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It was nice to learn more about Chance, but I wanted to understand why Uncle Harry wanted us to get better acquainted. I still didn't understand why it would matter to him. The downside of getting to know Chance better was that he was becoming more appealing. That only made sharing a tent more awkward.
We went through our now familiar routine and enjoyed another dinner of MRE's. As we sat by the fire, I asked, "I just realized this is night three of our trip. Will we start back tomorrow, or are we taking a circular route?"
"If we get an early start tomorrow and don't run into any problems, we'll hit the last waypoint Harry included in the itinerary."
"Is there something special there?"
"I guess we'll find out," he said. "Once we start back, setting up camp becomes your chore. That way I can see what you've learned."
"I guess that's fair," I said.
As was our habit, I crawled into the tent and changed into my yoga pants because they were more comfortable to sleep in. I took off my fleece and snuggled into my sleeping bag. "I'm tucked in," I called to Chance.
He crawled in and went through his normal nightly routine, saying good night before turning off the lights.
I don't know how long I'd been asleep before Chance, touched my cheek. "Everly, wake up. It's raining. We need to move the tent."
It took a minute for me to wake enough to realize that the noise I was hearing was rain on the tent. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"There's a storm. We need to move the tent under the trees."
"Is that a good idea? Can't we just stay put and wait it out?"
"We can, but it's already rained quite a bit. I'd rather get us to higher ground. Dig out your rain gear and put it on. We can pick up the tent and move it with everything in it."
I really wasn't awake, and my brain definitely wasn't engaged. I decided it was easiest just to do whatever Chance said. I watched him pull on his rain gear. I dug mine out of a pocket on my backpack and put it on.
"I'll go out first and find a new spot for the tent," he said. "You stay put. Don't worry if the tent moves in the wind. It won't blow away with you and all our gear inside. You'll be able to see my flashlight. I'm not going far."
I must have looked concerned because Chance gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze as he crawled out of the tent. The only thing I was concerned about was getting back to sleep, but I sat on my sleeping bag and laced up my hiking boots as I watch the beam from Chance's flashlight bounce off the tent.
I had almost fallen back to sleep when Chance called from outside the tent, "I found a spot. It's not far."
The two of us managed to maneuver the tent in between the trees and secure it under the boughs of a big pine. Even with our rain gear we still got wet. I wasn't all that upset at the idea of a natural shower. After all it had been a few days since I could do more than wipe my body clean with a wet wipe.
"The trick is getting back inside without getting the sleeping bags wet," he said as we stood next to the tent flap. He pulled out a net bag. "When I get the flap open, you strip off your rain gear out here and hand it to me. I'll stuff it in the net bag along with my gear and tie it to the tree."
I did as he instructed and scrambled into the tent setting my muddy boots just inside the flap. I cleared a space for Chance's boots and pulled a towel from my pack. I pulled Chance's towel out and had it ready for him when he came in. His hair was even wetter than mine, but it wasn't cold, so we didn't need to worry about it. We both dried off as much as we could. "It does seem cozier here," I said. "Does the rain mean that our fire will be out in the morning?"
"Probably, but we've got plenty of matches, so it shouldn't matter much. We should try to get back to sleep," he said, crawling back into his bag. I could already hear him snoring as I did the same.