The first blue shack is typical of what we experienced on our afternoon outing. Thankfully there were a couple of bright spots on the tour!
We decided to take a ride after church and explore the historic district of a town not far from home. I had discovered a walking tour of Longwood and in spite of the warning posted on the website, we decided to give it a try. Here are a few lines from the warning: "This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood....If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved." Okay, I think you get the picture. We decided we were bored enough to give it a shot. (no pun intended) Anyway, it was a huge disappointment. Having lived in a home on the historical registry in a neighborhood in Moscow Idaho that had beautiful mansions on it's historical walking trail, we know what a walk like that should look like. Granted, our home looked like the servant quarters of the mansions that surrounded it but it didn't look like a falling down garage. In fact, just this past week Aubrey called to tell us that she had seen our Moscow house on the television show, "If Walls Could Talk". Our's wasn't the featured home but because it was across the street, it was shown 2 times. What fun! I'm feeling sad that I missed it. Anyway, the Longwood walk was comical. It was filled with descriptions like: "On this site in the late 1800's was a lumber mill." That's nice, but it would take an overactive imagination to picture it in 2009 because today it is the site of a Circle K gas station. We saw dozens of houses lacking any sort of archetectural charm but plenty of junk bicycles, tires and falling down porches. We did manage to find a couple of honest-to-goodness historical homes and an old hotel/boarding house that looked pretty cool but they were few and far between. I guess we just have to be happy that no one tried to accost us in our locked car as we "drove" the "walking" tour.
