Gail with Joss and Cameron on Mother's Day (the boys prepare and cook a gourmet dinner for their mom every year)
[Worldtrippers home] [Birthday walk home]
Gail with Joss and Cameron on Mother's Day (the boys prepare and cook a gourmet dinner for their mom every year)
“I hear the drums echoing tonight;
She hears only whispers of some quiet conversation…”
– Toto, “Africa”
So just how did all this happen? Well let’s go back to a year ago.
On what seemed like a normal day like any other normal day almost a year ago, Russell proposed walking from Cupertino to Glencoe for his 50th birthday. That seemed interesting but nutty, and probably would never happen. So I felt on fairly solid ground, thinking he was crazy. Well I guess I hadn’t learned anything from those other nutty ideas he’d had, like the “One Year Trip Around the World” or even the even nuttier “Let’s Build Our Own House.” I should have known.
The signs were all there but I ignored them. The phrase “When I do my walk” started to creep into conversations. Hello Gail!?!
This winter he started walking to work almost everyday, rain or shine. Hello??
Then adjustable walking sticks showed up in the entry way. Where did these come from?
Then maps started appearing on the kitchen table. What?
He proposed that he would just sleep on the side of the road. He’s not really doing the walk anyway, so why worry? But just to be sure I said, “Are you nuts!?!?”
Then he flipped the trip to go from Glencoe to home. Hmm, he’s really thinking about this. Perhaps I should be worried.
Next came the motel reservation recon trips, and every time we went to the other house, the mapping of alternate routes. Uh oh.
Uh, perhaps I should be taking this seriously?
So the light bulb lit, and I finally decided if he’s going I may as well go too. But after careful consideration and a burst of sanity, my brain cleared and I decided that he will need back up and a support “chase car.” So I have selflessly volunteered to fill that role. Joss and Cameron, however, have a bit of their Dad in them and will do parts of the walk with him. Isn’t this kind of thing supposed to skip a generation?
So Russell is going for a walk. Exciting? Yep.
So why has it taken me until today to figure out that when he goes on his “middle age defiance trip,” I get to stay home and hold down the fort? You would think that would have been my first concern. “You mean you get to go on a two week trip and I stay home?” Well it never occurred to me until today. I have been so busy denying the preparations going on that I missed it.
Twelve days of me and Joss staring at each other. We get along great, but twelve days. Hmmm. What trouble we can get into? No planned dinners, ice cream, evenings of TV. Oh yeah… and homework, Joss, homework…