Hiking is a must to get in good enough shape to go to Africa. Though just thinking about it each weekend can in it's self be tiring. I really enjoy the hiking and the outdoors once I get off the couch. Although as I stand at the bottom of a mountain in the Goshen Valley it really doesn't look that high, but half way up it suddenly looks huge. Though I go up the mountain pretty good, it that coming down that is a little rough. T.J. likes to think of himself as my hiking instructor. He tells me, "just step and go," or "Mom you hike like a girl." Well, I suppose I do, as I take dainty little steps, trying to place my feet just right so I don't tumble to the bottom. T.J. on the other hand goes like crazy up and down the mountain, not paying any attention to where he is stepping. He makes it look sooooo...easy, maybe it is the thirty-five year difference in our ages. However, together we have a great time hiking and talking and giving each other a bad time. For T.J. one of the best things is we usually see a herd or two of deer. I am not sure if he is likes the hiking, or if he is scouting a 'Big Buck" for the fall hunt. Whatever it is it okay, as I suppose we are killing two birds with one stone. It is funny how life does an about-face. For the past fifteen years T.J. has always brought me back a "PRUDDY" rock from his hunting trips, (of which I still have all of them) now I have guaranteed him I will bring him back a pretty rock from the highest free standing mountain in the world, "The Roof of Africa."
