The First Lake W

I was a bit concerned when we moved into town. I wanted to, for my sake—the only thing the Sudden Valley location had going for it was the woods and wild W's. The roads were actually kind of dangerous at times, since they had no shoulder, no sidewalk, and at times blind curves. We jumped into countless ditches to keep from getting clipped.

Before we moved, Kathy and I did a lot of searching: where would the walking occur? We chose our current house for a lot of reasons, but one was that it was near good walk spots. The first night after we moved in, I decided to break Oz in. We got the leash, headed right, down the street, left on Euclid and toward Lakeway. We crossed and went on. Oz was happy enough, but then, Oz was a happy dog. I was trying to get a sense of if the park that we'd seen on the map was real, if there was an entrance, okay, there's nothing but trees on this side, how the heck do we get in? There!

A kind of muddy entrance way led to a trail. A trail led into the woods. The trail forked…and we followed the left fork to the lake. That first time, we walked there, because we were just in exploration mode. We were Going Someplace New, but not someplace specific yet. But Oz got to wade in the water that first night, and to scare a big flock of ducks, and she came back happy. How happy?

The next night, we headed out on our W…and she led me right, left, straight…and on to the park. When we got to the park, it wasn't "Which trail should we take?" It was "How fast can we get there?" We didn't walk, in other words. We ran, to a target of ducks and waves.

A new home.