Under the Canopy

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Who wrote this part? I did.

It wasn't about pride but merely trying to understand one voice from the next.

On a piece of paper the next morning he wrote: I will right now and be the main surveyor.

As I awoke I hardly even heard the alarm. My body was filled with expectation and readiness to get out of the condo and the city where lately streets had been all busted up and much renovation of buildings causing backups that could ruin your afternoon.

I hopped in the Honda and stopped off at Starbucks for another blonde and popped in John Denver's greatest hits just as I exited into the freeway speeds and spaces and 80 mile an hour grooves I would have to press myself into, but it was never a problem for the Civic which could hop into warp speed at the touch of a toe.

The road was everywhere and I was everywhere on the road and as a bright sunlight pierced through the front windshield into my face I squinted and smiled and let it warm me and the feeling of the movement, the motion and the heat became one and I sang out Rocky Mountain High then stuffed a Snickers bar into my face. The highway carried everything along with it in the woods it now took me through where they were deep and dense and the first ride out to the place I was headed all came back to me.

Our parents had dropped us off at some central location and we were all bussed in from different places from their.  I saw the guys in the cabin, Steve and Jamie and Todd and our counselor Danny Martin. How we all got trained up first and then were left as our final test to do a night alone.

It was going to be an amazing few days. When I got back, I told myself, I'd have a much better sense about everything related to the Poppy… And all the sloppy mess of feelings and irritations with Laura. Of course, the silly questions she sent were still sitting there somewhere on the kitchen table.

After I parked the Honda it felt so fine to simply walk around the other side to grab my one pack and second smaller bag without really needing to carry much else on the first trip out. It's only going to be a mile in, but that will keep me careful about my trips and how often I want to go back and forth to the car.

White Pine, Birch and Alder and Hemlock and Balsam and Maple surrounded the space and the canopies were multilayered but very high leaving the forest floor quite dry.

I found the site and sat down on a log and immediately took out one of the beers, an ice cold 12 ounce clear-bottled champagne of beers from the good people at Miller Highlife. I promised myself I would sit there until I belched before doing anything else.

I waved off a few flies and killed a few mosquitoes buzzing around my neck. I thought of Laura with her legs wrapped around my ankle on the couch as I slapped a biting fly viciously.

I surveyed the area looking for the best flat spot to place the tent.

A blue Jay hollered from pine branches above me, chickadees worried about and pestered with flecks of tree bark, spinning their little heads.

The beer settled in good and I could tell because I felt still and slowed down into a savoring type space. I worried then about why I had left so much yet to carry and also had the beer.

I am not always a smart man.

Later on that night, among many other things I want you to know… (So I'll tell you… after a while)… Later on I had a fire crackling good, and oh the stars…!

This is what they really look like, I said.

My goodness…