Flood shmood. We had fun.

Last night, BDR and I loaded up Pete into the jeep and headed out for a hike. Minor Park is one of our favorite places, and we knew it wouldn't be busy so Pete could be off leash.

With all the rain lately, the Blue River had flooded. We knew this and decided to make our trek anyway. We weren't the only ones, some brave Mud Babes were out there trail running too. They are way more woman than I...trudging thru that mud was hard enough. I can't imagine running thru it!

We had some interesting run-ins with the local wildlife. First, a pack of wild Labrador Retrievers with their hippie owners. Then a swarm of gnats and mosquitos. Then we saw this.

Yep, in the flooded mud something white stuck up. Pete was surprisingly uninterested.

Full on catfish, whiskers and all. Nothing had eaten it yet so you knew it was fresh.

Because of the flood, the high river was seriously floating. Now, Pete is a good, well great swimmer, and he loves swimming more than pretty much anything. He's used to getting wet out there so he dove right in - I think I even heard him bark "Cannonball!"

About .6 seconds later he was 25 feet downstream, doggie paddling for his life. BDR and I glanced at each other and flipped out! BDR took off to the lowest point he could find, but Pete made it out to muddy land before BDR had to save him. Phew, crisis averted. At least for about 20 minutes until Pete decided he wanted to swim again. That time, he swam upstream like in an Endless Pool and finally surpassed the strength of the current to run thru the mud with us again.

We climbed over downed trees and thru quicksand-like sludges, feeling like we were in the bayou and Deliverance country with all the bugs and threat of snakes. At one point we thought we'd gone thru a poison ivy patch, but luckily we were wrong. The itching subsided. Phew, crisis averted again.

We kept hiking and came along this little buddy. BDR warned me it was a snapping turtle and to stay back so he didn't bite me. That stinker. It was just a box turtle, the Kansas state reptile on a vacation in Missouri.

Surprisingly enough, Pete was scared of the turtle. I guess its that whole "I look like a rock but I'm really alive" thing that freaked him out. BDR on the other hand, picked him up and moved him about 10 feet or 3 hours back from his destination.

All in all, a great workout, tons of fun and a delightful adventure - even the part where we took a wrong turn on the trail and ended up in a completely different part of the park but luckily found our way back to where the car was park, Crisis averted again!