Reflections

Another hiking trip has come to an end which fills me with all kinds of feelings. First I am very grateful for these women in my life. Without them I probably would not have these wonderful adventures and see the parts of the world that are what I consider “the real country”. We rarely get into the big tourist areas which is nice. I am in my 70th year, without these trips to work toward I may not have maintained the ability to walk 10 to 14 miles in a day.

Each of us adds a quality to our travels that makes our days unforgettable. Tammy, the youngster, is our planner. She takes care of all our arrangements even though we are experienced travelers and able to do for ourselves, she enjoys the challenge of planning and makes the trips stress free for us shouldering all the stresses on herself, her nurturing way is to always make sure everyone is ok. She is a “go getter” not afraid to face challenges frequently telling us “I am up for anything!”. Joanne is a very intelligent and driven woman. She is very confident and gives a feeling of stability to the group. She is the hiker in the lead often scouting out places for us and always keeping us in the right direction. She also provides us with beautiful pictures taken with the huge camera ever faithfully carried around her neck. I love her laugh, which we hear often, she can make you feel you are the funniest person in the world. Sue, my roomy, is a wonderful story teller, always providing educational and interesting information and forever keeping us laughing. She and I have known each other since high school and have a synchronicity that is a pleasure to experience. We are similar in height so our hiking cadence is on step. Occasionally, we both enjoy walking in silence just taking in our surroundings. We have both been married 50 plus years and have wonderful families. Our grandchildren are some of the most important people in our lives. Her children and grandchildren are always in the forefront of her thoughts which is inspiring. My contribution is this blog. I love recording our days and sharing with friends and family. It is nice to have the record of our trips together and all of the places we have seen.

I can’t begin to list all of the things I have learned from these, fun, intelligent, adventurous women but it has been alot. This has been our longest trip so far, we were talking once about how quickly time goes by as you age, my feeling is it is because we do not keep ourselves busy enough in our daily lives. When I think back on the last 25 days and all we have done in that time it seems it has gone very slowly. I am grateful for the friendships, the means and the ability to share the world with these ladies.