GOING INTO TRAINING

Yesterday one of the muses had an adventure she was anxious to share with us. Apparently she has hooked up with a group of women who go hiking together about once a month. My first thought was "Ick, gross!", but then she started describing the property where they took their most recent trek: gorgeous natural landscaping, stair steps carved out of the earth, dry creek bed leading down to Lone Man Creek, and a beautiful infinity pool where they all cooled off afterwards. It sounded more enticing by the minute.

Now, I don't mind walking at all. In fact, I'm quite fond of it. The word "hike", however, sends chills up my spine. It calls up visions of the hashes we went on in Indonesia: clawing my way up steep inclines, or sliding down muddy ones on my butt. We "pears" with little stubby legs don't do well with steep inclines. Still, wouldn't that be something, me joining a hiking group? John would just keel over in a dead faint if I told him that! The group is taking the rest of the summer off, so that gives me a couple of months to practice hiking up and down my steep driveway, and climbing the hill behind my house. It would also be good training for a trip to Italy like my friend Sibby just took. They stayed in a hillside town where you had to park at the bottom of the hill, and carry your luggage up nearly 300 steps to your pensione. Yep, it might be worth joining, just to see the shocked expressions on the faces of everyone who knows me.