Day 4,032 —the River is High and Rising—

I went to the Meramec by Emmerson Park. It had been raining heavily yesterday, so I figured there would be mud, and I was interested in seeing how high the river was.

         It took me a while to get there, but the time went by fast. I could have added more to this run, but I left late in the morning and wanted to get back to spend time with my kids. I was trying to leave before 6 this morning, but I waited long enough for everyone to get up and start playing with Legos. We have so many Legos and both my kids love Batman, so I was showing them my different Batman Legos. It is nice that they like something that I already own.

I was feeling strong, and I started, and it took me a minute to realize that it was because I was running without a vest today. I was listening to this song “Runs in the Family” by Amanda Palmer. I think I was experiencing flow because normally the road that takes me to the park seems to take forever, but not today and when I made it past the bridge and turned right, I realized I was almost there.

         There is a secret entrance to the park. I don’t know really how secretive it is, but I don’t think unless you knew it was there or discovered it on foot, you would ever notice it. There is a sign before it that tells you it is a dead-end, and I saw a person walking the other way when I turned towards the dead-end to the secret entrance to the park.

         For a few minutes, I thought maybe I had misremembered, but then it was right there. I ran to the top of the hill that looks down on the highway while dodging slippery mud. My phone flew out of my pocket, but I caught it in mid-stride.

         I sat for a moment at the top and took pictures before I ran down the muddy hill to the river. I saw two other people out walking around. One of them I thought was going to sit on my favorite bench where you can look out on the river, but he kept moving.

         As sitting on the bench, I looked down and saw the spot where I usually sit to be the closer to the river, and it was completely submerged, which means the river is at least 10 feet higher than it usually is.