The Freedom Fields hike yesterday was lovely. I drove, taking Frank and Barb D., and Leslie. (Guess we could have walked, as it's only about 5 miles away.) The day was sponsored by Ocean County and Little Egg schools to encourage families to hike and play outdoors. Cheery teachers gave out large waterproof carrying bags with pedometers, water holders, and other goodies in them. Of course, bottles of water were also free for the taking. Before we started, the phys ed teacher led us in stretching exercises. (I found this amusing, as I've gone on hikes of up to 10 miles and nobody did stretching exercises beforehand.)
It was a beautiful day, sunny and mild, and we had a good walk. We did get confused in about the middle of it, having lost sight of the trail markers, but doubled back and corrected. We were joined by two beautiful girls named Liz and Rachel--cheerleaders in their junior year who compete in nationwide contests--and they walked with us, chatting all the way. According to our newly-acquired pedometers, we went 3.5 miles.
Hey, we live right. The weather was perfect during the hike--sunny and mild--then it rained all day just after we got home. Unusually for me, I didn't go out the rest of the day--just puttered around doing housework, reading, and playing my new "Great Wall of Words" game. Pat didn't even go to the bay; neither of us felt like going out in the rain. Geesh, we must be getting old.
Alison called on their way home from the "marathon hike." This was exactly like the one we did--well, okay, 23 miles longer. Eleven of them walked from above Frenchtown to Washington Crossing, stopping only for lunch. It took them nine and a half hours.
Was pleased to get a message from my Delaware friend, Lynne C. Her eye problem is being treated and we hope to reschedule our postponed lunch before too long.