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Its been a pretty full year so far without much opportunity to sit back and “smell the roses.”
We’re usually so busy here at the News-Banner, rushing to get another story finished in time for deadline, that taking a time out to sit back and enjoy the moment is something that we don’t always get time to do.
I wasn’t really expecting to be reminded of that this past weekend either. Although I didn’t have any gripping news stories to write up for Monday morning’s deadline, we are busy writing the stories that will appear later in the month in our annual “Progress Edition.”
One of my stories is a look at the heritage trails and native habitat areas around Bluffton, and how they fit into Governor Daniel’s grand vision of an extended heritage trail running from one end of the state to the other.
I’m still kind of figuring out how the story will eventually unravel, and when I set out for a tour of the Bluffton area on Saturday afternoon with Doug Sundling, I really wasn’t sure how I wanted to cover the story. Even now, with deadline looming, I’m still very uncertain of what the finished product will look like.
But one thing is for sure - the roses definitely reached up and tripped me Saturday afternoon, and provided a much needed contrast to the rush of most of the projects I have been working on recently.
Doug took me the length of the River Greenway (and a bit more). We checked out the bicycle trails and other walkways around Elm Grove. We stopped off on both sides of the Main Street bridge, and then proceeded on further west to the riverside walkways that extend from Marion and Hale streets.
While New Zealand prides itself on its natural beauty, I don’t think that anywhere there, the natural element presses right up against the central city as close as it does in Bluffton.
Each area we stopped and looked around offered a completely unique wildlife experience - no, not lions and tigers, but still, sights, smells and sounds of a countryside, seemingly only minimally affected by human presence.
Except perhaps for when we were next to the Main Street bridge, we could easily have been a hundred miles from the nearest city. And yet, even at the extremities, we were within walking distance of downtown.
The old Bluffton cemetery provided an interesting contrast. The last resting place of Bluffton’s early settlers seemed very idyllic and peaceful until the Norfolk and Southern Railroad’s train rolled past a little after 2 p.m.
I didn’t mind the interruption — I like trains.
But it was interesting to note nonetheless that the more recent graves were placed closest to the railroad tracks, which, if my admittedly limited understanding of local history is right, would have been after the tracks had been laid.
Hardly the ideal final resting place for loved ones, right next to the busy railroad, surely?
Back in those days, the railroad was supposedly the latest, greatest thing since sliced bread!
Well, maybe it even predated sliced bread.
But you get my point, surely.
Railroading was the growth industry of the late 1800s, and a noisy one — hardly something you would want to put beside a cemetery?
I’ve now been here two years (exactly, actually - I moved into my apartment over the weekend of 8-10 June 2007 and started work at the News-Banner on Monday, June 11), and I still didn’t know some of the places Saturday’s tour took me to existed.
Some of them I’ve rushed past on several occasions, hurrying to an event, or back to the office to get the story written before deadline, or to make my next assignment. No time to stop and take anything more than passing glance at the scenery along the way.
I’m hoping to change that over summer. All of these spots are within easy walking distance of downtown, so I don’t need to worry about those pesky rising gas prices spoiling my plans this year.
I’ve picked out a favorite spot, and plan to return there regularly over the summer - a nice quiet haven to visit when I need to take short break away from the mad rush to recharge my creative batteries, and find some inspiration!
Bluffton residents are indeed fortunate to be so close to some fantastic natural scenery.
Now, if we can just get the “brown” out of the river!
While most of the people I’ve mentioned that to seem to remember the river always being brown, I notice that the flier put out by the Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission states that the Miami (Indians) gave the river a name that translated as “It is a bright white river.”
That doesn’t sound very “brown” to me.
Nice clear water is all that separates us from a perfect picture postcard, and seems like something from the past that is worth restoring.
by FRANK SHANLY
frank@news-banner.com
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