Today I left my house without a plan for the run. Well, without a route planned. I knew I wanted to get in about 8 miles, but beyond that… I didn’t know exactly how I wanted to accomplish the goal.
I started out and mainly ran on “trails”. Many of the neighborhoods in my area are gated communities, contained within block walls. On the exterior of the block wall there is usually a dirt “trail” and a sidewalk.
After about 3 miles I found a stretch of road that just had a fence separating me from wide open desert. But I also noticed a sign I hadn’t seen before… a sign that said “Pedestrians and Horses Enter Here” and a small opening in the fence. There was further information about how the desert can be a dangerous place… wild animals… flash floods… yada, yada, yada. I was just excited to explore the trails in this new area.
So I ran about a mile in this area but I kept rolling my ankle on rocks so I decided I would head back toward home. On the way home I was running on the dirt when I noticed a bush that looked like it had several tissues blown into it. My first thought was, “How sad… that’s a lot of trash.”
But then I looked and realized EVERY bush in that field had the same “tissues” blown all over them. DUH! They’re flowers. Weird, wilty, droopy flowers. I was so busy noticing the odd plant life and not paying attention to my footing when I stepped on a large rock and rolled my left ankle, a hard roll.
I stumbled forward, fearing for a minute that I was going to fall. (Which I guess would be good, because then I would have fallen on a Rock ‘n’ Roll race weekend and all of my friends would be safe because I would have taken care of a tumble yet again!) But I managed to right myself and stay on my feet.
As I regained control, I glanced down and saw a dollar on the ground. SCORE!
I walked about .3 mile to test my ankle. All seemed fine so I ran the rest of the way home. The ankle seems fine now and I’m a buck richer!
Jill Will Run 
Woo hoo! Put the buck on #23!
Glad you didn’t hurt yourself! It sucks to roll your ankle!
My dear some days you scare me! Miss you.
Sometimes, I scare myself! Miss you too, have fun at Disneyland! You rocked San Diego!
Hilarious! Well, not the near ankle roll…but that you found a dollar in the proccess!! And the “tissues” in the bushes…oh my! You do have some interesting runs…
I like to look for the interesting things in life. Makes for fun stories and good memories!
I have to admit, when I first read the use of the word “tissues” I thought maybe someone had used nature as their very own porta pottie and then just scattered their T.P. to the wind, literally! LOL
Score for you on the money, too, that’s awesome!
Most of my runs are just through neighborhoods too. i wish I had trails to run on like you do in the southwest, and Penny does out in CA. A lot less tree roots, am I right?