CROP Walk

This afternoon was Oak Park's annual CROP Walk to raise money for the hungry. As part of our church group, Andy, B and L had been planning to do the walk for months (L, though, rode her scooter). B and his friends, IR and IB, managed to persuade us into hosting a sleepover for them last night after promising to contain themselves to the basement. L was at Grandma B's for the night so we only had a net gain of one kid.

We wanted the kids to go home at 10 a.m., but they hatched a plan that they wanted to go to church with us then join B on the CROP Walk. Andy took them to church and picked up L from Grandma's afterward. E and I did a little shopping because she had to be at a Girl Scout meeting at 2:30 - a half hour into the CROP Walk. After I dropped E off for her meeting, I saw B and IB on the CROP Walk. At this point it was lightning a bit and the sky was overcast. As I'm driving home, Andy called me saying L was scared of the lightning and wanted to go home. I turned out to go pick her up at a church on Austin Boulevard and it started raining, then hailing. I picked up her and Andy and we drove around (being pelted the entire time by hailstones and driving on flooded streets) to find B and his friends. At one point, I could hardly see out the window so I had to pull over.

All three of the boys have cell phones and only one, IR - whose number I didn't have - had his phone on him. Andy called IR's home and learned that he was in a car with a teacher from the middle school. He had no idea where B and IB were. We decided to head back to the church where the walk was scheduled to end. Pretty soon, I got a call from a number I didn't recognize. It was B - he and IB were in some woman's car and she was bringing them to the church. Apparently, she's a counselor at the high school. While B was talking to me on her phone, she got on the line and told me that she's not a crazy person, just a mom (doesn't that make her a bit crazy?) She brought them safely to the church. They were soaked.

We soon found out the other woman took IR home. So much for stranger danger.