Day 5 - July 10, 2008 - mid-day

This morning I boiled water for breakfast for everyone and tried to organize my things. We all went down and into the lake. It was wonderfully cool. So refreshing – again. We went back up to camp, packed for our solo and met together. Jeff and Ryan went over the guidelines for our solos. As they were talking, all I was thinking about was how I couldn’t wait to get on this trip and have 24 hours of peace and quiet away from Don and the boys and now I can’t wait to get home and have 24 hours WITH them! I’m a little apprehensive about tonight, so I was teary again this morning.

Jeff took Wendy, Kevin and Kristi to their sites because they were the farthest away. Then Ryan took Jen, Betsy and me to our sites. Kevin, Wendy and I are the only ones doing the full solo. The other three will be picked up at 8 PM.

My site is the closest to camp. It’s actually very nice. I have a clear area where I can sleep, easy access to the lake, a great sitting rock right on the water, and some bigger rocks around for privacy. There are a group of teenagers on the lake and they are a little loud, but otherwise it’s very tranquil.

I didn’t know what to do when I first got to my solo site. So, I set up camp. First I put up my tarp – which took a while. I took a break and looked at all of my pictures on my camera from so far in the trip. Then I emptied my pack and took my food and stuff to my “kitchen.” I took all of my clothes out of my pack and went down to the sitting rock on the lake to wash them. After laying them out to dry I went back and ate a granola bar and drank some lemonade. I organized the rest of my gear, lathered on sunscreen and went to sit on the rock. So here I am writing on the rock with my feet dangling in the water. I have bees, ants, flies and mosquitoes surrounding me, but they aren’t really bothering me. It’s nice to finally have some time for me.

We are supposed to write a letter to ourselves. It will be collected and then mailed to us in 6 months. Then we’re supposed to list our year, decade and lifetime goals. Since I have a LOT of time to write and think, that should be no problem. I’m going to work on the letter now.