At the Halfway Point

July 15, 2009

Over the past two weeks, I have reached the halfway point at Cheerio Adventures. Exhausted is the only word that comes to mind. Having already co-lead two trips in 27 days and only having one day off was beginning to take its toll. For week four I was assigned to be on support staff. What this meant was that I would work with any contract groups that were coming throughout the week. In my mind I was thinking, “Yes! I will finally get a little break. My work load should be a little lighter.” Well, by the end of the week I was working with two different groups each day and then found myself getting ready for a 3 day/2 night Parent/Child backpacking/rock climbing trip.

Having a little variety during the week was a nice change, but by the end of the backpacking trip I just wanted to fall over and not get up for days.

Salvation came this past week in the form of days off; 3 whole days to be exact. The timing could not have been better. So Andy, Carlie, and I hopped in my car and set our sites on the Atlantic. Along the way, we stopped at Ginger’s house for the first night. Being in a house again felt like I was walking into a foreign land.

The next day we made it to Wilmington, NC with cloudy skies and consistent rainfall. Our visions of lying on the beach, basking in the sun were beginning to diminish. Instead we sought shelter on the U.S.S. North Carolina., a battleship that fought during WWII.

After a mosquito infested, warm, muggy night; our hopes were lifted as we woke us to a beautiful morning. The sky was clear so we decided to head to the beach first thing. There we stayed for the rest of the day soaking in the sun and playing in the salty waves. Feeling satisfied with our day in the sun, we decided to start heading back toward camp stopping at my friend Alicia’s house for a great night’s sleep. Before giving way to exhaustion, we discovered that the basking in the sun turned to baking for some of us as Andy’s back had the same coloring as marinara sauce. Still we made it back to camp the next day feeling rested and ready for the next 3 weeks.