TheBanyanTree: Old friends, part the second - the middle.

[Laura]

(...continued)

After a couple of messages back and forth, it quickly became apparent that
we were going to have to arrange a meeting.  Turns out, she lives halfway
between my house and my parent's house.  I fairly frequently go visit the
'rents, so a meeting was not too hard to arrange.  We decided that I would
come to her house at the lake on Sunday for a visit.

Circumstances change, and I ended up going to my parent's house several days
earlier than I had planned.  I let AH, formerly AW, know this, and we
managed to move up the meeting date, while still keeping Sunday on the
schedule.

Very near my parent's house is a cave, which used to be used as a night club
back in the 40's.  When I was growing up, it was abandoned, and *the* place
to go for drinking, smoking, and making out.  I didn't do any of those
things there (no, really - I didn't!), though that's one of the wild places
AH an I used to go riding.  I had been known to trespass and climb down the
very steep, slippery hill to the river, but only once or twice.   Anyway,
it's someplace we're both familiar with.  AH suggested that since she had to
pass through town Thursday for a meeting elsewhere, she come in early and
meet me at the cave at 11am.  We could take the boat tour, and walk on the
trails, and visit.  I thought that was a fabulous idea.  I warned her that I
might bring the kids, and she assured me that was fine, she loves kids, and
she would have two with her as well - one of her own, and one friend.  So it
was settled.

The next day I could hardly wait.  I had butterflies in my stomach.  Would
she have changed so much I wouldn't know her?  Would she be the same?  Had I
changed so much she wouldn't know me?  At 10:59am, the boys and I were in
the parking lot.  Mom's house is only about 5 minutes away from the cave, so
it was easy to make it on time, even with the son who insists on going to
the bathroom just as you're walking out the door, then spends 15 minutes
doing it.  <rolling eyes>

We walked around the parking lot, then wandered into the visitor's center /
gift shop building.  We browsed around there for several minutes, long
enough to overhear that the boat tours were cancelled for the day.  I had
figured - we had 2.5 inches of rain the night before, and I sorta thought
the river might be too high for the boats.   We went back outside, and took
pictures of each other in front of the big waterwheel which also acts as the
sign for the park.

The boys were getting bored, and I didn't want to start down the trails,
knowing that any second AH would show up, so we went back into the visitor's
center, and got a bag of dirt for the boys to sift through out at the
waterway to look for gems.  Knowing that AH was friends with the boat tour
guide (discussed in one of our many messages), I asked the fella behind the
counter if he knew her.  He said he did indeed know her, but that he hadn't
seen her yet today.  I paid for the bag of dirt, and as I turned around,
someone came through the door.  I recognized her instantly.  I said
something stupid like, "There she is!"  We met in the middle of the store
and hugged.

We got started talking, and while we did sift through our bag of dirt for
gems, have a picnic lunch, and walk the trails, even wandering down to the
cave entrance, mostly we never stopped talking.  She had to leave for her
meeting, but we knew there was Sunday to look forward to.

(...to be continued...)


-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com
http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com