Mom got a Sierra Club calendar from Dad for Christmas and she freaked out over the picture of Vermont. Besides my hiking trip through the Lake District in England, I have never wished that my mom had been with me on a vacation more than when I stayed with Katie and Sarah in Vermont for a few days on our way home from our month spent roughing it on an island that Katie’s friend owned in Canada. I convinced Katie and Sarah to spend a few days in Vermont recovering from our primitive living conditions in a hotel room. The first thing they wanted to do was get a pedicure, so I went for my first with rolled eyes, but then I demanded we get in the car and drive to Frost's mountain. By the time we drove out to Middlebury, or whatever that town is called, it had started raining, but I insisted we drive out anyway, convinced it would stop in time for me. Because it hadn't, they opted to stay in the car and laughed at me when they noticed I was wearing FLIP-FLOPS (I'm still not sure why...I NEVER wear flip-flops. But I think it's because we had been wearing them on the island so that we could have waterproof shoes on when we took the pulley down to the bottom of the island, because we usually splashed around in the shallow water where we landed before hopping up onto the dock to board the motorboat there). I left my whimpy, girly friends listening to music in the car and tramped through the mud, reading the little plaques that had snippets of Frost's poetry that related to plants, trees, and general views on the walk, paying no attention to the people who were running around me to get back to their cars.
After sloshing almost straight up the mountain, I finally got frustrated at the time that had elapsed since I had seen one of the plaques and the mud oozing through my newly-manicured toes, which was starting to make walking a real chore. So, I literally had to slide a few inches at a time back down, because it was so slippery and because my shoes were NOT made for hiking. I had figured that I hadn't seen anyone on the trail only because they had all run to take shelter, but when I found my way back to the car HOURS later, I looked at the map at the foot of the trail, which I had waved off in my haste to get to the source of poetic inspiration. The "trail" was the easiest circular route for the tourist only wanting a taste of Frost's wanderlust, but somehow I had wandered off the path and gotten lost. When Katie and Sarah saw me, they burst out laughing and I started crying like a baby because I had been so frightened that I was going to twist an ankle and get stuck up on this stupid mountain. When we both finally calmed down from laughing (them), crying (me), they asked me what had happened. I was so mad at them for laughing at me, but I finally couldn't resist: "You guys suck, but you know what? (Pointing my finger up at the clouds, which were of course just then finally starting to clear) I took the road less traveled by...and (clenching my fist and shaking it at their mocking faces) THAT is going to make ALL the difference!"
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