Everybody, Always

They stopped making these airplanes sixty years ago, so they’re pretty
frayed around the edges now. The way you know a Beaver engine is out
of oil is when it stops leaking.
The fuselage has an old-world craftsmanship to it. It’s not made from
sheet metal or pre-fab fiberglass. It’s pure tough, and looks like it could
take some hits from heavy guns or bears or avalanches or preschool kids
and keep going. It’s the kind of plane Indiana Jones would fly out of a
remote jungle. Actually, Harrison Ford owns a Beaver and in a couple of
movies, this actually happened. A Beaver has pontoons because it’s made
to land on water instead of a runway. When we’re at the Lodge, I usually
fly out every week or two and fill it up with things we need—like ice
cream and Pop Tarts—and fly back.
Going to the Lodge is something we count the days for in the Goff
family. Every year as school winds down in late May, spring fever takes
over on steroids. The house gets charged with planning and anticipation
for the trek north for the summer. When our kids were in school, it was
downright torturous. They’d be stuck in first-period English knowing a
few weeks later they’d be skipping rocks next to hundred-foot waterfalls
and foraging for dinner.
We try to get up to the Lodge a different way each year. Richard
graduated from high school and we were looking for some adventure, so
we bought some Harleys and Triumphs and rode motorcycles there. We
started in Mexico and crossed North America, bottom to top. None of us
had ever been on the highway with a motorcycle before. We figured we’d
learn what we needed to know on the way. By the time we got to San
Francisco, we could even change gears. Another year, Richard, who is
infinitely winsome, led us on an amazing adventure as we fixed up a 1971
Volkswagen Bus. Richard drove it up to Canada, and he and Adam drove
it back. Richard kept that bus for years and still leads us with creativity
and laughter.
Adam was going into his senior year of high school. He was normally
a great student, really disciplined and focused. But at that point, high