Saturday in the Park

...ironically enough, that song by Chicago was the 1st on my iPod shuffle as I set out on my Saturday morning adventure yesterday. How appropriate it would become.

I woke up relatively early and ran a few errands. I was to meet some church friends for lunch, followed by an afternoon and night of wedding festivities. It was going to be a good day.

There was some time to kill and I wanted to get some exercise in. I decided to take advantage of the somewhat overcast weather and head to the park to do some hiking/running/walking on the trails and paths at Percy Warner Park.


I started at the entrance that is at the beginning (or end, however you want to look at it) of Belle Meade Blvd. It is marked with stone stairs that lead up to a shaded area of trails and paths. I parked my car, left my cell phone, and began on the road path that was scattered with pedestrians, bikers and drivers.


I walked/ran the hilly road for a good two miles before I started thinking to myself, man this is a lot longer than I had thought. I envisioned two or three miles of pathways before I would be looping around and coming out at the other end of the entrance.

Wrong. Dead wrong.

I walk some more, and see the trees start to break. "I'm finally back!" I thought.

No dice.

My iPod died. I had no cell phone, and clearly no sense of direction. I thought about turning around, but I could have sworn on several occasion that I was "almost there."

Suddenly, I came upon a rest area that had a map, a port-a-potty and a water fountain. A lady with two large Boxer dogs looked like she is waiting on someone, so I stop to ask her how to get back to Belle Meade Blvd.

She isn't quite sure, but points on said map as to where I was.

I had literally walked almost 5 miles and had another 6 or so to go before being back at my car. If you are familar with Nashville, that is like walking from the Krystal in Belle Meade to where Old Hickory Blvd. meets Highway 100. In the heat. Mostly all up hill.

For someone that thought all I had ahead of me was a 2 mile jog, this was a lot to take in. I polietly asked the lady if she woudln't mind taking me back to my car. At this point, I was so hot, exhausted and semi-dehydrated that I didn't even care.

Her friend finally comes out of the port-a-potty and we all pile in her Nissan. I am shoved in the back with the two larger-than-life dogs totally panting in my face, desperatly trying to make convorsation.

They could not have been nicer.

Two and a half hours after I started on my "jog", I'm back at my car thanks to my new friends. I offered them what I had - money or some Altoids. They refused both, but rest assured that I probably said Thank You 248 times.

I got online and tried to look at the map. I literally have no idea how I got to where I was, and the scary part is, I had it not been for the good samartians, I don't know how I would have ever found my way out.