A few years ago Richard was hired by an educational organization to take a group of exchange students for the summer. This same organization offered Richard the opportunity to take students to Machu Picchu, Peru the following summer as a chaperone but he didn’t have enough time to get the amount of students he needed so he had to cancel the trip. 
I took up running recently to train for my dream of hiking the Grand Canyon into Havasupai Falls. In my effort to recruit a small group for my dream trip, some very dear friends of ours reversed our invitation and asked us to go to Machu Picchu, Peru with them instead. It not the train version, it’s a 4-5 day “roughin’ it” hike up the Ancient Incan trail. Richard’s an Eagle Scout and loves camping and the outdoors so I knew this way of seeing Machu Picchu was right up his alley, he just had to get in shape for it. Our friends were planning their Machu Picchu trip right around the time of Richard’s Spring Break and our anniversary so it was easy to make excuses why we should go, besides the fact that he has wanted to take this trip for as long as I have known him.
I thought this trip would also be a great opportunity to motivate “Senor Juell” to make another effort to recruit a group of his High School kids to go to Peru. If he went to Peru on his own then he would already “know the ropes” and feel more comfortable going back a 2nd time with his students.
So I put the breaks on the Grand Canyon trip and put my energy into Peru. We were a little hesitant at first because we weren’t sure exactly what it would cost and if we could afford it. My dad insisted we go and offered us his air miles, our sisters and my mom insisted we go and offered babysitting (we have the BEST family!). It was sort of hard to say “No” so Richard started running too; he ran his first 5K race on Thanksgiving day 2009. It was the Dana Point Turkey Trot and it was a beautiful day. He had been training for it for a couple of months and he earned a really great time, right around 30 minutes. This is great for a non-runner.
