To the Top Of The World...And Back Again

I decided that I should probably post my last bit of Camp Hope writings before the new year...lol. Enjoy :-)


August 1 2008

I woke up extra early that morning...Well, a half hour earlier than I did on all the other mornings, which would put me at 5:00 AM. I even surprised myself by waking up before my watch alarm went... I wanted to make sure and wake up at 5 so I had set an alarm. So I got dressed started to head out of the cabin at the break of dawn. Before I made it out the door though, my watch started beeping. Needless to say I jumped and shoved my arm under my sweat shirt to muffle the sound. There is nothing more startling than having the perfect silence of the early morning broken by an alarm that you'd forgotten that you'd set. One thing about it, I certainly got a good adrenaline rush.


After that though, I made it out of my cabin without the slightest noise, well, aside from that squeaky door that I have to go through to get out of the girl's cabin. Once out in the open of the early morning, I headed towards the pathway to the basketball court where I met up with Jacob. From there the two of us set out on the hike that we had planned the previous day. He'd tried to get more people to join us, but I was the only person who wanted to get up at 5 in the morning to go hiking. Everybody had no idea what they missed out on. The hike was awesome and the scenery was beautiful. First off we stopped by a stream with a small waterfall, where I took some photos and Jacob checked the time to see how long we had before we needed to be back for breakfast. Then we headed off on a tiny trail that he lead me on. All went pretty well, aside from the fact that I had to take frequent breaks to recharge my energy to keep from passing out. In all my hurry to get out of the cabin before waking the others, it had slipped my mind to bring any snack foods with me, which was a bad mistake. I always need to have something to get my blood sugar level up in the mornings before doing a lot of moving around because if I don't, I start to feel sick and if things go too far I can pass out. Not good. But fortunately nothing like that happened, although I felt a little wimpy at times. Bo was real nice about stopping for breaks though, and that was much appreciated.


Around 45 minutes later we arrived at a nice stopping place on the mountain side above Clover Field. The view was amazing! Oh, and seeing the rising sun shine over all the pine trees...it was just beautiful. Spectacular. One of those things that words just can't do justice to when it comes to describing. So we sat there and took in the scenery and the fresh cool morning air (and some drinks of water) and talked. Actually, thinking back on it, it kind of seems like it could have been a scene from a movie. Although if it was, Hollywood probably would have thrown in some unneeded romance. You can almost always count on the movie producers to do that. But here? Nah, just two friends enjoying God's creation together. No more, no less, and that is perfectly fine by me.


Funny, I recall last year Pastor Harris laying down a rule that a guy and a girl couldn't be off alone together without another person along. I guess it's a good thing nobody made that announcement this year or we would have been breaking the rules.


After probably half an hour Jacob checked his watch and we decided that the two of us had better head back to camp before morning exercises with Ruben started up. The two of us kinda laughed about that piece of the morning routine when we got back... Morning exercise? Ha! We had spent like the past two hours doing our morning exercise and it was far more of a workout. But you can't skip out on the morning exercise, so we joined in and stretched our tired muscles a bit more before we finally got to eat.


That day was quite a bit different than the others... instead of our usual cabin cleanup contest we were packing up our things and cleaning out the entire camp. I couldn't believe the week had come to an end so fast. I could hardly believe that this would be the last morning that I'd be tiptoeing out of a cabin of sleeping girls at 5:30 in the morning...The last day of Ruben's morning exercises... and the last time this year that I could see Anna, Bo, Zak, and the others as more than just words on my computer screen.


With all that in mind, I made sure to take advantage of the last few hours I would have with my friends there. I got the group photo with my fellow stooges that I had been dying to get ever since our first van ride together and had everyone I knew sign my hat and signature book. And I got to sing Viva La Vida with Anna & Zak while I signed Anna’s shoe... oh yeah, good times :-)


As I was talking to Zak while he emptied the trash, Dexter decided to take his last chance to be random at camp and ran up behind me and gave me a good poke in the back and ran off. A little shocked, I stood there and said "DUDE! Talk about random..." Then Nick, who was standing off to the side grinned and said "Hmm, well maybe I should do something random too." "Random such as...?" I wondered aloud...but before I finished, he answered... "NOOGIE!!!!!!!" and with that being announced, he grabbed me and did a noogie. Seconds later Zak turned around and pulled out his kendo sword and yelled at Nick telling him, "HEY! Back off of Sarah!!" So Nick quickly released me and I retreated and stood next to Zak, who at the moment reminded me somewhat of a knight, standing there with his sword out and looking like he wanted to bash Nick's head in. I think Nick got a bit lucky that time, 'cause I know Zak desperately wanted to clobber him.


An hour or two later, the saddest time came... rides started leaving and taking campers away. Jacob, Nick, and the McFauls were among the first to depart. Then a little while later the Juanita van pulled away. I nearly burst into tears at that...watching as the Boyds headed back to Seattle and Joy got closer to where she would take her plane back to Florida. It was just so sad knowing that I wouldn't get to hang with these people outside of the computer for a whole year...And that's assuming they made it back to camp. Or that I did. There's always that fear in the back of my mind that something will happen and either them or I won't make it to camp the next year.


So live like there's no tomorrow. Take some chances. Enjoy the time you have with each other while you have it because you may never have another opportunity to again. You just don’t know. So if you’ve got something to say, let it be known and don’t put it off because you might never get a chance to say it otherwise.


As far as my ride home goes, it was pretty good. Not as joyful and fun as the ride up, but hey, what do you expect? Everybody’s tired and sad to leave. One highlight of my trip back though was when we stopped at the airport in Spokane to pick up Lindy & Lucy Butler’s sister-in-law, Sara. It was the first time I’d ever been to a big airport before, so I was just happy to be along for a ride and taking in the scene. Airports are SO cool!! All the little shops and that weird looking glass room that people come out of when they get back from their trips... And my favorite thing- the spinning luggage rack dealie. That thing is awesome. The whole time I had this insane urge to hop on it and go for a ride. But I restrained myself, because I have the feeling that most people wouldn’t think it as fun as I would. I swear, if I ever get to ride an airplane, you will be able to recognize me quite well because I will be that weird girl who is going through airport security going “Wow, this is AWESOME!” I’d probably get my camera confiscated for trying to photograph the airport security dues...hehehe. Am I a small town hick or what?


Anyway, my trip ended when I got home around 10:00 that night. I was slightly surprised by the house color when we pulled up... I had completely forgotten that we were getting our house painted blue while I was gone. Haha. But that's pretty much the end there.... The end of the most amazingly awesome week of my entire life. Will next year manage to somehow top it? Guess I won't find out until it happens!



“Talking to you in real life is weird...but fun. Sincerely, Alexander”

45 Minutes of Fame

Friday

Friday came all too soon for me. I made sure to get up early that morning- I wanted to enjoy my last few hours at camp as much as I possibly could. Even though in the back of my mind I knew that it was the day that we had to go home, I still had a really great time.
I've got to say, there is nothing like the last day of Camp Hope to make you feel like a celebrity. Everybody is running around getting people to sign their Camp Hope books and so I was constantly asked for my signature. It was so much fun! Some people would ask for just your name, others will ask for your email, and then other people (such as Lindy!) would want you to write them a note too.
Even Zack had me sign- "Can't let the person who dubbed me Alexander get away without signing!" he said as he handed me his book as we were waiting in the lunch line. Haha, I don't think that I shall ever live down the Alexander incident! Oh well, I really don't mind though because it really was funny.
I had such fun running up to pretty much everyone I'd met over the week and collecting their signatures. It's really fun seeing all of the different things people put...Especially Dexter! I always wanted to be around when he was signing some one's book because he would always put something crazy & random. He wrote a short horror story in Jessica's book, in one person's book he wrote that poem that I forget the title of that begins, "One bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight". In my book he drew a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Pineapple"...In the address page. He's always gotta be the different one in the bunch, that's for sure!

Once everybody was packed up and the cabins were cleaned, it was the moment I was wishing wouldn't come...Time to go home. It was a long trip back. Everyone was real tired and didn't say a whole lot. It was fun hearing about Selah Walker's experience as the Jr. Girl's counselor though. She had some interesting stories to tell, including how there was a mix up on the Jr.'s hiking trip on Sunglass Mountain and every one thought that they were lost. I also got to hear about the Jr.'s skits, which us teens didn't get to see since they divided us up to save time. Of course, our drivers had to get their caffeine fixes, so we stopped and met the Pederson's, Mrs. Bates, and Dexter at two different Starbuck's stores along the way. Since it was offered, I couldn't pass it up, so I had an iced caramel machiotto. Yummy.

It was 10:45 when I got back home. Part of me was glad to be back and happy that I could get a nice hot shower, but the other half was really sad to have left most everyone.
As a lot of my friends who went said, "Camp Hope really should last for two weeks."

"Don't say I didn't warn you..."