A hike in the mountains.

Wednesday we were up an off to Sylva without breakfast.  We were looking for the center where we were to meet our trail guides.  They attend our church, and lead trail walks in addition to making artifacts.  We thought it might rain us out but we went anyway.  It was extremely humid but only rained about 3 minutes.  The trail was steep and rocky but only 2 1/2 miles long.  The highest peak was 4900+ feet according to the sign but I don’t think it was that high.  We did spend the entire hike in the clouds, making it very wet.  We struggled but Olivia covered the ground effortless.  We met some new people and tried to get Olivia interested in talking with the leader who is an artist.  She was more interested in the leader’s dog.  We have been disappointed in her enjoyment of our visit together.  None of us was hungry despite the fact that we had taken breakfast bars and apples.  We had driven our own car so we left and drove home.  We stopped at Hardees for some fast food for lunch items to bring home.  After lunch Evelyn and Olivia showered and lay down to rest.  I went to Canton to get some taco shells to use when we serve tacos at tomorrow’s VBS.  The manager at the Taco Bell there is a young mother I used to work with here in Waynesville.  She was kind enough to give them as a contribution.  I came home and took us to the church.  Most of the children arrived later than usual but enjoyed the hot dog lunch.  I didn’t even bother trying to get our invited girls whose mother didn’t come through again.  It didn’t rain much but the threat drove activities indoors.  We encouraged Olivia to talk with others and try to learn more about them to make the evenings more interesting.  She did a very good job of trying the approach and seemed to be enjoying herself more than usual.  I had thought we should try to talk with her in a loving, counseling mode, but we allowed her to go straight to her room.  We were all pretty tired from a very busy day.