If you follow any of my social media you know I am not the biggest of fan Ohio. I have lived in 4 states (and visited one particular state so often sometimes I tell people I lived there) all across the US (literally all up and down) and Ohio is my least favorite.
I hate that BOTH my college degrees are from the same university in Ohio. I did two years in the creative writing program at the University of Houston and it's like it never existed on my official academic resume. I don't want to be associated with Ohio and its academic incest. Everyone knows everyone from Everywhere, Ohio. You can't talk about how this one chick in your grad class was way over-hyped and how the teachers there really didn't like you and could not care less about your success (in a class of like 5 graduate students!). I had to work way harder than the average student to get assistantships and local grants because I was the "new kid" in this town where everyone in my grad class went through kindergarten and college together.
But this place pictured here is different. This is my walk. My woods. That really is what it looks like at about 10am in the morning. I have taken this picture a thousand times because I love that entrance so much. I always sing Bilbo's Walking Song when I start out. I look up into the trees. These are the woods where that brown brook resides. These woods have inspired stories. This is the park in my novel "Revary". It has two lakes and one was a quarry ("Revary" again!) so the water is crystal clear. Still green and full of ominous algae, but you can see all the way down to the rocky bottom.
There is a dock on this quarry lake. I think at one point it had access to the lake but the stairs are flooded out. But you can see them! Wooden stairs, under clear, green water. They lead on and down into this watery darkness, the aqua foliage waving in the slightest of ripples. It reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl when the skeleton crew walk under the water.
Sometimes I imagine it is a drowned civilization and they are still going about their lives under the water, mining the rock, slowly marching in the water as they carry their burdens. Maybe building a cathedral like in "Pillars of the Earth", completely unaware that they are under water.
Then there are the open areas in the woods. I love them because when I come up on them during my walks, I run out, panting like I'm being chased by orcs or zombies and am scared to be caught in an open area so I dash to the creek and hide there (really to watch the water) and wait for the enemies to pass.
It's the perfect walk. Lakes, creek, woods, grassy areas. I may hate Ohio, but I love that park. What is your special place?