~Singing~

Singing is something that I have loved for as long as I can remember. From cute little children songs when I was a child to hymns and country songs and my favorite church songs as a teen. My days were filled with singing.

I looked forward to every other Sunday evening when the youth would gather at someone's house to spend two hours singing German hymns. It was great being able to sit and sing to your hearts content. As much as I loved singing the best part of the evening was the ride to and from the singing with LV.

For once I was glad that I didn't have an older brother otherwise I would not have been allowed to ride with LV. We both knew once John was old enough to join the youth our Sunday night drives would be over and determined to enjoy every minute of them until then.

The area we lived in had a lot of roads that provided short cuts to get from one Amish family to the next but we weren't about to use them. Instead we would choose the route that would take the longest and let the horse, Ridge walk slowly the whole time. We would often sing as we slowly made our way home.

One evening the singing was three miles away and we were looking forward to our ride home. We had already planned to take Arnold road which would add an additional mile and a half to our ride. However soon after the singing started LV's brother and family arrived and we knew they would see us turn off.

We left right after the singing was over and discussed what we were supposed to do since not only didn't we want to turn down that road if they saw us we wouldn't be able to let Ridge walk all the way home. We decided to let Ridge run like he used to and turn off at Camp Albryoca turn off our buggy lights and wait for his brother to pass and then take Arnold Road.

Urging Ridge to run a little faster we were happy to have no buggies in sight as we ducked into the camp and turned off the lights. I hardly dared to breathe as we waited quietly for his brother to pass. A little later they passed and we watched them disappear over the distant hill and turned on the lights and resumed our ride home.

Our little stay at Camp Albryoca would remain a secret......... until now.