The Great Wall of China! I can’t believe I actually completed the journey that Dave and I planned to do together. Of course, his idea of traveling in China included trekking through the country and maybe staying awhile to teach English. I said (tongue in cheek with a heavy sigh) “Sure Dave, that’s a great idea. If something happened to you, I’d never know it. Why not settle on just traveling there first.” I told Dave that he was the reason I had most of my gray hair! “Ya gotta live, Ma. Ya gotta experience stuff.”
So, I went to China, but forging ahead alone in such a foreign country was not in the cards for me. Sorry, Dave, but I had to take a tour for this one.
In my journal, I wrote, “As we neared the entrance to The Wall, I felt the emotions get the best of me–like when we approached Mt. McKinley. Dave was supposed to make these trips and it just really hurts that I am seeing these spectacular places and it should be Dave; not me. He’s the one who had such plans to travel the world. I know he looked forward to this trip because he mentioned it to his friends and even, Jess, his buddy on the Survival Course. I sure hope he was sitting on my shoulder!”
It wasn’t easy to climb The Wall. I huffed and puffed as I climbed the steep steps (and this was the “Easy Route!) Part of the problem is that the steps differ in height so it throws off your cadence whether you’re going up or down.
There were other beautiful places in China where I sprinkled Dave’s ashes, but The Great Wall was the most special.
It was something we planned to do together.
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