“Do you ever forget where you’ve parked the car?” my wife asked me as we walked west along the Muny colonnade.

I reflected for a moment.

“Not yet,” I said, “but I have had to stop and think about it a few times.”

My walks through the park cover distances from 3 to 6 miles. Sometimes I’m traveling over a relatively small area, finding a lot to photograph; other times I’ll walk around a large part of the park looking for the different and unusual. I’ve also walked completely around the park, just to see what’s there (it took about 4 hours).

Today we did the Jefferson Lake/Steinberg Wild area tour, with Deer Lake, the Muny, the Jewel Box and Central fields thrown in for free. The new Deer Lake Council Circle is nearing completion; I’m certain that come next summer there will be shamen walking around inside it muttering strange incantations (If you should get some photos of such, let me know).

Most of our way we had the park to ourselves. I don’t think we encountered even a dozen joggers (I counted 4 cyclists). but the late evening sky was brooding (“Heathcliff, Heathcliff!”) and the orange sodium vapor lights lent the streets an eerie quality. Did I tell you it was raining?