Heidi Strock..... where do I begin? I met Heidi at a paper shack. I ran a paper route when I was in Junior High, and she did as well. We happened to share the same shack and ran in to each other one morning. We hit it off and from that point on we were great friends! We were known to our classmates throughout the rest of Junior High and High School as "The Paper Girls". I could go on and on and on listing every memory I have with Heidi, but that would take forever. I will tell you about a couple of my favorites!
When we were in Junior High we decided we were bored after school and joined the track team. Neither one of us took it seriously. One day they scheduled an "off campus" run. The run was about 2 miles and went down a hill kinda close to the school. We were going to run to the end, then turn around a run back. Halfway through the run we passed by a lake. Heidi and I lagged to the end of the group and took a detour to the lake. We figured we had time for a quick dip before the group got to the end of the road and turned around to come back. There were SO many kids we figured no one would notice we were missing. After jumping into the lake (fully clothed), we got out and hid in the trees and waited for them to run by. We snuck out of the trees and joined the group at the end of the pack. I guess we forgot that we would be totally drenched. It didn't pass off as sweat and we got kicked off the team.
In High School we thought it sounded like fun to join the King County Search and Rescue Squad. The retreat-training was a 3 day course in the mountains in Monroe. We had a list of all the items we needed, like a zero degree sleeping bag (this was winter time), little gas stove, camping pots and pans, tent, warm clothing, a compass, flashlights, rope... the list goes on. We got everything set and we were really excited!!!
We made it through the first day great! That first night it snowed and it was SO cold!! We had a pretty miserable night trying to stay warm. The next day there was a test... we had to find something using latitude-longitude grid map or something. They had us split up into pairs. They gave us a map and Heidi and I went off to find whatever it was we were searching for. We ended up running out of time so we failed!! We were told we had to go home and try again another weekend. After suffering through that freezing night, we failed??!?
Well, we decided that we couldn't go home because our parents were not expecting us back home until the next day. We wanted to take advantage of the freedom! We knew we couldn't go to Redmond because someone might see Heidi's car and tell on us. SO, we were stuck in Monroe. This total cow town with one grocery store! Once we made it off the mountain we ended up in the Safeway parking lot. We were hungry and had no money, BUT we did have our canned soups and camping stove! We couldn't figure out where to set up our stove without looking ridiculous, so we did just that.....TRY to look ridiculous. We grabbed a couple blankets and set up our stove behind the bench right by the front door outside Safeway. We were trying to look homeless. We had the blankets draped over our heads and we were wrapped up in them. We thought maybe people would feel bad for us and throw money at us or something. Well here we were.... cooking canned soup by fire outside a grocery store. We got some pretty crazy looks! We were laughing so hard, I think it was probably pretty obvious to people that we were trying to be weird.
After we got done eating out of our tin bowls, we wanted to drive around and find something to do.
We saw a sign for "Hot Springs". We thought that sounded like fun, seeing that it was snowing and freezing outside! We followed the signs and ended up in the woods. There were some cars parked next to a tiny trail. We parked and followed the trail. It took us forever to get there! There were parts of the trail that were so steep, they had ropes tied to roots to hold on to. Once we made it to the top it was beautiful!!! The sun was just starting to set. There were 4 natural hot spring pools with wood decking... it was amazing! It was so cold that the pools were steaming like crazy. We didn't have our suits so we took off our clothes (except our underwear and hopped in. I swear to this day, I have never seen anything so beautiful. We were so high up, looking over the valley. It was snowing hard and all the trees were covered in snow.
The next thing we know, we turn around and this old man came walking down the stairs... he was completely naked! Then.... they kept coming. Before we knew it we were completely surrounded by naked people. Neither one of us wanted to get out because we had nothing but our underwear on and were 17 years old! We later found out that these people were members of a club of some sort and this big group got together here one night a week and basked in their granola-ness.... is that a word?
Well.... I'm not sure how, but a couple hours later when it got dark we ended up in the biggest pool on top, shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of old naked people. We were having a great time!! There was a guy standing up in the pool at a BBQ, BBQing for everyone! vWe were all laughing and they really liked Heidi and I. I guess they were not used to having people as young as us around. We ended up driving back to Redmond that night and falling asleep in Heidi's car in an elementary school parking lot.
I have SO many memories like this with Heidi. She was so much fun! She is one of those people that would make instant friends with everyone she met. She was so happy! She had such a free spirit. I have always looked up to Heidi. She has always been someone I wish I could be more like. I will miss her so much.
I love you Heidi!
And now.... a trip down memory lane!
