My October Surprise

I spent two weeks last month on a hunting/camping trip.

That’s not how October was supposed to go.

My sweet husband was going to go hunting with his brother and two nephews, and I was going to spend a week in the big city shopping, drinking frothy coffee, and watching chick flicks with my sisters-in-law. (I even had a nice little wad of cash to spend at an outlet mall on the way.) That’s been the tradition for the past few years, ever since my brother-in-law retired and the guys started hunting together again.

The morning I was to leave, I wrote in my journal, Getting ready to leave for sister-in-law girl time! :) Feels weird to be trying to get out the door when Bill is here.... I’ve seen him so little over the past few months. I just want to cuddle up with him.

See, it had been a busy wildfire season here in the northwest. Like many U.S. Forest Service employees, Bill fights wildfires in addition to doing his regular job. (He’s a surveyor and the boundary manager for four national forests.) From July 19 – September 29, Bill had forty-five days fighting fire, fifty if you count travel days. That’s fifty days away from home. Now, that’s nothing compared to the separations many other couples endure, especially in military families, but for us it’s a lot. Between fighting fire and doing his day job, he averaged just one day off per week. He loves to fight fire, and I’m glad he could go. But I’d missed him a lot.

Still, plans are plans. I love my sisters-in-law, and I’d been looking forward to this girl time for months! So I packed up the car with all my cute going-shopping-with-the-girls clothes and headed out of town.

About forty miles down the road, I thought, What am I doing?

I pulled into a Safeway parking lot and called my sweetie. I told him I was half tempted to turn around and go home. We talked about options, that I could always go to the girls’ week for a few days and then, if I still wanted to, I could drive across the state and join the guys at hunting camp.

So I thought, Okay, I’ll drive on....  Gee, chips and a Dr. Pepper sound good!

I trotted into Safeway and realized, Wait a minute...I just had lunch about an hour ago.

I’m not hungry.

Why do I want to eat?  

Because I’m unhappy.

I bought a bag of Doritos and a bottled water, went back out to my car, cracked open the water, and called my dear friend Markell. I burst into tears as soon as I started talking to her.

“What does your gut say?” she said.

“Go home!”

“So go home.”

So I did.

I stopped on the way and spent half my clothing cash on jeans, flannel shirts, long-sleeve Ts, and long underwear.

I called my sisters-in-law, who responded with kindness and grace to being ditched at the last minute.

I unpacked my cute red polka-dot suitcase full of sparkly girly clothes and soft sweats, and I filled a black duffel bag with warm socks and clothes that could layer and get grubby.

The next day, we headed out for hunting camp.

I donated the Doritos to the camp food supply. But over the course of two weeks, I ended up eating them all anyway because I was the only one who liked Cool Ranch Doritos. Oh well.

I’m glad I went. Even though blaze orange is not my color. (One of the nephews commented that my hoodie was so bright, it looked like its own light source.)

Hunting camp with my husband was where I wanted to be and where I needed to be this year.

Next year...I’ll decide where I need to be when the time comes.

In the meantime, I’ll share a few more pictures in an upcoming post.

Happy November!