Day 1037: Boot-sucking mud?

I have a new idea for the title of my Quest book:  Quest: Boot Sucking Mud and other Tales from the Trail.  I thought of it this afternoon on our ride into Buffalo when I was thinking about the 25th anniversary t-shirt.  This morning at Penelope, I proposed: Quest Backpacking Adventures, but they thought it lacked pizzazz.  Most of them still like: Dig a Hole and Do What?   But I don't think it reflects the heart of the book.  It certainly is appropriate for a chapter, but not the whole book.  And I didn't even think of that title, Michele did!  We all recognize the need for a catchy and unforgettable title, but gosh that's hard.  Maybe they'll like this new idea.

As always, Penelope was inspirational and encouraging.  Linda's newest poem was a conglomerate of two that she had previously written.  She wrote it as a warning to humanity and it spurred quite a discussion about the state of the world.  The group is a mix of mostly liberals and a few moderates so we usually avoid political topics.  There's a great deal of worry today, though, about the rise of extremism as promoted through social media.  Young people, disaffected and alienated, are joining ISIS.  After watching 60 Minutes tonight, it is a legitimate fear.

They were delighted by my progress this week and approved of my plan to finish off the nearly done chapters first so I can seek feedback.  They were also very helpful on my questions.  I was deliberating how to organize the chapters and they agreed that the Outdoor Classroom would come first, followed by the history and then the overviews of the three hikes, followed by the "how to" chapters.  Sequencing those will be challenging.

Carol B. just returned from a Viking cruise of the Irawaddy River in Myanmar.  She is an experienced, fearless traveler who has lived in China and Indonesia.  She found the cruise pleasant but stifling.  They were transported from ship to bus to tourist site, back to bus and ship.  No time for exploration or conversations with locals.  She made friends with everyone on the ship including groups of Mexicans, Japanese and British.  She was put off by the Americans who mostly kept to themselves and pronounced the Mexicans "loud".    At the end, one of the Japanese tourists called her Miss Congeniality and then she was crowned Queen of the tour!

An afternoon trip to Wegman's was an adventure, too.  I tried a half dozen new salad combinations including an apple raisin slaw and a kale sweet potato mix.  Kale is the hottest new ingredient in every type of dish.  I picked a branch from my kale plants and snipped it into a big pot of vegetable soup.  I like that it keeps its shape and texture even after cooking for hours.   It adds nutrition without changing the flavor of the soup.

Since the weather was much improved today, we put down 3.3 miles.  Late afternoon sun turned the golden leaves to bronze and the reds became wine colored.  Steve's friend Chuck who lives in Maine reported that they got 18 inches of snow and the power had been out all day.  We were lucky that we only got a dusting.  Tonight, we may have a killing frost.