Professional Stringer of Words: state park fun and stalking

I had the day off today for the holiday, so I took the children to Mounds State Park in Anderson. It was a really cool park. There are Native American ceremonial mounds there and some scenic trails. There are some pics below. But first, a story about stalking.

For some reason, I have a tendency to attract stalkers, which is rather unsettling because I am very much an introvert. I first noticed today’s stalker at the Great Mound. That’s the first one you find when you hike on the main trail. She was this nerdy sort of lady with glasses and a ponytail. She had 5 or 6 kids with her.

I noticed her because one of the children was walking around wrapped in a Strawberry Shortcake comforter, quilt thing. When I took a picture of the Great Mound to send to my husband, I caught a little corner of it in the picture. Here it is.

My two non-quilt-wearing children and I left the Great Mound to head further down the hiking trail. The lady and her kids were a bit obnoxious, so I hoped they wouldn’t follow us. They did. We took a right at a trail junction, so did she, we made a brief trip off the trail to the edge of the White River, she took her herd of younglings that way too. She followed us for quite a while.

I finally stopped my kids on the trail and told them to let the lady pass. She took her time walking up. I stood there texting my husband about the crazy lady. She did finally come up next to me and ask me if I had been to the park before. I hadn’t. That was our first trip.

She went ahead on the trail like ten feet and stopped. I swear she was waiting for us to start walking again so she could follow. She did eventually give up and she turned around and took her crowd of children back the way we’d come.

Creepiest park experience ever.

Here are some pics.

This is the left part of the circle on the Great Mound.

Toad! or frog...whatever. He crawled into a hole in the mud about 10 seconds after I took this picture.

The White River

There were tiny creeks and waterfalls everywhere. This one was next to the trail. It ran down a hillside on our right, under the trail into the river.