The Adventure Circle set out on our first activity of the new church year: a scavenger hike along the Mighty James River! It was a beautiful day and we were all looking forward to sniffing some air, enjoying the beauty of the great outdoors, and hoofing it a bit. My boy, Little Man, joined us and wore his firefighter's uniform, complete with plastic axe. Unfortunately, we were attacked by several plagues of Pentateuchal proportions that not even an axe could handle.
First Plague: The plague of the consensus. The group was given four choices of spots on the James. They chose the Wetlands. Seemed like no big deal, but it led to...
Second Plague: The plague of the lost guide. No, really. I knew where the other three choices were. After consulting with a beautiful gutter cleaner whom I mistook for a man (Sorry, Beverly!), an octogenarian named Boopsie, a former undertaker, and...a MAP, we found the Wetlands 30 minutes and about 8 blocks later. But then we wished we hadn't due to...
Third Plague: The mosquito swarms. I'm a lifelong Richmonder and I can honestly say that I have never seen mosquitoes in swarms like this, which takes us back to the first plague. They call 'em wetlands for a reason, folks! Did we learn nothing from those Jamestown settlers?I've got some photos to download on the blog (when I remember where my hardware is) of Doug's neck that had 6 bites in a two inch strip.
Fourth Plague: The laid back hikers. Every hiking group should have one type A personality. Ours had three but we were all on vacation for the morning. After 40 minutes of relaxing meandering about the Wetlands, and spastic skeeter swatting, we simultaneously realized that we'd wandered into...
Fifth Plague: Lost again and running out of extra blood for mosquitos.
I'll skip the rest because it all ended well. It was definitely an ADVENTURE. We finished the day with a great meal at Ellwood Thompson's Natural Grocery. Little Man's fire helmet came in handy to keep the swarms off. And there was no risk of any of us sleeping in the service the next AM.
We were too busy scratching.
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