January 17th, 2022

Last Wednesday, Joy and I got back to our weekly hiking...yay!   There wasn't much to be seen as far as wildlife or any of the other things we usually take photos of, but it was still a great walk in a beautiful place  and there ain't nothin' wrong with that!  I am calling this Photo Safari the Motto Hike because this is the place where I finally have a personal motto.  Always wanted one.  And it's all thanks to Joy.  

Because this is January and therefore winter - even for us here in Florida - this is our dry season.  The river that runs through this particular preserve which is usually quite deep and in storms floods impressively was, instead, at the lowest level that either Joy or I had ever seen.  So naturally we had to explore down there a bit.  We clambered over fallen trees and slid a bit down the slope and eventually found ourselves on the sandy shores of the Myakka River.  I immediately set in to photographing everything in sight but I noticed that Joy was instead surveying our vicinity.

I stopped snapping long enough to ask her what she was doing.  Continuing to carefully scrutinize the area she said, "You always have to know where your alligators are".  I stopped dead in my tracks.  That one simple sentence really struck a chord with me.  She was absolutely correct. You DO always need to know where your alligators are Both Literally and Figuratively.  Oh My Gosh!   There is my life motto right there!  Thanks Jo!!

​Well there were no alligators and it was a little chilly (you can see that we are wearing more layers than usual) so we continued.  Most of my photos are just of the pretty scenery as we walked by the river:

But once we got to the forested part, well that was just as lovely too:

There were even a few flowers here and there, popping up unexpectedly like a very nice surprise

The closest to "wildlife" photos that I got was one spider, one squirrel and one beehive:

So there you have it, The Motto Hike.  A little short on photos but really Big on personal Motto's.  Now ask yourself, Do you know where your alligators are?