Adventures in Backpacking!
Adventures in Backpacking!



by Van © 2024

Chapter 9


Dramatis Personæ



OUR STORY CONTINUES


During a break from smooching and snuggling and grinding their rope-bound bodies against each other, Sky-Fi solemnly agreed that from now on they would refer to their current activity as "snogging."  They were both big Harry Potter fans and thought The Half-Blood Prince was one of the best movies in the franchise.  Also, Emma Watson was really cute in the famous "Butterbeer Scene," the first time they'd heard that particular example of contemporary British slang.  And just to be clear, by snogging they were referring to kissing, tongue wrestling, and general groping and skin-on-skin contact, without necessarily being box-tied and/or lashed together.  In future they intended to fully explore all aspects of snogging and The Evil Lorelei and her gym-bag full of hemp rope wouldn't be available once they were back at school... and locating a suitable Lorelei substitute would be a decidedly iffy thing.  It was best to exclude all bondage aspects from the definition.

That would all be in the future.  Back in the present in the darkened bedroom, lashed together from ankles to shoulders (including their big toes being tied together and their fingers and hands flipperized  in cocoons of silver duct-tape)... eventually the captives exhausted themselves and drifted off to sleep.  (In their defense, it had been an eventful day.)

~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~ zzzzzzz ~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

Sky snapped awake to find it was morning... and somebody was untying the ropes binding her to her girlfriend!  She blinked her green eyes and realized the somebody in question was actually two somebodies, specifically, The Evil Lorelei and The Beautiful Tama.  The fully dressed duo were making quick work of untying, unhitching, and uncinching the lattice of twisted hemp.  This Sky considered to be entirely understandable as they were the Despicable Duo who had tied Sky and Fiona together in the first place.

"Mornin' Little Red," Lorelei said with a grin as she untied Sky's big toes... followed by her ankles.

"Bite me," Sky replied in return greeting, then heaved a huge and involuntary yawn.

Tama was busy untying Fiona.  "Good morning," she wished Sky's girlfriend.  "You too, Skylar."

"Uh... mornin'," Fi muttered back.

"Mornin'," Sky huffed.  Tama wasn't off the hook for being Lorelei's partner in crime, but she was beautiful.  Why not be polite?

Soon, Sky-Fi's rope bonds were reduced to box-ties only and they were sitting side-by-side on Fiona's bed amidst the untied tangle of the rest of their former hemp bonds.  The bandana that had been Sky's former cleave-gag (with panties stuffing) had worked its way completely loose at some point during the nocturnal snogging and subsequent slumber and was no longer around her neck.  So... except for their aforementioned box-ties of thin, brown, conditioned hemp rope and the silver-gray cocoons of duct-tape flipperizing their fingers and hands,
Sky and Fiona were completely naked.

"Untie us," Sky demanded.

"We did untie ya," Lorelei chuckled.

Sky rolled her green eyes.  "Untie us completely, you ditzy blonde!"

"Hey!" Fiona scolded her girlfriend, clearly not appreciating Sky's use of the scathing "dizzy blonde" remark, even if it wasn't directed at her and Lorelei undeniably was a ditzy blonde.  That said, Fi was solidly in favor of being untied, so she batted her blue eyes at Lorelei and Tama, weakly (and seductively) squirmed in her box-tie-bonds, and make every effort to dial her cuteness factor up to eleven.

Lorelei and Tama exchanged an amused look, then simultaneously announced their joint decision.  "No."  They then lifted Sky and Fiona to their bare feet (and bare everything else except for their fingers and hands) and led them from the bedroom.  Lorelei had charge of the ginger half of Sky-Fi and Tama the flaxen-haired half.

"Ditzy blonde!" Sky reiterated under her breath.

"Quiet, Little Red," Lorelei purred in Sky's right ear, "or we'll go back for yer bandana an' panties."

"Bite me," Sky replied.  Apparently it was her go-to comeback for the morning... that and "ditzy blonde."

Fiona didn't have to be threatened with a gag to keep her from making unkind remarks.  Tama might be her handler at the moment, but the Native American maiden was nice... and she was beautiful.

Tama and Fiona disappeared into the bathroom Sky and Lorelei had been using ever since arriving at The Hermitage, but Lorelei continued dragging (okay, leading) Sky down the hallway.  She rapped on the door of Auntie Kelly's Master Bedroom (Mistress Bedroom?) and immediately opened it without waiting for permission.

Inside the spacious suite... Jacy was fully dressed in the same boots, jeans, and the pretty Western shirt she'd worn yesterday and was in the process of releasing Auntie Kelly from her brown-leather-with-gunmetal-hardware-full-body-harness.  Kelly's gag and bondage-mitts had already been removed and she was over 95% naked and rapidly approaching total nudity.

"Mind if we use the bathroom?" Lorelei inquired.  "Tama and Cheeks are in the other one."

"By all means," Jacy smiled as she made a graceful gesture towards the closed door of the suite's attached bath.

"Yes, by all means," Kelly growled, staring daggers at her smiling and rebellious employee.

"Thanks!" Lorelei chirped, then dragged (led) Sky into the bathroom in question.

The Master Bath matched the decor of rest of the suite and was equally spacious and well appointed, including a Japanese-style wooden soaking tub that probably included Jacuzzi-style whirlpool jets.

Lorelei plunked Sky's butt on the commode so she could do her morning business... then dragged her to the washbasin and used Auntie Kelly's toothbrush to inflict dental hygiene on the grumpy box-tied prisoner.  What an outrage!  Next, she used a washcloth to give Sky a prolonged and comprehensive sponge bath... including her pouting face, breasts, stomach, crotch, thighs, and the rest of her.  That was even more of an outrage!  Apparently, Lori didn't mind getting Sky's box-tie bonds damp but drew the line at putting Sky under the shower and getting the hemp strands completely saturated.

Finally, mission accomplished and Sky ready to face the day (naked, bound, and disgruntled), they returned to the main suite to find Jacy smiling at them with her arms folded under her breasts.  The bed was neatly made and Kelly was dressed in sandals, very short cut-off jeans ("Daisy Dukes"), and an unbuttoned Western workshirt with its sleeves rolled up and front tails tied together in front.  Very casual, Sky thought, and very pretty... even on a 40-something but very fit old lady.

Auntie Kelly was smiling brightly, apparently completely over her mistreatment of the day before as an involuntary test subject.  Also, she kept smiling at Jacy... and Jacy kept smiling back... covertly... sort of.  Goo-goo eyes, Sky silently noted.  They're making goo-goo eyes.  Obviously the master suite's gigantic bed had been the scene of snogging (and who knew what other forms of debauchery) during the night.  A delicate shiver rippled through Sky's body.  Old-people-hanky-panky!  Yuk!

Without any further ado, Kelly, Jacy, and Lorelei led Sky from the bedroom and out into the hallway... where Fiona and Tama were just emerging from the other bathroom.  Then, the festivities moved to the kitchen for a full breakfast of tiny little smoky sausages, crispy bacon, custard-toast with maple syrup, and, of course, hot coffee.  (Custard-toast is like French toast only instead of just being dipped the bread slices were allowed to soak in the beaten eggs until they become completely saturated.  Sky thought they were really yummy!)

Everybody had a lot of fun playing "feed the baby birds" (Sky and Fiona).  This set the stage for Sky to make a Big Show of pouting and grumbling and doing everything she could to make it crystal clear that she was profoundly dissatisfied with being naked, tied up, and unable to feed herself.

Nobody was fooled, of course, not even Fiona... who was in the exact same predicament.

Once the food was consumed Kelly urged everybody who wasn't naked and bound to hurry with the cleanup.  The Bird Sisters had to hit the road and those remaining behind had "things to do!"

Sky and Fiona exchanged a slightly worried look.  Neither believed that among the "things" Auntie Kelly had in mind was untying her young guests so they could get dressed.

They were right.

Grumpy Sky and Sweet Fiona were led into The Great Room and the two ladder-chairs The Bird Sisters had delivered with the coffee-table/bondage-box were moved away from the wall.  Then, Sky-Fi's bare butts were plunked down on the chairs' unpadded wooden seats, thin hemp rope was produced from one of Lorelei's ubiquitous collection of gym-bags crammed full of bondage goodies and was used to lash the girlfriends in place!

The permanent residents of The Hermitage and The Bird Sisters made a thorough job of it.  More ropes were added, the girls' box-ties were untied and retied, and at no point in the process were they free enough to mount any sort of credible resistance.  The final result was Sky and Fiona tied in their respective chairs with their legs splayed—their ankles lashed to the lower chair legs—knees and lower thighs lashed to the outer edges of the chair seats—and arms (and still flipperized fingers and hands) folded behind the chair-backs and tightly tied with doubled strands passing above and below their breasts, around their waists, and yoking their shoulders.  All their bonds were expertly positioned, interlaced through the chair-back's rungs, and cinched tight!  They could barely squirm.

Sky pouted in simmering silence.  It was manifestly obvious that she was not happy, but she kept her scathing and fully justified scornful remarks to herself.

Fiona was also keeping her silence... as well as continuously blinking her pretty blue eyes in distress.

Rigging tasks complete, everybody not chair-bound stepped back, smiled, and proudly admired their handiwork.  They all agreed the chair-bound girlfriends were absolutely adorable!

Sky glowered at the surrounding villainesses... then finally decided enough was enough.  "Bite me," she growled.  (This morning, for some reason, Sky was having an unusually difficult time coming up with non-cliché pithy putdowns.)

Everybody laughed anyway, including Fiona, although the naked and stringently bound blonde's laugh was more of a giggle.

Sky redirected her angry stare to her girlfriend, who serenely smiled back in response and shrugged as best her tight and elaborate bonds would allow.

"Well," Kelly said.  "Let's get on with it."

Jacy and Tama grinned and together with Auntie Kelly immediately pounced on Lorelei!

"Hey!  Hands off!  What do ya think yer doin'?  No!"

Lorelei continued complaining as her boss and The Bird Sisters methodically and systematically relieved her of her clothing, tied her crossed hands behind her beck, then...  "No!  Stop it ya bleedin' bunch'a—MRRRM!"  Lorelei had been silenced by Tama with a tight hand-gag!

Then, everyone watched as Kelly, with a broad smile, unzipped an end pocket of the now naked Aussie captive's gym-bag, produced one of her own signature brown-leather-and black-silicon-rubber-with-gunmetal-steel-hardware-ball-gags, and "installed" it in Lorelei's reluctant mouth.

"Mrrrf!—No!—"Mrrrrrfff!"

Everybody continued watching as Auntie Kelly pulled a barrel-key from her cut-off-jeans pocket, used it to unlock all of the slats of the coffee-table, lifted and folded them all back, then lifted the upper halves of the stock-partitions from the box!  In other words, she prepared the bondage box for immediate use!

Sky and Lorelei exchanged smiles.

"More testing," Fiona suggested quietly.

Sky nodded in agreement.  "Obvi."

And then—"MRRRMFH!"—Lorelei was installed inside the box!

Auntie Kelly and The Bird Sisters were up to the task, especially since Jacy and Tama had had recent experience manhandling Kelly into their creation.  All too soon, Lorelei was lying on her back in the box, her ankles trapped in the lowest set of stocks, her knees in the next set, then her wrists and waist, and finally her neck.  Next, even though The Bird Sisters had to hit the road, there was an obligatory pause/interlude so everybody not naked, gagged, and trapped inside the box could indulge in a little light gloating.

From their positions Sky and Fiona didn't have ideal views of Lorelei's nude captivity, but Auntie Kelly and The Bird Sisters were "nice" enough to lift their chairs and carry them closer.

"Thank you," Fiona said politely.

"Bite me," Sky muttered once again.  (Apparently she was still finding snappy banter to be challenging.)  Anyway...

"Mrrrmmmf!"  Loreli squirmed and wiggled her trapped body, pointed her toes and twisted her trapped feet, flailed in the air with her useless fingers, and made a general and highly entertaining show of being helpless.  Rhythmic rolling breast oscillations happened!

Seconds turned into a minute.  "Mrrrfh!"  Then two.  "Nrrrm!"  Finally, Auntie closed the remaining slats, one-by-one, starting at the bottom and ending with the slat with the eight-by-eight wooden window grill over Lorelei's ball-gagged face.

Sky-Fi could still follow the action, but now almost all of Lorelei's tan, fit, curvaceous form (including her tits) was enclosed and hidden from view... which was entirely the point of the exercise.

"Mrrrrrrmpfh!"

Sky strongly suspected Lorelei was not happy,  She glanced at her girlfriend and confirmed that Fiona was in full agreement.  Both chair-bound naked captives were smiling.  They couldn't help it.  If anybody deserved to be incarcerated in Auntie Kelly's new coffee-table it was The Evil Lorelei.  Then, they watched as Kelly unzipped the Gym-bag's other end pocket, pulled out a wide roll of off-white medical tape and a shiny pair of bandage scissors, stripped and snipped two six-to-seven-inch strips from the roll, handed the first to Jacy, and the second to Tama.

The Bird Sisters smiled, leaned close (with the strips of tape ominously held in their hands) and said their goodbyes to Sky and Fiona.

Auntie Kelly smiled and watched.

Lorelei was busy inside the box, still doing her futile best to escape.  "Mrrrmpfh!"

Sky's facade of grumpiness dissolved as the beautiful raven-haired maidens took turns kissing her lips and exchanging warm sentiments... both of them... both beautiful sisters... one at a time.

Fiona put her wide-eyed terror (okay, mild apprehension) on hold, became her usual sweet, girlie-girl self, and "allowed" herself to be kissed and bade farewell, just like her girlfriend.

Then, still smiling, The Bird Sisters proceeded to stretch the strips of tape still in their hands and plaster them over Sky-Fi's mouths!

Fiona's pretty blue eyes were once again wide as Tama's fingers smoothed the tape now tightly adhered to her lips and lower face.

Meanwhile, Jacy smoothed Sky's tape-gag'  The ginger's inner Courageous Tomboy reasserted herself, and the naked ginger glowered at all present (except for Poor Fiona and The Evil and Boxed Lorelei). At least there's no stuffing, she conceded, panties or otherwise.

Next, Auntie Kelly explained to her naked, chair-tied, and now tape-gagged young guests that once she'd finished brewing a thermos of hot coffee for The Bird Sisters and they were safely on their way, she'd be busy taking care of the horses and letting them into the pasture for the day so they could do horsey things.  After that... she planned on catching up on her writing.  Sky and Fiona should continue testing the new chairs and Lorelei the new coffee-table/bondage-box (even though Kelly herself had personally tested it yesterday).

Next, all smiles and waves, Kelly, Jacy, and Tama exited The Great Room for The Kitchen, abandoning the test subjects to their naked, bound, and gagged duties.

Sky and Fiona exchanged sad and/or tragic tape-gagged frowns, heaved simultaneous tape-gagged sighs, and settled in to languish.  (As if they had any choice.)

Inside the box—"Mrrrfh!"—Lorelei continued squirming and fighting the implacable wooden stocks.  As when Kelly had been the one doing the testing, the partitions didn't rattle and the entire coffee-table/bondage-box remained absolutely still.  Except for when Lorelei executed one of her periodic ball-gag tests—"Mrrrrrm!"—there wasn't so much as a hint that the box contained a naked, completely helpless, and very unhappy Ozzie Gull.


ADVENTURES IN BACKPACKING!  Chapter 9

Sometime later... maybe an hour... maybe ninety-minutes... Auntie Kelly returned to The Great Room.  She was still rockin' her Daisy Dukes and Western shirt with the front tails tied together, but had changed out of her sandals and into socks and her informal cowgirl boots, presumably so she could putter around the stables and expedite the movement of the herd to the pasture without getting her toes dusty.  She released Fiona from her chair... then did the same for Sky... then, after refusing their request for her to let them scamper to their bedroom and get dressed, invited (ordered) them to join her in the kitchen for coffee.

Rubbing their wrists (even though they didn't really need it), Sky-Fi exchanged a look that was equal parts annoyance and amusement, then shrugged and followed... carefully peeling off their tape-gags as they padded in Auntie Kelly's wake,

Lorelei remained behind, of course, still testing the coffee-table/bondage-box.  "Mrrrfh!"

Sky-Fi settled into chairs and watched as Auntie puttered around her kitchen.  She started the promised coffee brewing, then loaded a tray with mugs, spoons, creamer, sugar bowl, and a plate of cookies.  Once it was ready she added an insulated carafe of piping hot java
... hefted the tray... then led the way out onto a veranda with a magnificent view of the horse pasture and the valley beyond.

They settled into comfy deck-chairs, Kelly poured three steaming mugs, and they had a nice chat.

Sky and Fiona were still totally naked, of course, but Auntie Kelly didn't seem to mind and the coffee smelled good, so... why not?

"Jacy and Tama have invited us to visit their spread for a couple of days late next week," Kelly stated.  "And while we're there, we'll be their guests at a local pow-wow.  You'll love it."

Sky-Fi smiled and sipped their coffee.  Going to a pow-wow sounded like a lot of fun.  Also educational.

"What about Lorelei?" Sky inquired (grumpily).

"She'll remain behind to take care of the horses," Kelly answered.

"You'll have to let her out of the box," Fiona noted.

Kelly nodded.  "At some point," she agreed.  "Now... for the rest of your visit I don't mind if you girls want to go on playing... with rope I mean... but when and how will be up to you."

"Sounds good to me," Sky huffed, "but if that's the plan maybe you shouldn't let Lorelei out of the box."

Fiona grinned and nodded in agreement.  "We can take care of the horses."

Kelly chuckled, then sipped her coffee.  "I'll handle Lorelei.  I just want to be sure you two don't spend the rest of your vacation naked, bound, and gagged.  Moderation in all things."

Sky rolled her green eyes.  "Moderation.  Right."

Fiona giggled, sipped her coffee, then smiled and nodded at her ginger girlfriend.  "Don't worry," she reassured Auntie Kelly, "I'll keep 'Little Red' tied to her bed at night so she doesn't bother Lorelei."

Sky glowered at the smugly smiling blonde.  "Not if I keep you tied to your bed first."

Kelly laughed again.  "Moderation," she reiterated.  "Now, finish your coffee and go get dressed.  We can go riding after lunch."

"Including Lorelei?" Fiona inquired.  "Somebody will have to ride double."

Kelly shrugged.  "No riding for Lorelei, but I'll let her out of the box before dinner.  I think that'll be an adequate test of my new coffee-table."

Sky-Fi nodded in solemn agreement.

And that was what happened.  Auntie Kelly and her young guests finished their coffee (and nibbled all the cookies), Sky and Fiona scampered away and got dressed, they enjoyed a light lunch (except for Lorelei, who was still too busy with her testing assignment), and went riding afterwards.  Everybody had a lot of fun, even the humans (except for Lorelei).

Lorelei was released from the coffee-table/bondage-box an hour before supper; however, she was not allowed to get dressed, her wrists and elbows were bound behind her back, and the ball-gag was kept loose around her neck in ugly-necklace-mode, ready to be popped into her mouth if she started showing attitude.

At dinner it was Sky and Fiona's opportunity to play feed-the-baby-bird and take turns feeding Lorelei her share of the food.  Lorelei accepted her fate with good grace... more or less.

When it came time to retire for the night, Auntie Kelly volunteered to "take care of Lorelei," then led her away in the direction of the Master (Mistress) Bedroom.

Sky-Fi grinned and solemnly agreed that whatever Big Red and The Evil Lorelei did behind closed doors was none of their business and would probably be a sterling example of "moderation" anyway.

The girlfriends adjourned for the night, conducted their evening toilettes in the hallway bathroom, then changed into their pajamas (tank-tops and panties), and climbed into their respective beds.  They agreed that they'd had their fill of snogging last night... for now.  They also agreed that neither of them was anxious to spend another night naked, bound, gagged, and rolling around on their bed through the many long hours of darkness... for now.

"Besides," Sky explained, "we need to secretly raid some of Auntie Kelly's and Lorelei's caches of bondage materials and make a temporary bedroom cache of our own."

"Good point," Lorelei nodded.  "Tomorrow.  We'll do it tomorrow."

And with that, they turned out the lights, climbed into their respective beds, wished each other a good night and sweet dreams, then got a good night's sleep (for once).  Go figure.

As for the rest of Sky and Fiona's vacation...


ADVENTURES IN BACKPACKING!  Epilogue

Epilogue

The remainder of their stay at The Hermitage Sky and Fiona were paragons of moderation.  They only indulged in nocturnal bondage maybe... every other night?  Something like that.  However, they did take advantage of the hours of darkness to systematically hone their snogging skills, in and out of their borrowed cache of hemp rope.

There was one memorable night of "testing" when Kelly and Lorelei laced and buckled both Sky and Fiona into full-body leather sleep-sacks, taped their mouths shut, and left them to languish on their separate beds for one long, dark, and highly restricted night; however, that was very much the exception and not the rule and Sky-Fi agreed Auntie Kelly had a good excuse for making it happen.  Big Red claimed she had to confirm that her size-S sleep-sack was up to the task of containing a damsel as petite, tiny, and diminutive as her 5' 0" young cousin.  If not, she'd need to lay out a pattern for a size-XS.  Fiona was included in the experiment as a control, even though she was a "statuesque" 5' 3½" and there was no question as to whether or not she would take a size-S.  Why?  Why both of them?  Because... you know... Science!

During the day there was no more formal testing of leather bondage paraphernalia from "Kelly's Kinky Katalog" (Fiona came up with that one) or prototype designs; however, with Lorelei's help (and for curiosity's sake) Sky-Fi did occasionally find opportunities to informally model some of Auntie's greatest hits, including body-harnesses, single-sleeve-armbinders, corsets (with attachment points for crotch-straps and/or binders and/or bondage-mitts), as well as various cuffs and straps.  They modeled gags as well, including ball, plug, bit, panel, and muzzle varieties, as well as the infamous and dreaded spider.  It was all for educational purposes, of course, and each session was only an hour in duration.  Maybe two.  Three, tops.

And speaking of education, in addition to the the box-tie and hog-tie, Sky-Fi were exposed (so to speak) to the frog-tie, shrimp-tie, crab-tie... all the animal-ties.  Also, the arms-raised-and-behind-the-head-tie, the full-pike-position-wrists-to-ankles-tie, and various mix-and-match combinations.  Lorelei was their instructor, and it gave the girls something to practice at night when they were in the mood.

Anyway... moderation... or something like it.

As for visiting The Bird Sisters and attending Sky-Fi's very first pow-wow, they did!  Kelly, Sky, and Fiona did, anyway.  Lorelei remained behind in the role of horse servant, as planned.  They had a blast!

The Bird Sisters' spread was very nice.  Not as big as The Hermitage, but comparable.  The big shed that served as their workshop was equipped with a mix of new and rather antiquated power-tools, and Jacy and Tama had a few very interesting projects underway.

Among them was a heavy-duty wooden arm chair with strategically placed attachment points for anchoring leather cuffs and straps!  Fiona was the one who got to try that one out—naked, strapped in place at about a dozen anatomical locations, and gagged (of course).

There was also the "shipping crate."  On the inside it was about two-feet by two-feet by three-feet, and from the outside was an unremarkable and typical wooden crate nailed together from four two-foot by 3-foot and a pair of two-foot by two-foot plywood rectangles braced with wooden boards.  The interior had several strategically placed and very solid anchor-points for the same sort of leather cuffs and straps binding Fiona to her chair, and all were obviously intended to completely restrain and immobilize a hypothetical naked, bound, and gagged occupant.  This time it was Sky who was selected to make the hypothetical real.

Poor Fiona languished in the sturdy chair for nearly an hour... then was released.  On the other hand, Sky was incarcerated in her cramped crate for nearly three hours.  She was almost late for lunch!

Later, Fi hypothesized that The Bird Sisters and Auntie Kelly released her from the chair first because she was in plain sight, was incredibly beautiful in her state of naked captivity, and thus engendered great sympathy, whereas Sky was out of sight inside the crate and therefore easy to ignore.  Sky was not at all amused and ordered her smug girlfriend to "Shut up before I slap you!"

The pow-wow was a private affair with only two or three hundred attendees, total, and most were extended family and close friends.  That's as opposed to a regional/tribal "public" pow-wow. Those often have more than a thousand dancers and drummers of all ages and attracted hordes of gawking tourists who stuffed themselves with frybread and bought souvenir trinkets.  (Big pow-wows can be real moneymakers.)  Anyway, the food was delicious (including the frybread), the dancing impressive (both the traditional costume and "fancy-dress" competitions) and the boys' and girls' dance circles incredibly cute (especially the toddlers)!  Kelly was already known to most of the attendees and Sky and Fi were made to feel very much welcome.

Finally... all good things come to an end.

Only a few days after returning to The Hermitage it was time for Sky-Fi to return to their homes in Washington to prepare for the next school year.  Rather than retracing their steps the way they'd come, lugging their backpacks, Kelly and Lorelei drove the girls to Billings so they could to ride the Amtrack back to the Seattle area.

After tearful goodbyes at the train station (even Lorelei was bawling, believe it or not), Sky and Fiona boarded the Empire Builder and were on their way.  The scenery was spectacular and the journey definitely worth checking off their personal bucket lists, but the accommodations were hardly The Orient Express and the food was... edible.

The next summer, armed with a year's experience practicing their rigging (and snogging) skills, Sky and Fiona returned to The Hermitage for another vacation... but that's another story.


ADVENTURES IN BACKPACKING!  Chapter 9


The Epilogue 
 & The Story Entire


The 
 End


 
AiBP
 
 

Chapter 8
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