Spectacular

The guys called today around 5:00 p.m. They were nearly to their designated shelter. They were in good spirits. Dale was complaining that Ben didn't laugh at his jokes.

According to Ben, Dale has a very appropirate hiking name (Turtle). Well, Ben did add a description to Dale's hiking name "Pokey Turtle" ...you guessed it, Dale's pace is definitely slower than Ben's. I asked if it was becuase Dale was having a hard time. Ben said, "No, he's just a slow hiker. That means that I get lots of time to rest."

The good news is that they are still teasing one another. All is well as long as they have something to talk about. Neither Ben nor Dale are very big talkers.

Last night when they arrived at the shleter they met another hiker. Coinsidentally, the hiker was from metro Atlanta. Not just metro Atlanta, but he graduated a year ahead of Ben from the same high school and . . . was in the same boy scout troop as Ben! What a small world it is!

Over the course of the last 23 days Dale has shared stories about falling, but Ben really hasn't said much about missed steps. I figured that either Ben had not fallen or that he didn't want to talk about it. Well it turns out that Ben won the most spactacular fall award for the year. Not only that, he won that award today!! Ben said that he was hiking along and lost his footing. He fell down, landing on his backside. As he was sliding he rolled to his side. He couldn't stop the momentum until he rolled on his back landing in a ditch. Of course this debacle happened in a blink of the eye. There he was lying there with is backpack lodged the ditch. Somehow Ben managed to get on his feet without any help. There were no broken bones! Yes! And only a few scratches (That trail talk for, I got skinned up and really don't want to talk about it.)

As Ben was telling me his story I was laughing. Then Ben said something like, yup, I'm just like ice cream . . . "Good Humor." Ugh . . . Dale is really rubbing off on Ben. Maybe Dale is going to have to start laughing at Ben's jokes. Get it? Huh? Get it? Ugh!!