Thursday, May 15, 2014

Day 866: I'd rather be backpacking

Sleeping in our bed and taking a shower last night was terrific, but I'd rather be backpacking!  It's a strange sensation to be home on Wednesday and Thursday night of the four day hike.  I've never missed a Wednesday night in the past 25 years.  I missed one Thursday night when my niece Jennifer got married in 1998 and the night that Justin had a panic attack when he was a senior in 1995.  He was supposed to be taking care of his brothers, but Evan wound up taking care of him.   I missed three Friday nights.  One in 1995 to take care of Justin, one for Jenn's wedding and the one when Colin broke his collarbone in 1992.  So, I feel out of sync.

It was a difficult day because of complaints, absences, changes and questions.  A few parents have gotten really annoying.  One who pulled her kid out because of illness on Monday now is angry with us because she didn't know we were also departing on Friday. It seems they have changed their minds and now she wants to him to go, unless it's raining of course.  One difficult girl who told Chris on the two day hike that she was going to quit, was convinced by him to come back.  But on Monday, she told me she was definitely not going because she was just too homesick. On Tuesday, she came back and said she had decided to go.  Then on Wednesday, she didn't show up.  When we got home last night at 8:30, she called and asked if she could still go on Friday.   NOOOOO!

Our tennis playing student leader informed me at 9:20 tonight that he can't be there tomorrow. Of course, his coach told us that weeks ago, but he had to wait to the last possible moment.  The girl who decided she had to go to a softball tournament on Saturday never told her tent partner till today.  Another SL decided she had to go to an SAT prep just a few days ago.    The actual backpacking and all the activities are fun, the politics and catering to everyone's personal schedules is NOT!

The weather was not nearly as bad as predicted. We've been out in far worse storms and the day was quite pleasant for hiking.  Heavy rain fell right at 5:00 which would have spoiled dinner, but not irreparably.  We haven't even heard any thunder since last night.

This morning we scouted our route for Friday to check out the access road to the Policeman's Grounds and the bus route to our destination.  The dirt roads are pretty rough.




Suddenly, today, everything bloomed!  Finally!



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