Only 800 miles more to go....

Columbus Day weekend means only one thing: Time for the LLL to convene! Twelve feisty women, three hundred pounds of food, nine miles to town. Ah, this is the life! We pack our belongings and head to George Williams College in Williams Bay, Wisconsin to join our ten friends in a frenzy of food, fun and frolicking. There are many a story I cannot print here, for fear the LLL will swoop down upon me and forbid me one more piece of homemade cheesecake.

As you may or may not recall, the wife and I have been a "member" of the LLL since October 1994. I can only tell you that the LLL stands for something that includes the words "Love Loft" in the title; the rest is up to your imagination. And no, we don't all sleep in a loft anymore but we used to....we used to meet in Galena but had to switch to Lake Geneva many moons ago. (Side note: we also convene on Lake Wisconsin once a year but when I think of the LLL I think of mildewy houses and not enough bedrooms on the campus of George Williams College.Previous posts about the LLL can be found in January and August 2006. Perhaps you'll recall the tattoo from January 2006, secured during our last LLL trip to Williams Bay.) For the most part, LLL participants have remained the same, with only a few changes in the major players. (A divorce here and there; a sports injury or two...) These are good people and I mean that. My mother would approve of each and every one of these wonderful ladies. Not a bad apple in the bunch (well, besides me, but I don't count.) These are the kind of friends you want to have.

1994 was a LONG time ago. Do you know how many hairdos, jobs and cars I've had since then?

When we are not busy eating, preparing for the next meal or cleaning up from the last meal, we are shopping, knitting, reading, sleeping or walking. Above is a photo of the walking path we traverse every fall. Here's a photo of what we look like by the end of the weekend:

(Actually, this is a photo of a pregnant man from India or something, but it does illustrate how I feel after all the eating that takes place during the LLL.)

In an effort to burn off the 1,220,334 calories we consume during the weekend, a group of us forage the tundra from Williams Bay to Lake Geneva--a 9 mile walk in the woods. A lot of things happen during this annual weekend, but for this blog, I shall focus on the walk....

....It always sounds like a good idea when we start.

We start out on the campus (here's a photo of the Yerkes Observatory, located on the campus) and move east:

Three hours later, we are not so sure it was a good idea, but we know there is a Starbucks at the end of the road, so it's almost worth it. This year, our pal Einsteina Vagina (remember her from the August 2006 LLL trip?) decided to embark on the walk despite her scheduled knee surgery for the following Wednesday. Now, I don't know about you, but if I'm having knee surgery, I'm guessing there is something wrong with my knee and I probably should not be walking nine miles in the woods. However, Einsteina, being Einsteina, didn't want to miss the fun or pain of the event. God love her, she made it but I think I saw blood spurting from her eyes during the last two miles. I don't think she even knew we made it to Starbucks; I think she was delerious and thought she was in Cancun.

Above: The sign you have reached Mecca--you have survived another LLL Walk.

Nine miles gives you a lot of time to talk and bond; it's my favorite event of the weekend. At first, we gab a lot. We catch up on each others' lives, share fun stories of our recent happenings, tell jokes, hum happy tunes, confess our darkess secrets, think about singing "Only 800 miles more to go....".

After two hours, we are chit chatting sporatically and the humming has stopped. (Pretend that is a picture of us hiking the world. It's not us and only one of us had a walking stick, but this is what I imagine us to look like as we walk down the path....) At the seven mile mark, several of us are staring down at the path and praying to St. Jude for survival without bloody stumps for feet. There are still a few perky people, but they are in the front and I am taking their names in vain. By the time we're done, there is silence (well, besides a weak whimper here and there and muttering about needing a bathroom--did I mention there is nary a bathroom on the trip unless you want to pee in the woods?). We weep with happiness when we get to the town we've been aiming for. We would dance in delight, but we can barely walk, so dancing is kept to a minimum. Thankfully, someone always picks us up at the end of the trail and drives us the fifteen feet to the Starbucks. We sit there and suck down our Frappaccinos or lattes or other caffeinated, sugar-filled beverage. We really shouldn't sit down, because once you sit down, it is very hard to convince your legs to get back up. I know, I know, nine miles is NOT far but it's far enough that I need a Frappaccino to live through it. Even better than the ride to Starbucks is the ride back to where we started. After all, there is another meal waiting for us at the house and we wouldn't want to miss one bite of food over the weekend.....

Unfortunately, they are tearing down the mildew-filled hot spot we stay at, so we are open for options. If you have any reasonably-priced ideas for 12 women and 300 pounds of food, let me know. There's a piece of homemade cheesecake and a Venti Frappaccino in it for you if you come up with something we can use....