name of the closest city to Athens. (In Ohio, everything 5,000+ is classified as a city; otherwise, it is a village. It's really quite darling to hear reports of "The Village of Chauncey" - except for, in that example, the village leadership of Chauncey
is always in some sort of less-than-darling squabble.)
Anyway, I get a little bit of a kick out of the fact that there is a town called Nelsonville. When I was younger, we would pretend that our house was called Nelsonville, and write letters to each other at "1 Bedroom St, Nelsonville," and so on. But, then again, we had a very unique household.
Nelsonville, Ohio, isn't a large town, and apparently it's a Preserve America City. It's certainly gorgeous, however. It's about a thirteen-minute drive from Athens through some slight hills, a bit of countryside, a dash of road construction, and national forest. The Wayne National Forest has a park ranger's office there, and although typically I zoom past it en route to Nelsonville or Columbus, this time I stopped and pretended to be a tourist, gathering maps and looking intently at all of the historical displays set up. Then I continued up the road, under the clear blue sky filled with puffy clouds, as has so often been the case this summer. The road, in this case, is US-33, which is pretty much the only conduit between Athens and Columbus - and beyond, in most cases. Returning home from a trip, the moment I get on 33 just south of Columbus a great sense of relief always washes over me. It's kind of neat to live in a town isn't accessible by interstate. Maybe that's just me . . .
I spent the morning leisurely strolling around the central square of town. Nelsonville has a higher-than-average assortment of antique shops and art galleries. I found a newspaper and read it in the grassy central square while waiting for the library to open. After checking out my book (and plenty of browsing!) I nestled myself in another park and read for the rest of the morning as the sun warmed my back and small groups of people filtered nearby. It was pretty idyllic.
The sky has been almost unreal this summer. I feel like in that picture the sky is almost too blue to be true!
After I grew tired of reading, I went for a Nelsonville run. This is pretty much the same as an Athens run; the bike path which I so frequently tread runs all the way to Nelsonville - if I ever, in some fit of madness, talk myself into doing the full Athens marathon, I would run to Nelsonville and back on the bike path. Since I am not quite that insane (yet), I had never run on the part of the path that traces along the Hocking River on Nelsonville's outskirts. And it was beautiful. I found myself wishing I had my camera. Cliff outcroppings jutted through hillsides densely packed with trees. Every now and again, I'd come across a sturdy bridge spanning some tiny offshoot which ultimately led back to the Hocking. I passed many bicycle commuters, a family out for a bike ride, and a caregiver on a walk with two developmentally disabled adults. Otherwise, in the course of my 4.5-mile run, I saw no buildings, vehicles, or other signs of civilized life. It was almost like hiking! I also somehow neglected to see the first mile marker, so while I thought I was running about 3 miles and change, I actually wound up running 4 and a lot of change! Who knew!
Anyway, this morning I went on a jog with a friend and I did remember to bring my camera. We
ran on winding County Road 20, which takes the daily adventurer out to Strouds Run State Park for some swimming and hiking. We didn't quite make it that far today, and my camera
obediently died after I snapped only a few photos of our trek, but the woods were alive today. A small stream trickled through the woods, heading who knows where - into a fantasy story, perhaps.
That's all for today!
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