19 August 2012 Stark Day

We wanted to find a few puzzle caches in Canton so we started there. I have never really visited here except to stop in at the local auto museum many years ago with my dad. Being Sunday, most of the downtown was quiet. The restaurants appear to be closed on the weekend so the downtown really lives for the people who work here. There are many types of local art works on display. Most of them are cute, bright, and light.

We continued with some visits to local parks including a new park called Fairhope Nature Preserve. The caches were great and the walk in the park was a fun journey. Besides really nice trails, Fairhope has the dubious distinction of being closed in the summer of 2011 after numerous reported mountain lion sightings. Ummm, sure.

We also made a stop at Molly Stark Park. It was a really bizzare stop. The park location is the site of an old sanatarium for tb patients. I can't imagine it ever being inviting. It was a scene from a scary movie. It made me pause for a bit and think of all the souls who spent their days there.

We balanced off the visit to Molly Stark Park with a last stop at Mogadore and a wonderful sunset. There was a time years ago when I used to boat that this was one of my two favorite inland lakes to visit. It was a quiet place to spend lazy hours of a summer. It's been thirty years since I put a boat in this water. I suspect I was too young to know it would be an endpoint.