Is This The Road To The Summit?

Day 305: After being on my feet on asphalt for nine hours straight conducting visitor surveys (demographics) from a script with temperatures approaching the 90° mark and a combination of deerflies and blackflies vying for position on any exposed skin, I arrived home hot, tired, sticky, footweary and stinking of bug spray to find a box sitting on my front step. It was not an unexpected box, but I had no idea what it might contain. I opened it up after a cool shower, and in a somewhat better mood, I laughed when I saw a moose inside. It was a gift from one of my sisters-of-the-heart, and couldn't have arrived at a better moment, just the thing I needed to remind me that I too have been a "visitor" and probably asked my fair share of stupid questions if, perhaps, not about moose.

Today's best was one I've heard before: "Is this the road to the summit?" It is one of the classics of rangering at Mount Rainier, right up there with "When do the deer turn into elk?"

Thank you, Patty, for breaking the tension of the day. Moose joins the ranks of my favorite stuffies, and will always make me smile.