Good Stuff Fantastic--In-Between Stuff Takes Care Of Itself

Humbug Mountain Campground
June 15, `80

The rain didn't start until we got back together at our agreed upon
meeting place. The rain continued throughout the night. In the
morning, I put together a rain fire, and made coffee. Lisa and Jade
enjoyed the coffee, but except to go to the bathroom, they stayed in
their tent until the sun broke through in the afternoon. (I guess
appreciating a rain fire takes time). Around 3 p.m. everybody had
dried out enough to bicycle, and thirty-five miles down the highway we
arrived at Humbug Mountain Campground. Once again there was little
time to set up camp before it started to rain. After another night of
constant showers, Lisa and Jade had had enough. In the morning, they
packed up and went looking for a motel. I stayed at the campsite and
built another rain fire.

There was nothing to do except sit by the fire and read my book. All
day long I was half wet and half dry. It was all I could do just to
keep my book from drowning in the rain. I went tent side early that
night. Actually, as long as it doesn't happen all the time, its kind
of fun sitting solitary by a rain fire--reading a good book. It was
late afternoon the next day before I dried out enough to ride my bicycle.

Before Lisa and Jade left the campground, we made plans to meet, and,
as luck would have it, I ran into them just six miles from the
campground we had picked out as our rendezvous spot. That night would
be our last campsite together because we were approaching that fork in
the road that would send us in different directions. I would continue
north, Lisa and Jade would head east. You can't plan to meet people
like Lisa and Jade. It's all luck, lots of it. Appreciation, that's
all it amounts to; you just learn to appreciate the good experiences.
The "in-betweens" have to take care of themselves. As I look up, I see
Lisa and Jade bicycling up right now. That's the way it's been all
week long, and now it's time to stop writing, so as to savior the last
moments of an excellent friendship.