Return from Philmont

It was time for Dad and Francis to return after two weeks of hiking in the mountains of New Mexico. They would arrive early in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Collette, Linnea, and Puck returned to the house in the morning just in time to accompany Mom and Carrie on running errands. This included a run to Big Lots, at Linnea’s request, where last minute supplies were picked up for the mission trip, including jars of peanut butter and work gloves.
Later that afternoon, an invitation arrived in the mail from Iwo and Strawberry. They had just purchased a three-story, 5000 square foot, 17-room, 6-fireplace, Vietnamese Catholic Parish. They were going to have a house warming.
Around this time, the great green van thundered up the road.
“They’re back!”
Mom forgot about watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (with her childhood favorite, Donny Osmond), and everyone ran outside.
Francis was rosy red like an apple.
“Look at that handsome dude!” Carrie exclaimed.
Francis grinned.
“It was amazing,” he said.
“Dad!”
He had once again grown the amazing professor Dad goatee.
“Yay!” they cried.
“It’s only staying for a few weeks,” Dad said, through smile lines.
“Yeah, right,” said Carrie.
They unloaded the cargo while the girls slowly began to wonder at the awful stink emitting from the Boy Scout uniforms and backpacks. The stories began to come.
“We went in this mine, and they turned out the lights. And then they told us to put our hands on each other’s backs and follow the leader out of the mine,” said Francis. “Dad was the leader.”
“It was pretty neat,” said Dad. “32 miles of mine. So our guide, after he told us about getting out of the mine, ran out ahead of us, so we had to learn how to find our way out in the pitch black. And I could see just a pinhole of light from the entrance where the door hadn’t shut all the way. So Mr. Creek was further back and all the guys were kind of getting angry because our guide left us in there. And I kept saying, ‘We’re almost there. Just a little further’. And the guys were getting grumpy. And I kept saying, ‘Just a little further’. So finally Mr. Creek said, ‘That’s what you said before!’” Dad laughed. “And one of the other leaders stood up too fast on the way out, knocked his head into a board in the ceiling, fell flat on his backside, and was knocked out for a few seconds.”
Apparently, this was pretty funny.
They had seen some giant storms, hiked into the mountains with burroughs, shot black powder rifles. Francis had been a very good shot.
When Puck woke up from his nap a little dazed, he gave his grandpa and Uncle Francis some shy smiles. Francis brought him into the kitchen for his juice, and Dad began to tease Mom about watching Donny Osmond before he came home – her old crush.
“Seriously, Martin,” Mom protested, “we were only watching it for about three minutes.”
“Yeah, Mom was saying something about ‘last hurrah’,” Carrie joked.
“I was not!” Mom laughed.
And while the boys snacked and washed up, the others continued watching Donny Osmond in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Francis was anxious to spend a couple of hours with the youth group at the Bananas’ house for boating. Collette and Puck dropped him off there on the way home. By the time they had hit the highway, Francis was out, his head resting on Puck’s car seat, as he had requested to sit in the back with him. In the end, he decided that he would not stay until the end of the party and went home early to get some much-needed rest. They would present pictures and videos Friday night at a family dinner.
Back at the house, Puck amused himself trying to open the air vent with a can opener while Collette prepared his sweet potatoes for dinner.
And in other news, Grandpa was doing well again and waiting to be accepted into a home for the elderly with only forty residents.