total hiking immersion

We were very elated to be invited to lunch with our pastor and his wife today. He and David had a good bit of trip planning to accomplish, and Dennis and I were elated to discover that they have a wonderful swimming pool! After a superb taco salad lunch, they commenced with their maps and notebooks and much discussion and list-making occurred. Meanwhile, the wives and kids (their teen daughter was home today) enjoyed the pool. Dennis jumped from his first diving board ever and loved it. He made about 5 "last jumps" before I finally grabbed him and escorted him out of the pool at the end of our swim. He had such fun swimming and jumping and climbing on the floats and shooting a water cannon that he didn't want to get out of the pool!

After our visit there, we took Dennis to Gran's house to spend the afternoon with her so that we could go and look at hiking outfitter places to check out gear. Dennis is spending the night with Gran and Pop, HIS idea, and I never got a tearful "Mommy I want to come home" phone call. I'm so proud! And David and I spent hours discovering that all that backpacking gear we bought back in our early 20's is as good as anything out there! His Appalachian excursion will require only boots, socks, food, and a hammock with mosquito net to be purchased! He and the pastor decided hammocks would be more comfortable and lighter weight than hauling a tent and sleeping bags. They'll take lightweight backpacking tarps ($10, walmart!) to stretch over the hammocks in case of rain. We even found a good deal on hammocks--$39 online for a very nice one with a mosquito netting system attached (much more expensive in the stores tonight!). So he's going to be all set pretty quickly. Dennis is excited for him, and told the pastor's wife today "your husband is going to go on a big hike with my dad! Isn't that awesome?".

I'm still hoping that Dennis and I can go along for the ride to and from the trail and we're looking forward to seeing some mountains!