The same rusty, blue Ford Ranger I had seen parked in the lot leading to the boat ramps at Siloam Springs State Park was there again this week.

Every time, it's in the same spot, parked in the same direction.

My curiosity ran wild.

I started asking questions of anglers who came and went. No one knew who owned the truck. It wasn't a park employee. It wasn't one of the park's campers who made their way to the lake to fish.

So who was it?

As it turned out, it belonged to a 73-year-old man who recently discovered how much he enjoyed fishing at Siloam Springs because of all he could see, not all he could catch.

Tom Crawford, who grew up in Louisiana and moved to a farm near Beardstown when he retired because he heard about the state's rich deer hunting tradition, has made fishing at Siloam a weekly trip. He picks up a friend, Bob Wilson, at 6 a.m. and they follow the same routine.

One buys coffee, the other buys doughnuts.

They park in the same spot, walk the same path, sit in the same spot.

"We don't change much, do we?" Crawford said with a laugh. "I guess we're old and stuck in our ways."

Maybe it's the simplicity of it all.

"That's not it all," Crawford said. "Here's what it is."

He motioned for me to walk with him down a short path to their fishing spot.

"Look all around you," he said, pausing. "This is it."

What Crawford pointed to was the beauty of the outdoors.

There wasn't one specific thing he could say was more majestic than the other. The trees were as green as they've ever been. The water was calm with sun rays bouncing off it as if the lake were a piece of glass.

Flowers and bugs and birds were all around.

"Right here, we experience everything," Crawford said.

He said they've watched deer quietly come to the lake's edge to drink water. They've crossed paths with raccoons. Ducks and geese fly overheard constantly. Turtles and frogs are common. So are snakes.

"I hooked a snake with my fishing line one time," Crawford said. "It scared Bob out of his chair. He doesn't like snakes."

Luckily, they don't see too many.

"Maybe five or six total all the times we've been fishing," Crawford said.

They complete the picture.

"Everything is there for a reason," Crawford said. "You don't have the beauty without a few beasts. I've seen the bayou and I've seen trophy bucks. I've seen the ocean and I've seen lakes. I've seen a lot, but I know I haven't seen everything."

It doesn't mean he won't try.

That's a lesson for us all. Take each moment and treasure everything around you. The cliche "stop and smell the roses" has meaning. If you don't take in your surroundings, you miss the opportunity to experience all nature provides.

This holiday weekend, with picnics and outdoor activities planned from dawn 'til dusk, just look around and take inventory. Nature's gifts are widespread, and in many ways, extremely simple.

You just have to open your eyes and your mind to see them.

-- mschuckman@whig.com/221-3366