From the path between the Columbia Canal and the Congaree, you can see the beautiful white Spider Lilies blooming in huge clumps from the crevices in the rocks of the river. These are a Federal Species of Concern and grow in only a few places, another being in the Catawba River at Landsford Canal in Lancaster County. I walked the 3 miles to the dam and today there were 12 Great Blue Herons standing on the rocks as well as dozens of white herons camped on the shoals near the far bank. I discovered that the old Lock Keeper's House has public bathrooms, water fountains and even a stainless steel bowl for water for dogs. On the way back, under the Broad River bridge there is a big red heart that says "MM and HW, Love Forever" and I am taken back to that far away time when Peter and Paul C. and I took the baby, Eleanor, to the Island of Oshima. We had met Paul in India where he was a Fulbright Scholar and we were Peace Corps Volunteers. We got jobs teaching English in Japan and Eleanor was born there. We carved the baby's name on the rock face at the end of the Island and the date of her birth, June 10, 1967. Paul went on to graduate study at the East
West Center in Hawaii and to Laos during the War in Vietnam and Laos where he disappeared.
He had had polio as a child and wore a brace on one leg. I think of that brace lying somewhere in the jungle of Laos.
It is 85 degrees. Leaving in the car, the radio is playing "I've got this easy feeling that you'll never let me down, cause I'm standing on the ground.....I've got this easy feeling that I'll never see you again..."
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