Now I drag me in to sleep ... was Re: [at-l] Ruck Returnees

[ATnavi@aol.com]

Well, here it is 38 hours or so after POG dropped me off at the Harrisburg 
airport, and I'm finally in my cozy chilly (pick one, pick both) home in 
Florida.

Trapped in Harrisburg sure as hell beats being stuck in Lucknow (don't ask. 
I'll tell sometime). Welcome to the story of Ruck Too, the continuation of 
our little party over at the airport and then, as flights cancelled, at the 
Wyndham Garden Hotel, where we had our mini-Ruck-SuperBowl-party: The Blister 
Sisters (BJ & Betty Sue), Cruiser, Butterfly, and yours truly. All headed in 
different directions, all stuck. Thank goodness for our trail family or we'd 
all have much bigger holes in our wallets! It snowed and snowed and snowed 
and snowed, so much so I figured on sleeping in the airport, the way it was 
coming down, the way the hotel courtesy van kept slipping around on the 
roads. But we all had a good trail-related chat over dinner, posed for a few 
photos, watched the game, then continued the party upstairs in the room, with 
more gear and philosophy discussions. Just the way to wind down the weekend.

And then, waiting again for my delayed flight today, I really wanted to 
throttle the fella next to me and say "This is nothing. Imagine being locked 
behind bars in a filthy dirty stinking rat-infested railway station waiting 
room waiting for your delayed train..."  It's easy to get philosophical about 
degrees of discomfort when you experience a few  levels of it...somehow, 
Harrisburg's postage-stamp airport, with its skylights, cushy seats and 
carpet, just didn't strike me as a place to bitch about being stuck in. :)

THE RUCK:
I loved it. But it frustrated me. I was glad to get to PA and visit with 
everyone, despite the multitude of pain-in-the-butt incidents that Delta's 
going to get a strong letter about. The Ruck's getting kinda big for its 
britches, though, which reminded me of the last few Christmas parties I 
hosted-- I was too busy in the kitchen and helping people and didn't get 
enough time to participate in the fun stuff or talk to the folks I wanted to 
corner the most. Maybe I'll just have to visit y'all one by one and go on 
hikes!!! But it was still great to SEE all of you, even if we didn't get to 
talk very much. It'll be interesting to catch up on the emails that just 
flooded me for the past 10 minutes or so of downloading...

Oh, and then Mom informs me that there were two plane crashes whilst I was 
attempting to fly home. She was, of course, worried.

Glad to be home safe & sound, hope y'all got back OK too...
Cheers, Navigator
* From the AT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *