Embrace Plan E

I was supposed to have TEN DAYS ALONE!  I am a happily married mother of two teenagers but I would be lying to tell you I was not looking forward to the once in a lifetime opportunity to have ten days alone.  It really was too good to be true.  In fact I hadn't even made too many plans because I did not want to jinx it.  But if everything went as planned Laurel was going to be in Germany on her exchange semester, Owen was going to be in Japan with the Longmont Sister City Program and Justin was going to be hiking the Washington portion of the PCT.  So the big day had arrived.  I had just returned from dropping Owen off at the airport and going to the post office to mail Justin a resupply box.  I was sitting on the couch deciding what would I do first- eat cereal for lunch, plan out my hikes, or start to organize decades worth of photos and then my iMessage dinged.  It was a message from Justin  saying he had had enough of the PCT and was heading home.  And just like that my ten days of solitude turned into 24 hours.  But it also turned into the best ten days of the summer.  Because there is something really amazing about embracing plan e- because let's be honest- at this point I was past plan b,c and d -but it still turned out really well.  Luckily I had already been really productive and gotten most of my summer chores done.  So the time was pretty open.  We brainstormed our possibilities.  We considered more backpacking.  Or maybe some lake camping.  There was also a hike seven hours away that I was planning to go to by myself.  I had been training for this hike all summer but because it was in an area that was closed earlier this summer for a wildfire and currently was in monsoon season I was doubtful if it was the best time to go.  But at the same time I decided if not now, when.  We decided to just give it a try and see what happens- so in the matter of an hour we mapped out a five day roadtrip and I managed to book places to stay along the route.  And what a fantastic time we had!  So maybe Justin did not hike all 500 miles of the Washington section of the PCT.  And I did not get those photo books sorted.  But we had a rare couple's road trip to the San Juan Mountains, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Mount Princeton Hot Springs filled with laughs and chats and amazing views and weather and there is not one thing I could have changed if we had planned this trip for a year.  So here's to spontaneity from one who can be little too much of a planner at times.  I am so grateful my summer didn't turn out as I planned because there is no way I would have had that much fun by myself anyway!