MOM
My mom and I have been hiking the Conservation Trail in NY on and off for several months now. It's a trail that starts from the PA border in Allegany State Park and runs all the way to the Canadian border in Niagara Falls. Most of the trail is in the woods but there are some pretty lengthy road sections. We skip those. Every now and then, when I get some time away from full-time work, whitewater raft guiding, and soccer refereeing, I meet her halfway at the next trailhead.
Most trips last a few hours. Sometimes I'll bring a friend along. But no matter what season, no matter how I'm feeling that day, it always goes way too fast. It follows that old saying about having fun. The entire hike is spent in peace and quiet. Wait, no, that's a complete lie. I don't think there actually is any peace and quiet at all. Not when two Donlons haven't seen each other in over a couple weeks. Not between two people who clearly have a healthy dose of A.D.D. We hit so many tangents in conversation that it is usually impossible to retrace our conversations back to what we wanted to discuss in the first place. This is my "Me and Mom Time".
A realization hit me the other day when on a different trip. My mom and I almost never take pictures when on our hikes. I say almost because occasionally we'll run into something really cool looking like an old tractor or part of an old gun powder mill. But those are taken with our awesome flip phones that I seem to be getting more and more bewildered looks for from people these days. So basically, we never bring a camera with us. Which is odd since most people like having pictures for looking back at on (like me). But part of my realization is that I don't think I want to bring a camera. It'd be a distraction. Two people with terribly short attention spans, a goal of hiking a certain distance, and non-stop conversing is already enough. Throw in a camera and might be too much for my wittle bwain.
So for now, I'm going to keep leaving the camera at home and head out with "things I need to talk to mom about" on mind. This is "Me and Mom Time", and any distractions to that will just have to wait. Lately, the mosquitoes are the newest distraction.