Here’s the page from my Filofax organizer where I scribbled down ideas for future blog posts as they occurred to me on Jim’s and my trip last week to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. It may look like a bunch of hieroglyphics to you, but in amongst the greasy-from-sunscreen sections where the pen wouldn’t write are references to Eudora Welty, the importance of memory, and how the people you meet on a trip can make or break the experience. There’s an answer to the burning question: Should you go for the four-hour horseback ride or settle for the two? All this to be addressed in future entries. Be sure to check back for these nuggets!
. . . a blessing was lost!
My husband Jim has often said that his experiences on youth group backpacking trips taught him that the stragglers are the ones who don’t get any rest. The group moves ahead along the trail and stops at a certain point, waiting for everyone to catch up. As soon as they do, the leader says, “Okay, let’s go!” And so the slow ones just have to keep going. The whole group can’t just sit there and wait for them, but they’re the ones who need rest the most. (If you want a tale filled with drama, pain, and endurance, ask Jim to tell you about the time he went on an eight-day trip with an ingrown toenail. Although it sounds kind of funny now, it most certainly wasn’t then. Isn’t it interesting that the size of the painful body part doesn’t necessarily bear any relation to the size of the pain’s affect? Jim remembers very little from that trip other than his having to slog along feeling that toenail dig into his flesh with every step.) 
in Seattle.