Climbing Mountains

You would think that just by the title of this blog I was going to write something really profound and life altering, but no, not so much - not really my style. BUT if you want to read something into it, by all means, be my guest and do share.

I hadn't seen my cousin Brian & his wife Kate for some time and I suggested we get together. They agreed and we planned to meet this weekend to go for a "walk" and pick blue berries. Sounded really nice and wholesome to me and I thought it would be good to do something outdoorsy. My husband, Matt/Bart couldn't make it because he was sent to Cape Cod by his work last Monday and they asked him to stay longer which he reluctantly agreed too...Poor Matt/Bart...I feel horrible for him stuck in Cape Cod. So it was just me and the kids off to Ellenville, NY to go for a "walk" and spend time with my Cousin, his wife and their two boys, Reily & Sully.

Turns out the walk was up a mountain with inclines even your most ardent hikers would have difficulty with. I discovered I had muscles I never knew about and they were screaming. My cousins wife Kate is physically fit, and exercises on a daily basis so she was going along at a nice clip, but my kids & I hung back pretending to be captivated by the views, which to be honest I couldn't really see because I was blinded by the pain. We were then going to climb down to take a peek at the Ice Caves that they have at Sams Point... Sams Point is a giant mound of layered rock that goes straight up about 25 - 30 feet. They say, Sam, the guy they named this after, hurled him self off the highest place on this rock. Now this is pure speculation on my part, but I think he had a friend or cousin that talked him into walking up there and he didn't really hurl himself off the side, he just couldn't feel his legs anymore and slithered off the edge.. I think I know how he felt. Now all he has to show for it is a giant mound of rock named after him, until Donald Trump buys the place, to build a resort and/or casino, and names it after himself. Trumps Point. Has a nice ring.

We then started walking down to the Ice Caves. Here I thought down is certainly better than up, wrong again. It was a bit treacherous and I had a moment to reflect out loud...really loud...for all to hear...that this wasn't how I planned to go after my 44 years of managing to stay alive....I was thinking...80 years, I'm in bed all comfy cosy and then, and only then, do I slip quietly, comfortably, peacefully into eternal rest. Not falling down the side of some mountain named after some guy named Sam, who couldn't cut it, in a sweaty, disheveled heap at the bottom. Pony tail on the side of my head instead of the back, teeth knocked out from the fall, legs wrapped around my head with my femur jutting out...no, that's not what I had in mind at all.

Is there some hidden moral to this story? I'm sure if your read it 4 or 20 times you'll find one and I'm dying to hear it. Would I do it again? Probably, but I'd load up on calcium (for my bones) and wear a helmet.