Picking back up right where we left off
I can’t actually remember saying goodbye to Grit and Manu the last time we were together, nearly 11 years ago. And I hardly can even remember the climbing trip. Paul and I were in the blur of new-parent mode then, with 2 year old Silas and 5 week old Ivan. Grit and Manu meanwhile were on a thrilling whirlwind tour of the United States, their dashingly gorgeous foreign selves climbing up as much American rock as possible. While the new parent thing certainly tends to smudge one’s memory, I like to think that I mainly don’t remember much of that last trip with them because I didn’t consider it a precursor to a long goodbye at the time. Despite Grit and Manu living in Germany and us in the US, we had crammed in all kinds of climbing adventures together between 2005 and 2012, both stateside and in Europe.
Life happens though and somehow a year without a Grit and Manu climbing adventure turned into a decade. We of course stayed in touch along the way though, the correspondence typically prompted by the birth of a new baby, beers at the end of a stellar climbing day, or a good Dr. Dre or Snoop Dogg song on the radio (the highlights of life that warrant a quick “thinking of you!” hello). The passing of time never once stressed me out. I was content knowing that when the time was right to get another trip on the agenda, it would present itself. And we would all pick back up right where we left off. This I truly believed, because that’s just how it is with the bestest of friends.
Well that time did in fact present itself. And what I’m about to share is 100% true in every detail. It started with me waking up early one sunny desert morning last April in our van outside of Joshua Tree with a dream that I just had to share with Grit and Manu immediately. My email to them was exactly this:
——
“Hey guys!
So last night we camped in the desert outside of Joshua Tree, on our way to Yosemite. (The kids have the week off from school, spring break). And I had a dream about you both! I don’t know where we were or what we were doing specifically, but both of you were visiting us here in the States for one day and one day only. We were talking about how crappy it was to only get one day together after not seeing each other for so long. And Manu was hell bent on getting Paul and I to ditch work and come travel with him for one month. There were no kids in the dream. But Snoop Dogg was there. Ha!
Clearly missing you,
April”
——
And Grit’s response not one hour later was this:
——
“This, your dream, your email this morning, is almost impossible!!!! Because last night we were sitting at the campfire with our friends in Frankenjura and we were telling them about you. We also talked about JTree and how beautiful it is over there and how badly we want to go back. We have four days off from work and from kids (they also have spring break and they are currently staying with their grandparents). On our way in the car Manu and I were listening to DRE 2001 including lots of Snoop as you know by heart. We did not listen to this album for maybe 7 years or so. We are often thinking about you, but all these little coincidences are almost scary.”
——
True story. I kid you not. And so the deal was sealed on Spring 2023 travel arrangements to the Fontainebleau boulders in France for us all. Weird coincidence continued, both our American kids and their Swiss kids had the same week off from school for spring break. True story. I kid you not.
The trip now over with many big huge squeezy hugs goodbye that I most certainly will not forget this time, I sit here with a beaming smile on my face with every thought of this wonderful week with Grit, Manu, Rio and Rosa. Total bonus was also getting to see Grit’s sister Anke for a quick hello, and meeting her new-to-us beautiful family as well. No great trip is complete of course without some epic adventure sprinkled throughout – this one including the panic of receiving our passports only 4 days prior to departure, the short bout of food poisoning for Paul at the beginning of the trip and me nearer the end of the trip, and almost running out of gas on the way to the airport in what appeared to be the French ghetto. Epic sprinkles aside, the bouldering was absolutely amazing – I mean, it’s “Font” after all (or “Bleau” as the Euros refer to it). For sure through for all of us, the bouldering was hands-down secondary to the time spent with dear friends, picking back up right where we left off.
posted by ARR
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on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Bouldering, Fontainebleau-France.
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