All Good Things Must Come to an End

This boy.  Feintsje.  HE came down the dune to help me up.  He held on to my elbow until I made it to the stairs.
He is SOOO sweet!

Here he is asking me something about why I need to keep stopping, and why am I leaning on the railing, and why is everyone else waaaay ahead of us, and why won't I carry his shoes...

Of course I had to wait until I caught my breath to answer him.

Because I am OLD.  And FAT.

It did cross my mind that this would be a beautiful place to die.

Wouldn't it?

I thought so.

Well, as you can see here, we made it back.

Surprise!

I chose a bench in the shade.

There is a reason I am not smiling.

I do not have the energy.

Yet.

It'll come.

Just wait for it.

Still waiting....

So are they.

Waiting for me.

 How is it that they do not even look one bit tired?  I don't get it.  Except for the simple fact that they are NOT old, and they are NOT fat.  Well, four of them anyway.

That is Famke down there.

She is not tired.

And there they all go, ahead of me.

Oh well.

I took the time to take note of the wheelchair ramps that take you into the woods for a little ways.  How nice.

 Did you see that picture where Famke actually climbed steps that she DID NOT NEED to climb?  I did not climb them.  No.  I most certainly did not.  Oh, and do notice that Kado and Jonge are pretending to hold the lovely butterflies painted on this mural.  The Gillette Visitor Center is a really nice place.  You should go there.

On our way back to the van I noticed a large garden of wildflowers.

No one else noticed this.

I don't think anyone else cared two hoots about it at all.

THGGM even sent a messenger to tell me that it was time to get into the van.

The NERVE.

Since taking my time seemed to have been my "thing" on this excursion, I continued to do so.

The messenger went back to the van.

I continued to take pictures of wildflowers.

Aren't they pretty?

I knew you would think so!

I did eventually make it back to the van.

By then I wasn't tired anymore.

We didn't lose anyone on this trip.

Well, except for Feintsje, whom we lost to sleep before we had even reached the highway.

It WAS a great last minute trip on the Wednesday of THGGM's stay-cation.

And a good time was had by all.