the moon and stars were hiding behind the thick clouds and we stumbled along with only man-made technology to help us. for the eighteen people that were with us, we had one flashlight and a few cell phones to light the path that we were to follow. into the woods…

a few were expecting to make a fire in someone’s backyard. we had gone to the bowling alley only to find a nice note left for us. closed for memorial day. we had to do something. a friend was up for the weekend and wanted to spend as much time with us as he could. he mentioned a fire and we all quickly left the parking lot with instructions to all meet back up in twenty-five minutes. once back together again, hoodies were borrowed, sneakers for myself, and bathrooms used since it was clear we weren’t staying in sight of any houses. we just didn’t know what exactly we were getting into.

four people in flip-flops. one in dress shoes. one in a skirt. all of us in relatively nice clothes. we found ourselves playing follow the leader as we went from one back road to the next. i didn’t notice most of that since i found myself in a minivan with a certain friend i like so much and we talked the whole time. one car after another pulled up, everyone getting out and saying, “where are we?!” we didn’t really get an answer. i still don’t know if we were in the colton area or the parishville area.

we had been told we’d have to walk a bit, but what we didn’t know was that really, we’d have to hike up an old ski slope. we did make the whole trek up and found ourselves at the top of the hill. someone remarked on the view it probably would be. unfortunately, since this did happen to be late at night, we couldn’t really see the view. so much for that.

with an ax in hand, a few of the guys went into the caterpillar infested woods to get some lumber for our fire. through most of this i kept thinking, is this for real? there they were cutting down trees for us to use in our fire. it was as if we had just stepped back in time. well, i guess the cell phone calls that were made and the iPod that was pulled out to watch bits of a show made us remember that we really did live in the twenty-first century.

it was a crazy night. a crazy fun night at that. we roasted marshmellows and we enjoyed our time of talking and laughing.

but as they say, all good things must come to an end. and our evening in the-middle-of-no-where eventually did come to an end. we put out our fire and started to make our way down again.

my sister and i were two of the girls who went. she was the one in a skirt and flip-flops. we are two who like the city. we like to wear heels, make-up, and go to coffee shops. we both sat around the fire and came away smelling like smoke. we both laughed and made our way up and down. and after we both said that it was so much fun.

we then had the drive home…

“once i got past the shock it wasn’t too bad.”
“i feel like i have bugs all over me.”
“it was like a real hike.”
“i know. there was like rocks and everything.”
“it was an adventure guys.”
“oh my goodness! they’re on me! get the caterpillars off me!”

it was an enjoyable experience. you know, the kind of experience that one remembers for quite awhile.