Tesuque! Bless you.

Two things I always hope for when camping:  be by a stream and get just a little rain.  The first is just an obvious choice, right?  And the second can be inconvenient, and I wouldn’t truthfully want it every time, but just once every long now and then is so nice.  Put the rain fly on and cozy up in the tent.  We got both at Big Tesuque, about 7 miles up the mountain toward the Santa Fe Ski Basin. Great spot.  We’d spent the afternoon resting at the Santa Fe Rail Yard Park, where it turns out they have a Saturday farmer’s market and had people out playing music all over the place, folk artists with booths, etc…Seb got to run around and play with some other kids and I just lay down, still feeling a little fatigued.  I also went into REI, right there in the rail yard, described exactly what we were looking for and got some direction from a really helpful employee who pulled out a map, didn’t push it on me, really nice.  So Tesuque was where we needed to be.  Seb fell asleep on the ride up so I was able to take my time unloading and hiking the stuff in (hike in site).  The episode of the prior day had robbed my energy, but the altitude was really nailing me (about 8500 – 9000 feet).  Later on Seb commented as we hiked that he couldn’t breath very well. I’d never had occasion  to tell him about altitude and sea level before so we talked that out.  ”Why don’t kids really worry about that though?”  ”Why would they worry?”  ”They can’t breath.”  ”No sweetheart, you get used to it.  If we stayed here for a few days we’d feel it less and pretty soon we’d be just fine.”  Nice of him to worry about the local kids. Care about the communities you visit I say.  I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for any buzz about altitude abuse.

Seb kept saying “It going to rain Daddy” as we prepped to go to bed, and I got the rain fly ready just in case, but was like “Nah, I don’t think so.”  ”Yes it is Daddy.”  ”Oh, you’re a weatherman?”

My legs are freezing as I run around the tent at about 2am in the rain cinching the rain fly down, then I execute a perfect dive back into the tent and zip it closed.  Aaahhh. Cozy – let it come.

It makes me feel like a little kid.  The following morning Seb and I take an early morning hike following the stream up the mountain.  So peaceful.  Highly recommend this place, and it’s a National Forest so you know what that means (didn’t think there’d be a quiz later did you?). You’re only limited by how far you want to lug.  We go back to the tent and it starts sprinkling, we take a mid morning nap together.  As we wake up I think to myself, should we break camp now?  Nah, it’s so nice.  We’re talking and laughing and being silly.  Then it starts to really rain. No breaking camp for a while. So we keep talking laughing and being silly.  Turns out he’s pretty concerned about bullies when he goes to kindergarten. He asks me if I ever had bullies be mean to me.  Yes, I tell him.  What should you do?  And I think….and I think….and I consider telling him to tell the teacher, but this sounds so hollow, such a meaningless memorized answer.  So I tell him it depends on the bully.  Some you ignore and let them know you don’t care what they think. Others you have to stand up to.  And some you might wind up getting to know better, realize they’re just a scared kid like you, and you become friends.  It just depends.  And what if that doesn’t work he asks.  And I wish I knew what to tell him.  I wish I could tell him here’s what you do and those people will never hurt you.  But that’s life, isn’t it?  He will be hurt.  He’ll be made happy at times and angry other times.  He’ll feel like a winner some times.  And other times someone will make him feel like a loser, or try to.  And I’ll hurt for him and want to make it go away. He’s like me – my sensitive boy. He’ll make his own way.  And he’ll be fine.

“If those things don’t work, you can let them know they’ll be pumping your gas some day.”

He doesn’t get it.

It’s all self-serve these days.