Gate Crashers

Like many criminals, I did not set out to break the law today.......

Middle Child has mid-terms this week, and finished early today.  It's a beautiful day; sunny and in the upper 60's.  A great day for a bike ride!  Let's head to the national park and ride on the towpath, I told her.

I had seen multiple facebook updates over the weekend that the national parks were being re-opened.  I assumed that meant ALL the parks had re-opened.  I was wrong.  We arrived to find the gates to the parking lot locked.  I started to do a U-turn, and noticed a pick-up truck pull up and an older man get out and go up to the gate.  It looked like he might be unlocking it, so I sat there watching.  Nope, he pulled out his phone and took a picture of the closed gates with the paper sign that read 'Obama Gate.'  Damn!  Another blogger, I guess!

You know what?  We don't get too many nice fall days here, and my daughter gets even fewer free days.  Sure, there are other bike paths, but none are as scenic as the national park, nor do any other trails offer the chance to see some wildlife.  We were riding in that park.  To hell with the government!

I parked a half a mile away and we rode our bikes over to the entrance.  No chains over the bike path, so we were good to go.  It was a little spooky seeing the empty parking lot and restroom area, but what a gorgeous day!  It looked like we'd have the path to ourselves.  Just over the bridge, I saw a cardboard sign propped up on a park sign.  It read, "Storm the Gates! Save the trees!"  Hmmm....well, we'd try to do our part.

I had to chuckle to myself the entire time.  Middle Child is oblivious to the national news, unless we fill her in, so she didn't really understand why the gates were shut.  I was just imagining my other two adult children telling me, "No!  We can't do this Mom!  We can't break the law!"  I managed to raise a couple of Barney Fife's, let me tell you.  In the back of my mind, I decided that if we were stopped by anyone (city police?), I'd just play dumb and say that the bike path wasn't blocked, so we thought it was okay.  My real concern was axe murderers waiting in the woods for us delinquents.  I was hoping Middle Child could peddle fast enough for us to get away!

However, we were not alone in our gate crashing.  I did see a few senior citizens walking and a college student with a Kent State hoodie jogged past us.  And no one told this guy, either.  We were in good company!