I used to do these occasionally when I was younger and didn't have any responsibilities. Just pick up and leave and go somewhere, anywhere.... just away from the problem to sort through everything and come up with a solution. This has been a weird summer for Onil and I, and top of the list for me is that we're two years and counting that he doesn't have a job and that the financial burden for our family rests solely on me. We're doing alright, but I just want to quit my job and go home in the worst way. I hate living with my in-laws during the week.
I decided that I would go to Brevard, North Carolina. I'd never been there before. I only knew about it because I'm in an RP where two of my characters are from Brevard. (For those who don't know, an RP is a message board where you write as characters -- either made up or from a tv show or movie -- with other people to create a story. The best way I've heard it described is a living novel.) When I made up these characters I'd never heard of Brevard. I wanted them to be from one of the Carolinas and I wanted them to be from the mountains, and Brevard fit the bill on both counts. Over the past year I've been getting the itch to see the place I'm writing about, and so this past Labor Day weekend I decided I would take a road trip there.
I was going to do this all on my own. No husband, no kids, just me and a tent. I made a reservation at a campground and another one to go horse-back riding in the mountains on Monday morning. I left work on Friday intending to stop at the Walmart in Ephrata and then continue on down to NC, only stopping to catch catnaps on the road. But somewhere outside of the Lincoln Tunnel I had a change of heart and I realized that what was really needed was for Onil and I to get away together, away from the television and the computer, and hash everything out.
Y'all (and I can say that now that I've been in the South), I'm really glad I did.
Onil and I talked about a lot before we even left the apartment and came to an understanding of sorts. We were going to try to sleep a little but wound up hitting the road at 12:45 a.m. on Saturday. We stopped in Virginia at about 4 in the morning to sleep and then got back on the road. We reached our destination at 11:30 a.m. For not having been to Brevard before, I really loved it. It's a little town, kinda touristy, I suppose. The real draw is the Pisgah Forest which surrounds it. I had no idea the mountains in North Carolina looked like that. In Pennsylvania the highest point is 3,200 feet, but Mt. Pisgah alone is 5,700 feet, and that's not even the tallest point in the state. It was a beautiful place and I was sorry to leave.
Onil and I had a great time. We drove around to look at the scenery, went hiking, slept out in the woods, star-gazed, and ate awesome food. This was Onil's first experience with camping and he seemed to really like it. I was very proud when my boy from NYC made his first campfire. He started it Sunday afternoon and we kept it going until we left on Monday night. Most importantly, the two of us got away by ourselves and reconnected. We didn't realize until we were actually in NC that we'd never been away together, not even for our honeymoon (we just stayed in our apartment in PA for that).
I have a bunch of pictures to sort through and I want to do it this weekend, but I just wanted to update here to talk about our trip. Sorry this was so wordy, but there was a lot to say! Here are a couple of pictures:
