…And Always Too Soon

Dearest Rachel –

I’m not entirely sure why Lili von Schtupp’s solo number from Blazing Saddles is running through my head. It seems that both of my letters today are inspired by one song or another (not that this one is at all relevant to the situation at hand). It’s probably due to the fact that I wasn’t required to be here for another couple of hours, leaving me with almost nothing to do (but we’ll get to that in a moment).

The funny thing is, I could have left at least three hours sooner than I did. Logan’s car is in the shop (for reasons that I never inquired about), and he needed a ride to work this morning. The office he works at is right off of Dundee Road, which I only discovered after he guided me through miles of frontage road, at which point I indicated that we could’ve taken route 53 just as easily. He shrugged, acknowledging that we could have, but added that he didn’t trust his own car on a fast road like that, and so didn’t think of having me take the faster route.

As far north as I was, I could have then simply hopped onto Palatine Road after dropping him off, and made my way directly to 294 from there. It almost felt like a waste to turn around and go home after such a trip. But I knew I wouldn’t be needed quite so soon, and besides, there was a place we don’t go to very often (because it’s so far out of the way) that I could get breakfast for Daniel from. And along those lines, it wouldn’t do for me to simply leave without saying goodbye to him.

So I picked up breakfast, drove home, set it in the oven – I did not know until this morning that it had a ‘warming’ setting – I took a shower, made breakfast for myself, and finished up my earlier letter to you while I waited for him to wake up.

An hour and a half later, I was filling him in on my morning thus far (and he was amused as I was to find a new setting on the oven). It seems that he’s looking forward to a weekend with Logan without having to worry about me staying out of the way. But he bid me safe travel, and I expressed my hope that he’d enjoy himself, before I finished packing and drove off.

I was still early enough to pick up lunch at what might be considered our usual stop – the ANW at Caledonia – although, we didn’t bother to stop there that last time, did we? I think you were in a bit of a hurry to get up here, and so, we were grabbing breakfast at a Wendy’s somewhere north of the state line instead. In fact, you were already in more of a hurry than usual, because we had gotten delayed by a ‘low tire pressure’ warning before getting onto 294, and had to stop and fill up at a service station. It’s not often that you were concerned about ‘burning daylight’ – it’s ironic that it happened on your last day ever. While I was stopped for lunch, I also went across the street to fill up my tank, as anywhere outside of Illinois has better prices. I’m sure you’d be gobsmacked by how expensive everything is these days.

Another thing we didn’t do that morning (thinking we would have a chance to stop on our way back home from camp) was to stop at the cheese shop right off of Route 57, on the lettered road leading toward the final leg of the journey. Much as I didn’t know whether I’d be able to store my purchases anywhere, I figured I better stop there beforehand rather than after, based on that experience. Besides, if I didn’t do it sooner, rather than later, I would forget the orders that I’d gotten from both Mom and Daniel. Moms was easy, but when I asked about Daniel’s request, the proprietor said she’d never heard of cheddar jack cheese before, and all her twelve years of working at the store. She told me she would look into the recipe on Google, but I don’t know what to think about that. I got him a block of colby jack, and I can only hope that, combined with that story as an explanation, will satisfy him for now.

There were also a couple of reasons I was deliberately attempting to arrive a little early. I’d had some discussions with Ingrid how about some issues on the camp’s books, and hoped to settle a few things, if at all possible. As it was, she was busy getting everything set up for the weekend – which is more than understandable – and so she left me with a handful of notes for me to work on in my down time (maybe tomorrow?)

The other was so that I could stake a claim on my sleeping quarters, despite the fact that I was hoping not to even need one of the beds. I’d ordered an inflatable sofa a while back, and wanted to see if it would do the job; it certainly looked like it would be big enough.

However, the only pump I have that I know of is the one that came with the soccer balls; that needle is *clearly* not suitable for that air inlet hole

Seeing as I wouldn’t be able to use my own pump to fill this thing (and I should point out that I did try), I figured that I would wander around camp, and see if there was some sort of pump to inflate things that I could ‘borrow’ for the moment.

I mean, you can see all the inflatables out there on the lake, so…

But the supply cabinet (which you pointed out to me ‘for future reference’) doesn’t seem to have much more than winter gear. Wonder which pair of skates were the ones you wore.

And there isn’t much to be found at the canteen, either, aside from this bench. Interesting that the bench includes one thing you can do on it that isn’t enjoyable.

Finding nothing – or at least, nothing that I can use – I resign myself to sleeping on a regular mattress (at least, for tonight), and continue wandering around the place. It’s the first real look I’ve allowed myself since then.