Seen Along the Trail – Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree

Fixing the Bike Trail, Part 2

Okay, I have to admit to just playing here a bit. I had originally planned to post this back in November. For some reason, I never followed through on it. Recently Book Club Mom, another blogger I follow, posted her result of playing with the story feature. So I thought I’d try it as well.

Last November, the bike trail that runs behind the park I live got a section of it refurbished. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to grab photos of them cutting the asphalt and taking it out. However, I did get the steps after that.

So enjoy people!

Fixing the Bike Trail

Back on September 14, a “Road Closed” sign showed up at the trail crossing by my house. Looking down the trail, I saw a group of pylons blocking off part of bridge. Being the good nosey neighbor that I am, I walked down to see what was going on. Here’s what I saw….

A chunk of the trail had fallen through. Why?

It seems that the rocks and whatever that was surrounding the drain pipe had finally washed out.

So, they brought in the big front end loaders. Now remember, this trail is just barely wide enough for a pickup truck to go down. So getting all the equipment in place was not exactly easy.

They placed a proper storm drain pipe made of concrete under the surface. You can just see it in the photo. Then they built the sides out of concrete.

Those spillways were something that had been needed for a while. Finally after 2 months of work, it was finished.

Hopefully those big rocks will help keep the weeds away!

Seen Along the Trail!

At least once a day, I find myself getting out on the Bike trail that runs close to my home. I’m always amazed at the variety of wildlife that I see. Here’s a collection of those photos, both old and new.

It can happen anywhere!

Face it folks, when we are watching the evening news and they show neighborhoods where there has been some kind of crime, our first reaction is “that would never happen in my neighborhood.” It’s just human nature to assume that nothing bad ever happens around us. The truth is, it does.

I live in a very quiet neighborhood. The most exciting thing to happen here is when a nearby street was closed for repaving, and all the traffic was rerouted on to our street. This led to a lot more speeding than we normally see. Then this morning, something else occurred.

As I turned the corner from our trailer park on to the street, I was greeted with the sight of police tape across the street at the bike trail and the street was filled with police cars. Both from the city I live in, and the one that starts on the other side of the street. Now this was decidedly not a normal occurrence!

An admittedly nosy question to a police officer 👮‍♀️ yielded the story that it was still an active crime scene. For me, that was enough said. As I turned to go down the trail, a young woman who could barely keep herself together, walked up. She was a family member, and my heart hurt for her.

As I took Coco on her second walk. I noticed that the police presence had reduced. A question to the volunteer you see in this photo got me the information that the other officers had been sent home to get some sleep. In other words, this crime started sometime during the night. As I said before, this is a quiet area. Our peace had been shattered.

As the morning went on, other police officers arrived. Here’s the police photographer taking shots down the street.

The Mobile Command Center was a surprise. The local NBC affiliate was there talking with people. Surprisingly, a crew from Telemundo News was there. I didn’t know the family who was involved, but the Spanish crew was a wonderful addition.

The next time you are tempted to think that crime couldn’t touch your neighborhood, think again. Look at the peaceful street behind the police vehicle. It could happen anywhere.