Do my eyes deceive me?

Left photo: Anna Elz and (background) the left behinds.
Right: Wilson atop Adams, July 2015

You could have knocked me over with a feather. In the foreground of the photo on the left is Anna Elz, atop Mount Adams. And in the background, amidst a bundle of paraphernalia left by other climbers, there is a small . . .  almost hidden . . . blue . . . round . . . object . . . right where . . .

Well, right where Wilson was left last July. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it is NOT the unbreakable. The winds of time, or better stated, the howling winds of Mount Adams, have borne Wilson farther afield into the mists of legend.

Anna writes,

Robert..sad to report we did not retrieve Wilson at the summit.  I looked for signs of it.  The snow was frozen and gusting wind of 40 + knots made for a brief encounter since I felt like I was going to be blown off.  Only a few items were visible..a pineapple head seemed promising..as though it might be its hat.   So it seems though I finally made the summit, Wilson is not coming home yet.  You need to find a summer expedition.  Thanks for sharing this with me it made the summit bid way more enjoyable.  Best regards to you and Junior and exciting news of your trip.

She added in a later message:

Here's what I had to work with.  No roof.  frozen solid. The guy with the shovel was the last guy up and the gale force winds made hanging out up there -- let alone chipping ice -- impossible... not to mention lack of oxygen.. note purple lips.  I'm sorry..just glad I made it.  Happy 4th.  Good to be home.  I'd love to meet up sometime and talk about the trip and your Wilson Junior plans!

In a follow-up phone call, Anna added that this was not a cakewalk up a snow field, which I had anticipated last year. The Mountaineers camped overnight at Sunrise Camp, at the 8,600 foot level, The night winds flipped Anna's tent over. Team Wilson rose at 3:30 a.m. to climb over a five-hour period across the Mazama Glacier and up to the summit. Part of the way they were roped up. The team of 11 hikers were enthusiastic about finding Wilson. And when Anna reached the summit and saw that round blue object, she thought she had hit paydirt, but it only turned out to be a fabric.

Afterward, there was no quick, convenient glissade down a snowy slope; the slope was frozen hard and any glissade would have gone much too fast.

Well, OK, so Wilson has probably gone out of my -- (should I say our?) life forever. But that's no reason to write them off. Look at the photo in the picture below of me with Lisa Tarver, chief innovation officer of the One World Play Project, and convince me that Wilson doesn't have a future somewhere. If that ball with the hole in it can still bounce, Wilson can too. And we'll keep on sending them e-mails. For all we know, they might just be in a Starbucks somewhere on wi-fi.

Considering the resilience of this ball, no reason yet to count Wilson out.

My new traveling companion, Jean Baptiste.

But now it's time to pass the baton to a new goodwill ambassador for the One World Play project, and that one is Junior. That's Junior, snagged to my backpack. Does the image strike a familiar chord? Would It help if I explained that "Junior" has a new name? It's Jean Baptiste.  They is named after the world's most famous papoose, who made it onto the American dollar coin. If that still doesn't ring a bell, check out the image immediately below.

Love,

Robert

(And Jean Baptiste)