Saturday, May 4, 2013

The Locks Of Lake Murray

The wife and I had a rare opportunity to go wander together today, just me and her. My Mom and Dad did the grandparent thing and as it is double points weekend for Munzee we decided to do her new favorite thing!

We went to Lake Murray just outside Irmo, SC as there is a grouping of Munzees there that we hadn't touched yet. Over 200 of them. Quite a bit to do. (of course we saved some for an excuse to come back.)

We had made it about halfway down the dam when my phone started to lose power to the point where we needed to head back to the car. It was lunchtime anyway, and I needed to run by Best Buy and see about a new camera. I've gotten to where I don't want to lug around the Nikon on geocaching and Munzee outings unless I am sure I am going somewhere strange or historical, too much weight (I'm fat and lazy) and the little pocket camera we bought when Sam was born is starting to die on me.  I found a decent little Sony (16 Megapixels for $89) and we headed back to the dam.

We started back on our trail from the other end because of a heavy saturation of Mystery Munzees (you don't know how many points you get from each. Anywhere from 5-50 points and this weekend being double points you can get up to 100 points per) because +Mary Ann Seegars loves to mess with +Wally Turbeville about beating him out on score. When we started back across the bridge there was a protective fence and I started to notice these...

Locks. All over this fence. I don't know who put them there and at the time I didn't know why. Not upon first glance. Then I started to see the messages.

They were there to mark prayers, good thoughts, well wishes.


Some were sadder. Remembrances.
















All of them mean something to someone and I can't help but think that someday, some bureaucrat will think that these little memorials are an eyesore. They won't get the feeling that I got out of it today and they'll want them taken down. They'll call it graffiti, damage to public property, whatever it takes to remove a monument to love, tragedy, and loss.

So I brought those that were there today home and I am sharing them with you, in pictures. (I didn't actually take them, just to be clear. You know how some folk are so literal.) So that they'll be safe, somewhere.

As I write this I can't help but think, where are the keys? Do they keep them? Maybe on a necklace so it's with them all the time. Or do they lock these locks and then say their prayer and drop the key through the fence into the water? I think that's what I'd do.

I think that's what I will do. When we go back.




Get off the highway.

JS