My brother Jeff was going to be in France on business next week and would have to miss our grandmother’s services, so he decided to head to the North Country and offer condolences and visit with relatives over the weekend. He doesn’t get up there nearly as often as I do and asked me if I’d like to travel along. I never miss an opportunity to go through the Adirondacks and to be in upstate New York, so I went to work and quickly rearranged my schedule so I could be up there all weekend and through the following Wednesday. I had it in my head that I would spend some time with him and relatives through Sunday and then swing down to the park for a couple of days of camping and hiking. I checked the forecast for the High Peaks region for that time and the temperatures seemed manageable so I packed my trunk with cold weather camping gear and was on the road shortly after work.
My brother, his wife and daughter wanted to split the trip into two days. Since they were stopping in Syracuse, I elected to crash on their hotel room floor with my sleeping bag instead of sleeping at some camping spot in the Adirondacks where the temperatures would be dropping into the single digits overnight. I offered to buy breakfast for the convenience when I found out there was a continental included in the price of the room.
“Okay...busted. I’ll buy lunch, then,” I said.
“Uncle John...aren’t we going to be having lunch at Uncle Bill’s house?” my niece, Kim asked.
“Right...right. Dinner then...” I said.
Which we’d be eating at my cousin Donnie’s place.
I was concerned about stomach issues I might experience during the extended trip, but they were pretty mild the first day. I thought about heading out for a short run around the hotel, but it was nearly 11 p.m. by the time we got into the hotel, so I put exercise on hold...for the moment.
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