Chapter 24

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

It was getting along toward dark when Al, Karin, Preach, and Crystal showed up in a rental car following their flight from Phoenix to Camden, changing planes in Minneapolis-St. Paul. It was indeed a lot less spectacular arrival than two years before, and they were rather more travel weary as a result.

"Hey, everyone," Randy said as he greeted them at the front door. "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to be here," Al grumped. "I find myself less and less enthused about airline travel every time I get on a plane. As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to travel it's hard to beat a raft."

"Your feet don't get as wet on an airliner, at least most of the time," Randy shot back. "But that's about all I'll give the damn things. I take that to mean that things didn't exactly go as smoothly and quickly as they did the last time you flew into Spearfish Lake."

"Boy, you got that right," Crystal replied about as grumpily as Al. "Oh, well, only one more flight to go and then that'll be the last one for a while."

"Well, come on in, take a load off," Randy smiled. "I can guarantee you comfortable seating, plenty of elbow room, good companions, and a meal you don't have to pay for that tastes good."

"Beats an airliner any way you look at it," Karin said as she headed on inside.

"Well, Randy," Preach said as he headed inside, the last to come in before Randy closed the door behind them, "Crystal was right. She said you had quite a house, and this is quite a house."

"It'll do," Randy shrugged. "It doesn't have the view of the average sandbar on the Colorado, but there are fewer rocks to trip over."

Myleigh, Trey, and Nicole were waiting right inside the entrance for them. There was a round of greetings and hugs for the next couple minutes as the new arrivals took off their coats, and Nicole went to hang them up. They headed for the living room and found seats. It was cozy there, with a warm fire in the fireplace and the huge tree setting the atmosphere. "Good to see you all here," Al said. "I half expected Duane and Michelle to be here, too."

"No, they went to do the Christmas thing with Duane's dad down in Southern Michigan somewhere," Randy replied. "They're supposed to be back tonight or tomorrow, I guess."

"Well, no big deal," Al shrugged. "I'd hoped to have a few minutes to sit down with them but this wouldn't be the right few minutes anyway. So, how have you been?"

"About the same," Randy shrugged. "Busy. We had a big job just come up for next summer that I wasn't expecting, so it's going to be a rush to get ready."

"That's why you bailed out of going to Buddha's, right?" Al asked. "I'm sorry that had to happen, Randy. I'd been looking forward to kicking back and telling a few stories."

"Yeah, well, shit happens. I guess I've gotten used to it, and I might as well because it's always going to be that way."

"Does that mean you're going to dump the Bahamas trip, too?" Crystal asked.

"No, that's still on, at least for now," Randy said.

"So, Crystal," Myleigh piped up. "I am most curious as to how married life is treating you. The opportunities to change my mind are dwindling."

"Oh, pretty decent," Crystal replied noncommittally. "Telling Canyon stories in church basements all over the southeast is not exactly what I envisioned for a honeymoon back when we were in college, but it's been pretty much all right. Given a choice, I think I'd rather have done something like Scooter and Jim."

"Yeah, what do you hear from them anyway?" Randy asked. "We haven't heard much."

"Apparently they had a good surfing trip down on Baja somewhere," Al reported. "At least until Dave got hammered by a wave and wrenched his back. He's getting better, so they're going to go do Baja phase two for a few days, and then drive to Florida for the sailing trip."

"They're not going to be at Buddha and Giselle's either?" Nicole wondered.

"I guess not, and I don't blame them," Crystal replied. "I mean, if the surfing choice is between Buddha's and Baja, I'd have a tough time making the call, too."

"Right," Al agreed. "It's not going to be as big a deal as it once was. I mean, if it weren't for the fact that Buddha is an old buddy I'd be half tempted to head down there with them. Karin and I might still do it after we get back from Florida."

"Still catching up, Karin?"

"I'll never catch up," Crystal's mother replied. Her previous marriage had been distinctly without thrills and adventure, and now she had a reputation for trying to make up for lost time. "That doesn't mean I'm going to quit trying, though."

"So, Myleigh," Crystal asked, "Are you getting all ready for the big day?"

"Oh, my!" Myleigh grinned. "We do have that on the schedule, don't we Trey? We've been so busy working on the next album with Blake and Jennifer along with arrangements for our new house that it almost slipped my mind. Do you think we'll still be able to work it in?"

Trey caught the drift. "Yeah, I think we can if we don't bother changing clothes next Saturday, but as soon as it's over with we'll have to get right back to stripping paint off the banister."

"Oh, wow," Crystal shook her head. "You guys sound like you have it bad already."

"Oh, not that bad, I dare say," Myleigh smiled. "However I confess that the last week has been quite busy, between recording preparations and domestic arrangements. In all honesty, Crystal, I had not quite anticipated all the details that needed to be attended to, but Randy and Nicole have been quite helpful in easing the load."

"Are we going to be able to see this house?"

"It shouldn't be any problem," Trey said. "It's empty and cold right now, and kind of a mess. It's just a house, not a spectacular showpiece like this one. But I feel certain we ought to be able to make it fairly comfortable. Come and see it a year from now and it'll look a lot different."

"We'll have to do it," Crystal said. "At this point we don't have any plans for next winter, but that could change. It's too far in the future to make plans for something like that anyway, but we ought to be able to make it up here sometime."

"You're always welcome," Nicole smiled. "If I might break into the catching up, Myleigh and I have thrown together a little dinner. I don't know how hungry anyone is, so it's all buffet stuff, all you can eat style. We figured that would slow the reminiscing down as little as possible. It'll just take us a couple minutes to set it up."

"Food sounds like a real good idea," Crystal said. "We figured you guys would do something like that. We had a burger at Minneapolis-St. Paul that cost too much and didn't do anything about filling me up."

"Ah, yes, you still do pack it away, don't you Crystal?" Myleigh giggled. "I might suggest that you proceed with your ablutions whilst Nicole and I prepare the repast."

"Huh?" Preach frowned.

"You haven't gotten used to Myleigh have you, Hon?" Crystal giggled. "She told us to go wash our hands."

It was a pretty decent buffet, reminiscent of Canyon Tours river trips. It really hadn't taken Nicole and Myleigh much work; most of it only had to be pulled from the refrigerator, and a couple items microwaved. Since it had been unclear when the four from Flagstaff would arrive, the hot items were mostly things that could simmer for hours, like a tasty beef stew. They wound up eating Canyon Tours style in the living room, dishes in their laps or whatever while the conversation went on.

As they ate, they got Crystal and Preach to talking about the church tour. In one sense of the word, it had gone pretty well – they'd had good participation at most of the places they'd gone to, and collections had been taken up for them at enough places that it covered the cost of the tour, and then some, but not by much. After a few presentations, it had all become pretty routine, with Crystal or Preach giving the presentation of a slide show that had been loaded on a CD and shown through a laptop and aprojector. Crystal generally took the part about the Canyon, the scenery, and the adventure, while Preach made a little talk about the spiritual side of things, which was to be expected in a church tour, of course. They took questions – pretty much the same questions over and over again – and tried to be personable. In general it was well received, but it had been designed for a particular audience. A few issues had been skirted, like the age of the rocks in the canyon; there was no point in setting off undesired arguments with pinheaded doctrinaires, even Preach didn't like to get involved with arguing with them.

That was pretty much the good side. The bad side was that they were on the road all the time, traveling to a different place every day and not always short trips at that. Often they were invited to stay with a church family, and of course they did, even though it obviously cut into newlywed intimacy. Fortunately, the tour was pretty much over with; they still had the Atlanta show for Canyon Tours and a few odd church dates between the surfing at Buddha's and the second half of the Bahamas trip, so they weren't going to lack for anything to do.

"All in all, I wish I hadn't agreed to do it, at least in this time frame," Preach summed up. "But then, I didn't know we were going to be getting married when I agreed to it, either. I think we've generated some interest in the Canyon, and there have been people asking about taking trips, especially the special trips we've been talking about, so we're probably doing some good with it. I don't think the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the best time to be doing this sort of thing, and I think that we'll want to do it later in the winter next time, if we do it at all."

"Special trips?" Randy asked.

"We're talking about doing a couple of Team 2's regular trips as special church trips next season," Al explained. "Pretty much the normal trip, but with a more spiritual background, to take advantage of Preach's qualifications. We're getting some takers, and they're clearly a result of what Preach and Crystal have been doing. If it works out well, we may continue to do it, but there's no way of telling until we find out."

"Makes sense when you talk about it like that," Randy said. "I mean, doing a special interest trip like that."

"Special interest trips of one kind or another have been done for years, everything from naturalist to nudist," Al said. "I've never had a lot to do with them, but you do what you can to have full rafts when you leave Lee's Ferry."

"From what you've said, your church excursion doesn't seem to be what I had anticipated it being," Myleigh observed. "I confess I had a rather more evangelistic vision of what you were doing."

"Oh, there has to be some of that," Preach told her. "But it's more low key than I think you were imagining. It's more about living among the glory of God's wonders."

"Well, it certainly is glorious," Myleigh said. "I confess to a bit of a spiritual experience there myself, but you know about that. One of Randy's friends was very instrumental in allowing me to put it in perspective. They were here for dinner the other night and the discussion with them was most interesting."

"Who's this?" Crystal asked.

"Debbie Elkstalker and Danny Evachevski," Randy explained. "I don't think you've met them. He runs the appliance store here in town and wound up selling Myleigh and Trey a bunch of stuff. She's a Native American, a Shakahatche from up at Three Pines. She can get a little mystical; she's what the tribe calls a katara, which translates to shaman among a bunch of other things. Myleigh's right, she can be very interesting and a little magical. She helped Nicole and I get a few things straightened out between us, too."

"She's pretty cool," Trey said. "You'll meet her; she and Danny are coming to the wedding. Danny is Jennifer's younger brother, and we're going to have the wedding at Jennifer's house."

"That reminds me," Preach said, "You've never said anything about whether or not you were expecting me to do the wedding."

"No, the mayor is going to do it," Trey said. "That was set up even before we knew about you guys getting married. She's pretty cool too. We had dinner with her and her husband the other night."