The Hike from Hell!!! Part deux.

At the beginning of our trip Monday, we drove up to Pisgah State Forest close to Hendersonville. We waited for everyone to get there and discussed the hike. Now, I had never been hiking, and I just figured it would be a nice little scenic walk. Then someone asked how long the hike was going to take, and Lou said, "Two or three hours." and Matt Jones said, "Definitely at least two." And I said, "I am in deep doodoo."

Don't get me wrong, the hike itself was very nice. The forest was beautiful, and we got to hop over creeks and stuff. But I was still getting over a cold, and I couldn't breathe at all. I had to hang back behind everyone else, and poor Eric had to babysit me. I really tried, I did. But we got about 2/3 of the way up and the lack of oxygen coupled with the elevation made me horribly dizzy. I thought I was going to puke. So Eric and I sat down, and I felt like crap. I hugged my kees and peered over my folded arms at him, looking for a look on his face that said, "This dumb girl. If I wasn't on a Christian trip..."

But he didn't. In fact, Eric did his best to make me feel better. He said he went hiking in New Mexico, so it didn't really matter if he didn't make it to the top here. And he also said, "And I'm not leaving you, even it'll make you feel better." It's good that I am a creature of restraint, because I almost started blubbering. It was really sweet of him.

It was so sad when we finally made it to the campground because almost everybody had a headache from dehydration or was limping around. Or both, like me. You can guess what I was doing that night. Can you say "Epsom Salt"?

Oh, and I have to tell you about the pizza. You know how you can usually put frozen pizzas right on the rack? Well, in our little apartment, the oven was a little off, so the pizza on the top rack started sinking through the grill...so they started trying to fold it into a calzone-type thingy...and to make a long story short, when we finally sat down to eat, Beth was asking us, "So, do you want Supreme or the Cheese Blob?"

Amazingly, it was still good.

And then there was Garrett's card trick. This was when we were back at the bottom of the mountain. Garrett did this fancy shuffling thing, and asked Shawn to pick a card. Then he takes it back, does some fancy shuffling, and pulls out a card. He says in this game-show-host voice, "Is this your card?" And Shawn says, "No." And then Garrett shrugs and starts laughing. We were all so mad at him, and a lot of people had gathered around to see. That was crazy...

I will leave you with this one last story. I hope you have a nice chuckle at my stupidity. Eric and I were headed down the mountain when I noticed this white stuff in the otherwise green bushes. So I asked him, "What's this white stuff?"

He replies, "What, the lichen?"

"No, this." I point to it.

And with a completely straight face, Eric proceeds to tell me, "Well, you know, water does this amazing thing. It freezes up in the sky sometimes, and then it falls to the ground. They call it snow."

And I just say, "I'm going to hurt you."

Well, what did you expect? I'm a Southern girl...