This place just gets under your skin. I'm so glad I came. It's been bittersweet - Mom was weepy all morning, but she pulled it together and now she's talking about coming back to work next summer. I was thinking that we would find closure on this trip, but who am I trying to kid? We'll all be back.
Our family first vacationed here 50 years ago this summer. I was 3, and all I remember is fishing at Dorsey Lake and getting a fishhook stuck in my elbow. And a frog jumped into the water next to me. I remember being frightened, but the story goes I thought it was a bear and all the grown-ups thought it was hysterical. I'm thinking we had been to Bear Lake and that planted the idea in my head. That's all I remember, and I think the frog/bear memory may possibly be from hearing it told.
At 11, I had my first crush here (David Scoggin) and also determined to come back to work when I got old enough. Which I followed through on when I was 20. Gives you an idea how it stays in your brain. I still have dreams of unfinished business here from time to time, and a looming feeling in the dream that it's almost time to go home.
It's the one place where I've been with both sets of grandparents, with Dad and also with Stepdad, pretty much all of my family, including 2 family reunions. We came on our honeymoon and dedicated our first child to God here. I grieved over the loss of John with Abbey, Erin, and Jaimy, and then shipped Abbey off for what I thought would probably be a permanent departure from home. I saw the rock today where I sat to make flight arrangements home because you could only find a phone signal in random places. We saw Susanna grow up before our eyes between high school graduation and our visit a month later. I had the first inkling that something was very wrong when a doctor suddenly called on the day they put in a new cell tower. Didn't even think we had phone service, and the phone suddenly rang. Thankfully I was home before we really knew what was going on.
One earlier memory that sticks in my head is when Bonnie and Abbey went to the children's program for the day, which included a horseback ride. Buz and I were headed out on a hike with Susanna on his back and decided to go via the stables in case we could see them departing. Abbey had just busted a major nosebleed, and she was sitting on a bench with Bonnie holding her while the counselors figured out what to do, as we happened to walk up. We ran for a clean shirt and got her back on the horse, but the vision of her all bloody in her big sister's arms has never left me.
Robert and I have hiked together dressed alike in our plaid flannel days (and our hair was actually pretty much the same style...) I've dragged Laurie to a mountaintop where she was sure she would blow off, and we've slid down a glacier together.
I made it to the top of Long's on the third attempt, and had some adventures on tries 1 & 2. I've straddled the summit of Mount Meeker because you can't stand up or you would blow off. Had a major break-up here that sent my life in an entirely different (and excellent) direction.
Anyway, it's late. I'm rambling. But everything from the afternoon rains to the smell of the air keeps the memories flowing. And I'm grateful.
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