the bologna stroll

Yesterday the tween went to Camp Wood Haven. It is the only Girl Scout camp that offers horseback riding. I don't know what it is about tweens/teens and horses.  I invited myself along. Now if I could only figure out a way to stay at camp forever.

I can't believe it's been over fifteen years since I've been to Wood Haven. I can't believe that I've not had a troop in that long. It has changed a lot, and not at all. There is now a huge pavilion like the one at Mosey Wood with a rock climbing wall, and games painted on the floor. I was delighted I could still hopscotch. Though the tween told me my one, two-footed landing should have been a one-footed landing. I told her I didn't care. I did it.

The reason I invited myself along was to do the Lebanon volkssport walk. It was two exits further on the highway. When in Rome ...

It takes about an hour to check the child in, and get all her stuff to her unit. (When did they close in the front of the Adirondack shelters?) Mom cried—mostly in the car—she always does. Behind that tough exterior is an old softie. I had directions, from the highway, to the start point. Angel turned on the GPS -- "Sally" -- which took us down the back roads and through the woods. It was 14 minutes of beautiful scenery.

We checked into the Y, and headed out. It began on a towpath and finished on the same towpath. The 5K and 10K began together, head towards town, split, and rejoin near the end. Normally we would have done the 10K, but it was already 3:00. So we did the 5K. Well, not really.

I was in charge of instructions. That's usually the tweens job. I was making believe I was an annoying tween. Dad was helping. We were so busy goofing around that I didn't read the instructions correctly.

 It said to follow 8th, where this gorgeous farmers market is, to Orange, then take Orange to 9th & Walnut and then Walnut to 12th. We're walking and get to Walnut and never see Orange. So I reread the instructions. Ultimately we ended up turning on Walnut and walking to 12th.

Now if I wasn't goofing around so much I would have turned the paper over to look at the map. Orange is AFTER Walnut. Maybe four blocks after. And then it goes on an angle. We shaved off about a half mile.

Angel has the start cards but I would suggest a small change to the instructions. When it tells us to take 8th to Orange, maybe it should say take 8th past Walnut to Orange. Clearly Carol R did not test the instructions!

Oh well, we had fun. Lebanon is a nice town. It's a combo between beautiful historic buildings and crumbling buildings. Bethlehem Steel was once there. And a huge paper mill. And Lebanon bologna, of course. I was really hoping there was a giant bologna in town. I love those kind of oddities.  And of course it is the county seat so I was able to check another county off the list.

This is the first volkssport walk  I've done in a college town that didn't go thru the college! We went past HAAC, but that doesn't really count.

It's fun to get out and explore other people's neighborhoods.

Thanks Angel for letting me tag along.