{"id":21449,"date":"2023-12-10T14:04:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T20:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/?p=21449"},"modified":"2023-12-10T14:04:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T20:04:22","slug":"third-and-final-hike-in-starved-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/uncategorized\/third-and-final-hike-in-starved-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Third and Final Hike in Starved Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The thing I didn&#8217;t mention in my previous post is that while we were hiking I suddenly realized I&#8217;d lost my hat.  Kevin bought the hats before we went hiking in Wales and they have flaps and are very nice and I was very sad that I&#8217;d somehow lost it.  It happened because I took it off and tucked it into my pack strapped around my waist, and hadn&#8217;t paid enough attention to the hat and it was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">As I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ve written about over and over, my basic M.O. is to lose, drop and break things.  So it wasn&#8217;t a huge surprise that I&#8217;d lost the hat, but still, I was disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I hoped that somebody would turn it in and kept going to the front desk and asking, but no luck.  When I woke up the next morning, here&#8217;s the video that Kevin sent me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WE2PVjrkF5s?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He went for an early morning hike and found my hat!  Because he&#8217;s wonderful. In addition to finding my hat, he also bought a delicious giant muffin at the coffee shop that we enjoyed before heading out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">This morning we drove to the end of the park road to hike Illinois Canyon.  We&#8217;d been there a long time ago and remembered that it&#8217;d been covered in bluebells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">When we pulled into the parking lot we were surprised that it was completely full, and found the last spot in the adjacent lot.  This was odd because there weren&#8217;t that many hikers on the other trails, and they were much more popular than the more remote ones.  But then we started seeing a lot of grey-haired hikers exiting the trail and realized it must be some hiking club.  They all looked older than us and one guy had a metal leg.  Good for them.  I hope to be able to hike til, well, til the end.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Anyway, the trail had almost no people on it and it was lovely although bluebell-free.  We did have to scramble over s few limbs which were lying over some little streams and I wondered how the guy with the metal leg had done that, but he must be very proficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n9.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n9.jpg 400w, https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n9-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n10.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n10.jpg 540w, https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n10-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 540px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">When we got to the canyon there was a trickle of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n11.jpg 540w, https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n11-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 540px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">After we walked out we decided to take the trail over to a couple of other canyons where we&#8217;d been before and then continued on.  We were then on uncharted territory and it was very steep, and the only place, I believe, that was up high but we could also see the river below.  At this point we&#8217;d climbed way up and then down and I was a little nervous about the return trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n12.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n12.jpg 540w, https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n12-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 540px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">There were no other hikers, but then we saw a group of three or four young men, sashaying down the trail with clouds of pot smoke following them.  I can&#8217;t imagine clamboring around on this trail under the influence of anything.  We finally got to an overlook and they went off.  I was happy to turn around and going back wasn&#8217;t as bad as I&#8217;d thought it&#8217;d be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n13.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n13.jpg 540w, https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/n13-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 540px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">It was a wonderful trip and I&#8217;m looking forward to more of them in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Meanwhile, it&#8217;s the countdown to Christmas but I just finished my huge and incredibly time-consuming job of making a bunch of different calendars .  This year I made more than I ever have and it was incredibly rewarding to hit &#8220;order now.&#8221;  Whew.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I&#8217;ve somehow managed to put up most of the decorations, with maybe only an hour more to do.  So right now I&#8217;m feeling a little relaxed which is a refreshing feeling since I&#8217;ve been overly-stressed about things for the last week or so  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Plus, Mom and I are headed to NYC on Tuesday for a quick trip.  A few months ago I read that my all-time favorite musical, &#8220;Some Like it Hot,&#8221; which Randy and I saw when were were in NY last January, is closing at the end of the year.  I was shocked and disappointed that it will be closing after only a little over a year.  I then got the idea that I had to see it again, so I booked us a trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I have a little packing to do, as a matter of fact, but it&#8217;s all good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ok then,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mrs. Busy Hughes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The thing I didn&#8217;t mention in my previous post is that while we were hiking I suddenly realized I&#8217;d lost my hat. Kevin bought the hats before we went hiking in Wales and they have flaps and are very nice and I was very sad that I&#8217;d somehow lost it. It happened because I took [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[295,1],"tags":[39,215],"class_list":["post-21449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","category-uncategorized","tag-kevin","tag-starved-rock-state-park"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6JLYy-5zX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21449"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21459,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449\/revisions\/21459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}