Guestpost by Loral Pepoon (Honey)

Today was kind of a crazy day on the trail. It seemed like we couldn’t get it together—and things kept going wrong—the whole day was like that.

It was a spontaneous visit to one of my husband’s favorite state parks, Montgomery Bell, which is about 45 minutes from our house here in Franklin, Tennessee. We have been so busy that we haven’t been out there for a couple of weeks now, and we were missing it. We are going to be with family the next two weekends, so we knew today was the day to go—so we went for it.

First, I forgot my hiking boots. This mistake happened because of something I recommend doing—taking flip flops in the car to change your shoes, so that you can keep your feet more comfortable in the car. The downside to that strategy is that you can forget them! The saving grace of the day is that I kept my old hiking boots in the car for emergencies, so I had a pair. But my socks were less than ideal and my feet are screaming at me.

Second, we didn’t have enough water. Now as I write this, I still have an awful headache. Bring way more than you think you need—always. My husband planned the right amount for the distance he thought we were going, which was 3 miles, but that wasn’t the actual distance.

Third, the actual distance was two miles longer than we thought at 5 miles. We had to really had to ration our water.

Luckily, my Hiker has learned to be flexible and change the game plan when mistakes happen.

Here are the ways we fixed the situation and some blessings we experienced anyway.

We altered our course and went back on a main road instead of a trail. This action helped my feet and the water situation. It saved us distance and it was still beautiful despite the asphalt roads. And we learned some history about the trail that we wouldn’t have known otherwise.

I still got to see a special shelter that my husband had always dreamed of bringing His Honey to before he had met me. He loved showing me it, and I loved seeing it. We talked about how we could come again when we had more time…we had to get back to complete this 30-day blog challenge!

It had cooled down substantially by later in the day when we were walking back. Being out in the early evening in the summer in Tennessee just before the sunset is really pleasant in the shade.

We saw many lovely deer, who graced us with their presence. This particular park doesn’t seem to have as much underbrush as many other trails in the area. Consequently, you can see for much greater distances, and the deer were in sight longer!

We still had our nutritional supplements even though we were short on water. I felt like I was going to pass out before we had Amped from Isagenix. We love this stuff. We like it so much that we are distributors of it. Seth has used many “goos” in his days of running, and he thinks it’s one of the best products out there. I know that it gives us the get up and go to keep going, with pure, natural ingredients and no side effects.

We found a few ticks, but removed them without incident. It helps to check each other thoroughly.

We had a flat tire, and we were starving craving burgers after the hike. Right when we had to stop, the gas station with a working air machine also had a Back Yard Burgers in it! We had just prayed that God would keep us safe and that He would provide a solution!

Now we are home, and overly tired but thankful that we still were together and protected, and had a new, special experience—despite the oopsies.

With every mistake, you have the opportunity to make something beautiful!

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