There were no further mishaps on our journey north, and we arrived in St. Johns in due course, pouring out of our two vehicles and mobbing the grocery store that we will always call “Wilbur’s” (but nowadays they are trying to rebrand as “The Market”) to shop for supper hot dogs, some kind of meatless Friday dinner, and some breakfast and snacky types of things. I always try to be restrained when I buy food for the ranch, but it somehow gets away from me. For instance, when we got to the cabin and began to unpack, we kept finding oddities that no one admitted to putting into the cart, such as a good sized jar of Italian Seasoning, and a cute little bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I still don’t know what happened there…
Kids needed to move after the long drive, but outside the wind was bitter cold and whistling around the cabin walls. So they got out the volleyball and played inside. I ventured out with my camera and stayed out long enough to survey the ranch in every direction, snapping photos until my nose and fingers were frozen and I had to return to the marginally warmer indoors. When I lived in Fargo, ND, I never thought there could be a place that was more windy. The ranch is definitely more windy! Wow.
I also managed to walk down the driveway and visit “The Boo-Boo Tree” – a gnarled old Juniper beside which we have buried several of our sweet doggies over the years when their time on earth was done. And then turned around and trudged back up the hill. Monumental fitness progress for someone who has only been out of a wheelchair for less than six months. I am proud of me!
It was cold. Incredibly cold. Too cold for a campfire. But guess what? Kids don’t care. They want S’Mores. So they built the fire! And they stood around the fire long enough to cook themselves hot dogs and their S’Mores and then came up to the cabin to warm up. We were lights-out before 7:30pm – when the sun goes down, and when there’s no campfire around which to have a leisurely evening of chit-chat, one simply goes to bed.
The storm arrived and we listened to the rain on the metal roof as we went to sleep. We woke to find a blanket of white all across the ranch.
