CQ's Best Kept Secret

Since returning to campus last month, the couple next door has been talking about going down to the river for their evening walks.  Their description made it sound like an urban paradise, but even that still didn't convince me to take the next opportunity to run down and check it out.  Bob and Carolyn are everything I hope to one day become - contagiously adventurous, indiscriminately kind, unwaveringly optimistic, and exceedingly generous.

Their generosity often applies to descriptions as well.  Take, for example, the "spaghetti" dinner I tried to make for all the foreign teachers shortly after arriving in our town for the first time last year.  The thing that I remember most about that meal was how embarrassed I was to serve it.  Likely, a worse pot of noodles has never been cooked - before or since!  Yet, in true form, our neighbors were encouraging with claims of how delicious everything was.  Keeping that in mind, I was somewhat skeptical that this river path could be everything I hoped for, but the allure of finding a good place to run finally drew me there a couple of weeks ago.

I was shocked by what I found.  First, there's a new housing development on the walk down to the river that was an ever-so-subtle reminder of home.  Though much larger than the usual Texas apartment community, and still under construction, the warmer colors and mix of stone, brick and wood were a welcome break from the typical concrete and tile.

Pergolas and arches and shutters!

Once I got to the river, I was shocked by what I found.

Where are all the people?!

Perhaps the emptiest road I've seen here.

There are three paths: one right down by the river (where old men usually have their fishing poles set up), one midway up the hillside (the least populated and thereby my path of choice), and one up by the road.

Path directly next to the water.

Decorative roadside walkway.

Not sure what happened here...this one swallowed an axe?

View from the middle path.

Boats along the river.

A sweet father-daughter moment.

And then, just like that, after following the path back and forth a couple of miles, the magic had gone and I had returned to the hustle and bustle of the city.