Memory Walk

Well, here we are, the last post about Cran-Hill. It was great to walk down memory lane here and also make some new memories. Ones that include the most important people in my life...my family.

With this last post, we are going to go on a memory walk together. Just for a few minutes, the actual walk took much longer, and was quite emotional for me (I know there is a shocker). I tried to hide it from those that I was walking with because really, this place has meaning to me beyond the fact that I had fun here, that I lived a little piece of Heaven for a few short weeks of my life. And honestly, who wants to hear about all that...

Sunday dawned a beautiful day. Sun was shining, the wind had calmed down and the temperatures made it out of the 40's. Perfect camping weather for a nice walk to show my children the places Mommy stayed when I camped here.

First we went up to Pine Slope. Cran-Hill has two different camp sections, Pine Slope and Swamp Hollow. My first year as a camper I stayed on the Slope. You have to walk up about 100 steps to get to the top of the "slope" (hill) to get to where the cabins are. My cabin that year was Trails End. It was (obviously) the very last cabin, at the end of the trail.

The cabins are A-framed. The roof, front and back are all wood. The sides are chicken wire with canvas hanging over top. The inside is just a wood floor. When I camped there we had to take cots or you slept on the floor. The cabins had 6-8 girls (or boys) and one counselor. Now there are bunks in the cabins and a sign on the door that the occupancy is 6. Things have changed... although the smell in the cabin hasn't, it is hard to explain, a smell of wood/musty/canvas. But it brings back memories of all things wonderful. It smelled so good.

The next year I stayed in Swamp Hollow. The cabin I stayed in.... Bonanza (and yes we sang the song every time we headed back to our cabin). I was singing the song in my head as I was walking to it 20 years later. Some things just never change...

The kids had fun looking in the cabins and playing around the camp, but no one really got how much this hike meant to me. How do you put into words all that you are feeling without crying? I have issues with crying... How do you explain what this time in your life was like and who wants to listen? Someday I hope to share with my kids some of the things that happened here, some of my experiences, but they are too young for those conversations right now and they wouldn't really mean anything to them. But my mind is just swimming with the stories that I could tell, the special relationships I formed and how this place helped shape the person that I am today.

We continued on our walk, some of the kids were running around, some were being carried. All having a good time.

During our walk all the kids ended up finding sticks and they kept standing in a circle, putting their sticks in the middle, and saying...........

"ALL FOR ONE"

"AND ONE FOR ALL"

Memories... ones that the kids are now making. Ones that we are making with them. Ones that this Momma will always remember because.. I am that sentimental.. emotional.. weird.. different.. "something else".. I can wear all those names and more :-)

I will leave you with one last picture from our weekend. Our new tradition when camping with our friends is to take a group picture of the kids at every campground we go to together. Here is Cran-Hills picture.

I don't think this picture needs any explanation.

Blessings!!