Fall Break Post-a-rama!
OK, here it is, I've decided to sit down with a hot mug of green tea and collect my thoughts about this past weekend.
Before I begin, I should give you a little background about the whole idea behind us going to the mountains. One day, perhaps out of the blue, I realized that I wanted to go on a trip with Jenn, to anywhere, just so it can be me and her with no distractions or things we have to do. Our road trips over the summer were fantastic, so it only made sense for us to actually extend a road trip over a few days. She said that it would be nice but unlike most relationships where someone says, "yah, we should do that." and then forget about it, we stuck to it. We knew that we had to go on this trip now that it had been mentioned. Fall Break was the obvious choice, since VT didn't have a football game and I most definitely had no plans. The only hold up was the question, "Beach or mountains?".
At Bill's Pizza Pub in Randleman, NC, we flipped a coin. We'd be going to the mountains, and there was no turning back now.
We picked a little place on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Floyd and Patrick counties named Rocky Knob Cabins.
We were staying up the "1" and "23" dots. We spent a good portion of our time in Meadows of Dan (star next to "7") and in Stuart.
Once we got there, I realized a few things:
1. No cellphone service - minus one distraction
2. No TV - minus another distraction
3. Nice people - everyone was so patient and understanding and painfully nice
First, a glance at our cabin #18.
The Cabin itself
Our bed, in our bedroom.
the "closet", which was really a fold-up mattress without the mattress in it (that was next to the fire)
the kitchen, clean....
the kitchen, after making one of our many delicious meals
Friday afternoon we were too tired to cook our own dinner, so we went out in search of a place called "Cristopher's Pizza", but since we could not find it, we opted for some other little restaurant. While it was nice, the food and service wasn't exactly spectacular, but ah well, its Meadows of Dan, and the days of credit cards and constant waiter attention are about 10 years away.
That night, we lit our first fire together (that sounds raunchy, eh?), and pulled out a mattress to sleep by the fire all night. Before going to sleep we roasted some marshmallows which led to playing the fire for the first time as well. To begin the night, the fire gave off enough heat to make one sweat, but when that baby burned out, the place went frigid, and our little space heater was not cutting it, so we were a tad bit cold that night. Who cares though? That's what cuddling's for, right?
Saturday we went around to see a few sights and shop for food for dinner. Before I go into Mabry Mill, I'd like to make a few comments about the local produce in Meadows of Dan. There are no Food Lions, Lowe's Foods, or anything similar within a twenty minute drive, so if one wants food, chances are he is going to have to buy it from a local produce shop. This leaves him at the mercy of the farmers, if green beans were not picked that day, he's not getting any green beans, which is what happened to us. On Saturday we shopped all over in the fog for green beans and found none, but did see Red Potatoes. On Sunday, we went to purchase red potatoes and found none, but by golly we found green beans!
After a bit of shopping, we stopped off at Mabry Mill for some country cooking and to see the sights. Jenn took many pictures here, mostly because she's a dork about things like "lines" and "circles" and "artsy-fartsy" "design" things. Turns out, she's a pretty good photographer, and she gets really excited about things such as "True Arches."
Here's Mabry Mill and a picture from inside the mill (which was working that day!)
In that second picture we're having a "fake fight", it was something about whether or not I was supposed to smile for the picture, but we ended up naturally smiling as the picture was taken, so its a wonderful snapshot.
Following Mabry Mill we drove around, visited a winery, perched atop Lover's Leap, and enjoyed the curves. OK, so at some points I enjoyed the curves a little too much, but I do know for a fact that Jenn did a little "enjoyin' the curves" herself when she drove.
For dinner saturday night: Mesquite Mini Pork Chops with mashed potatoes, french (canned) green beans, and garlic bread. Desert consisted of s'mores and a food fight.
I LOVE this picture.
We also had some fun with long-time exposure.......
YES, its burning heart. (B.L.P.s......)
On to Sunday:
Somewhere along the lines we went to see the "view", and ended up taking these cool photos:
and
Looking at these photos reminds me of how awesome this whole experience is for me. I've got someone who challenges me, loves me, and makes me want to commit to things I say.
We finally found "Cristopher's Pizza" which was spectacular because every weekend from 2-5 they have old cars and live music. By live music, I mean, live country/bluegrass music as played by old people jamming out. You know how Jesus swings on 1 & 3? So do these people. Banjos, guitars, washboards, harmonicas, and even a tub bass were all standard for these guys and gals, and almost all of them could sing too. One guy looked like he never grew out of the 50s rockabilly movement, and he seemed to have a hard time getting the group to play the backbeat on 2 & 4, but whatever, he rocked out regardless.
On the menu saturday night: Marinated Grilled Mesquite Steak with garlic mashed potatoes and fresh cut green beans. For post dinner...wine and cheese.
Speaking of food. We ate exceptionally well this weekend. The two of us make incredible dishes, and even our breakfasts were tremendously terrific. We're talking scrambled eggs, fried eggs, bacon, bacon egg and cheese bagels/english muffins, hot tea, and waffles. There's nothing like the smell and sound of sizzling bacon in the morning to get one's day started right. There are pictures of all our meals, but for the sake of space, I've opted to just say that those are on facebook.
One cannot visit Patrick County without looking at all the sights, such as the Covered Bridges!
That's the Bob White and the Jack's Creek covered bridges. Here we skipped some stones and talked to a very friendly old man out for a walk.
OK, so the bit about the covered bridges is out of synch, considering I already talked about dinner Sunday night, but get over it.
Monday morning we arose from our slumber to pack up, check out, and go for a walk at the Rocky Knob campgrounds. This is when Jenn got the "I want to climb" bug (an apparantly I decided I wanted to be the Little Mermaid)
Here she is on the rafters in our cabin.
Here she is hanging precariously from a cliff.
and here I am....doing.....who knows what.
I spent the next in Blacksburg, VA because Jenn had class on Tuesday and I didn't (stupid Hokies), and there we made dinner once again which included leftovers and shells and cheese with chicken hotdog bits. Mr. Thomas Billheimer came over to dine with us, and it was awesome to have two of my favorite people in the world around me again. We hung out, watched some football, ate some genuine Nancy's fudge, and tried to determine the melodic intervals between our individual bottles filled with varying levels of water. Yah, Tom thought Jenn and I were dorks when we found our bottles made an in-tune Perfect Fourth, but then he blew on his and realized his and mine were a tritone, so yah, we had fun with that for awhile.
Sorry about that geeky music theory bit there.....
The next morning we polished off our breakfast supplies and I drove Jenn to class. I like dropping her off at class when I leave, it makes me feel more important than if I had just left from her dorm room.
Anyhoo.
This whole experience was special and magical for us. We felt like strangers in the past, but almost everyone in Patrick County had a friendly face and an equally friendly demeanor. It was an eye-opener to see how patient and relaxed these people were. I guess when one has to drive mles and miles to obtain just normal everyday items, the trivial shit that bothers us "city-folk" gets lost and forgotten. I'm Mr. Laid Back here in Charlotte, but there I was an uptight impatient jerk relatively speaking. I will always remember waking up next to Jenn and the moment when we both realized we had nothing we HAD TO do that day, and we could do absolutely nothing if we so pleased.
That type of feeling is a special one.
I think, just maybe, that life is working out pretty well for me after all.
love you guys,
~Jason
P.S. While in the cabins, Jenn and I got to talking. We talked about, you know, future stuff, but thats irrelevant. What's relevant is that she prefers the toilet paper to be rolled over the top, just like I do. Which, by the way, is a big sigh of relief, because if it were not that way, we may have a problem. So, this brought up the question, how do most people prefer their toilet paper to be rolled?
Before I begin, I should give you a little background about the whole idea behind us going to the mountains. One day, perhaps out of the blue, I realized that I wanted to go on a trip with Jenn, to anywhere, just so it can be me and her with no distractions or things we have to do. Our road trips over the summer were fantastic, so it only made sense for us to actually extend a road trip over a few days. She said that it would be nice but unlike most relationships where someone says, "yah, we should do that." and then forget about it, we stuck to it. We knew that we had to go on this trip now that it had been mentioned. Fall Break was the obvious choice, since VT didn't have a football game and I most definitely had no plans. The only hold up was the question, "Beach or mountains?".
At Bill's Pizza Pub in Randleman, NC, we flipped a coin. We'd be going to the mountains, and there was no turning back now.
We picked a little place on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Floyd and Patrick counties named Rocky Knob Cabins.
We were staying up the "1" and "23" dots. We spent a good portion of our time in Meadows of Dan (star next to "7") and in Stuart.
Once we got there, I realized a few things:
1. No cellphone service - minus one distraction
2. No TV - minus another distraction
3. Nice people - everyone was so patient and understanding and painfully nice
First, a glance at our cabin #18.
The Cabin itself
Our bed, in our bedroom.
the "closet", which was really a fold-up mattress without the mattress in it (that was next to the fire)
the kitchen, clean....
the kitchen, after making one of our many delicious meals
Friday afternoon we were too tired to cook our own dinner, so we went out in search of a place called "Cristopher's Pizza", but since we could not find it, we opted for some other little restaurant. While it was nice, the food and service wasn't exactly spectacular, but ah well, its Meadows of Dan, and the days of credit cards and constant waiter attention are about 10 years away.
That night, we lit our first fire together (that sounds raunchy, eh?), and pulled out a mattress to sleep by the fire all night. Before going to sleep we roasted some marshmallows which led to playing the fire for the first time as well. To begin the night, the fire gave off enough heat to make one sweat, but when that baby burned out, the place went frigid, and our little space heater was not cutting it, so we were a tad bit cold that night. Who cares though? That's what cuddling's for, right?
Saturday we went around to see a few sights and shop for food for dinner. Before I go into Mabry Mill, I'd like to make a few comments about the local produce in Meadows of Dan. There are no Food Lions, Lowe's Foods, or anything similar within a twenty minute drive, so if one wants food, chances are he is going to have to buy it from a local produce shop. This leaves him at the mercy of the farmers, if green beans were not picked that day, he's not getting any green beans, which is what happened to us. On Saturday we shopped all over in the fog for green beans and found none, but did see Red Potatoes. On Sunday, we went to purchase red potatoes and found none, but by golly we found green beans!
After a bit of shopping, we stopped off at Mabry Mill for some country cooking and to see the sights. Jenn took many pictures here, mostly because she's a dork about things like "lines" and "circles" and "artsy-fartsy" "design" things. Turns out, she's a pretty good photographer, and she gets really excited about things such as "True Arches."
Here's Mabry Mill and a picture from inside the mill (which was working that day!)
In that second picture we're having a "fake fight", it was something about whether or not I was supposed to smile for the picture, but we ended up naturally smiling as the picture was taken, so its a wonderful snapshot.
Following Mabry Mill we drove around, visited a winery, perched atop Lover's Leap, and enjoyed the curves. OK, so at some points I enjoyed the curves a little too much, but I do know for a fact that Jenn did a little "enjoyin' the curves" herself when she drove.
For dinner saturday night: Mesquite Mini Pork Chops with mashed potatoes, french (canned) green beans, and garlic bread. Desert consisted of s'mores and a food fight.
I LOVE this picture.
We also had some fun with long-time exposure.......
YES, its burning heart. (B.L.P.s......)
On to Sunday:
Somewhere along the lines we went to see the "view", and ended up taking these cool photos:
and
Looking at these photos reminds me of how awesome this whole experience is for me. I've got someone who challenges me, loves me, and makes me want to commit to things I say.
We finally found "Cristopher's Pizza" which was spectacular because every weekend from 2-5 they have old cars and live music. By live music, I mean, live country/bluegrass music as played by old people jamming out. You know how Jesus swings on 1 & 3? So do these people. Banjos, guitars, washboards, harmonicas, and even a tub bass were all standard for these guys and gals, and almost all of them could sing too. One guy looked like he never grew out of the 50s rockabilly movement, and he seemed to have a hard time getting the group to play the backbeat on 2 & 4, but whatever, he rocked out regardless.
On the menu saturday night: Marinated Grilled Mesquite Steak with garlic mashed potatoes and fresh cut green beans. For post dinner...wine and cheese.
Speaking of food. We ate exceptionally well this weekend. The two of us make incredible dishes, and even our breakfasts were tremendously terrific. We're talking scrambled eggs, fried eggs, bacon, bacon egg and cheese bagels/english muffins, hot tea, and waffles. There's nothing like the smell and sound of sizzling bacon in the morning to get one's day started right. There are pictures of all our meals, but for the sake of space, I've opted to just say that those are on facebook.
One cannot visit Patrick County without looking at all the sights, such as the Covered Bridges!
That's the Bob White and the Jack's Creek covered bridges. Here we skipped some stones and talked to a very friendly old man out for a walk.
OK, so the bit about the covered bridges is out of synch, considering I already talked about dinner Sunday night, but get over it.
Monday morning we arose from our slumber to pack up, check out, and go for a walk at the Rocky Knob campgrounds. This is when Jenn got the "I want to climb" bug (an apparantly I decided I wanted to be the Little Mermaid)
Here she is on the rafters in our cabin.
Here she is hanging precariously from a cliff.
and here I am....doing.....who knows what.
I spent the next in Blacksburg, VA because Jenn had class on Tuesday and I didn't (stupid Hokies), and there we made dinner once again which included leftovers and shells and cheese with chicken hotdog bits. Mr. Thomas Billheimer came over to dine with us, and it was awesome to have two of my favorite people in the world around me again. We hung out, watched some football, ate some genuine Nancy's fudge, and tried to determine the melodic intervals between our individual bottles filled with varying levels of water. Yah, Tom thought Jenn and I were dorks when we found our bottles made an in-tune Perfect Fourth, but then he blew on his and realized his and mine were a tritone, so yah, we had fun with that for awhile.
Sorry about that geeky music theory bit there.....
The next morning we polished off our breakfast supplies and I drove Jenn to class. I like dropping her off at class when I leave, it makes me feel more important than if I had just left from her dorm room.
Anyhoo.
This whole experience was special and magical for us. We felt like strangers in the past, but almost everyone in Patrick County had a friendly face and an equally friendly demeanor. It was an eye-opener to see how patient and relaxed these people were. I guess when one has to drive mles and miles to obtain just normal everyday items, the trivial shit that bothers us "city-folk" gets lost and forgotten. I'm Mr. Laid Back here in Charlotte, but there I was an uptight impatient jerk relatively speaking. I will always remember waking up next to Jenn and the moment when we both realized we had nothing we HAD TO do that day, and we could do absolutely nothing if we so pleased.
That type of feeling is a special one.
I think, just maybe, that life is working out pretty well for me after all.
love you guys,
~Jason
P.S. While in the cabins, Jenn and I got to talking. We talked about, you know, future stuff, but thats irrelevant. What's relevant is that she prefers the toilet paper to be rolled over the top, just like I do. Which, by the way, is a big sigh of relief, because if it were not that way, we may have a problem. So, this brought up the question, how do most people prefer their toilet paper to be rolled?