I’ve already written lengthy posts on my trip to the Appalachian Trail, complete with still pictures, but I’ve finally completed my moving-picture compilation. The video is below along with links to all the other posts I’ve made on this topic. Enjoy!
More from this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Lessons Learned
As 2013 winds down and I look back on it, it has turned out to be an extremely productive year. The year didn’t start off that different than the previous years other than my regular trips to the gym to work out. I had never been a fan of the gym – I don’t like crowds and I always preferred to do any workouts at home, though I don’t have any weights and was limited to bodyweight exercises. A group of friends at work play soccer on Thursdays and in the spring, we decided to add a second day of soccer on Mondays. I played both days most weeks from New Year’s to Memorial Day.
One thing I tried to do more this year was take chances and opportunities. I liken it to the movie Yes Man where Jim Carrey’s character says yes to anything that comes his way, though I was les liberal with my acceptances. In February I agreed to be team captain of our company’s Relay for Life team. We hadn’t fielded a team in 2012 and our team in 2011 was small, so I was hoping to get a good bounce-back. We rolled through several fundraisers – one a week – for two months until the night of the Relay. We ended up raising around $4500 in two months’ time with a sizable team of almost twenty walkers. It was exhausting and I swore that I would not be captaining again in 2014, though I did write up all my thoughts on the process – what worked, what didn’t, and thoughts for next year – to be given to the next captain.
On February 13th, I took the day off work to spend the day at the movie theatre watching a Die Hard marathon before a late-night premiere of the new movie, A Good Day to Die Hard. I had never seen the first three movies on the big screen, so it was worth the admission just for that experience, as Die Hard is my favorite movie. The new movie was pretty bad – it made an okay action movie, mostly forgettable, but it was a horrible Die Hard movie. I wouldn’t see any other Hollywood movies in theatres this year, but I did see Mile… Mile and a Half at the Athen’s Theatre in Deland, where I would also see All Shook Up and The King is Back, and I also saw Appalachian Impressions.
Also in February and March, a coworker asked if I wanted to canoe down Rock Springs Run, which we did four times over about five or six weeks, culminating in an overnight camping trip at the Otter Campsite along the run. This led to many weekends hanging out and many new experiences throughout the year.
In early February, I had gotten an email about the Space Coast Marathon and how they were planning to do a five-year event with medals celebrating the space shuttles. I immediately signed up for the marathon, figuring I had a whole year to get ready for it. I had always wanted to do a marathon and a flat Florida course seemed like a good start. I wouldn’t actually start training for several months though.
In late April I started running shorter races, the Healthy Heart 10K, the Run for the Trees 5K, the Seminole High School Spirit 5K, the Rescue Run 5K, the Lake Mary 5K, and The Nude Run 5K. A friend had told me about the Healthy Heart 10K, happening just down the street from where I live and I had only run one 10K previously, so I jumped on it. The Run for the Trees 5K was one I had run before, but you get a tree for completing it, so I had specifically looked it up online in order to run it again. It also runs through private communities that have very nice scenery. The Rescue Run 5K is one that happens in the park next to where I work and our company sponsors a team every year, so I competed in it for the third or fourth time. The Seminole High School Spirit 5K runs through my old high school and the parking lot of my old middle school, so it was a nostalgic race for me and also culminated in my fastest 5K ever. The Lake Mary 5K was another race close by that took place near the library I go to, so it was a familiar area. I decided to do the Nude Run 5K while looking for races with something exciting to offer, as opposed to the mundane show up and run 5K.
More from this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Lessons Learned | Video
Tuesday, December 17th, 2013 – Day 3:
I woke up around seven and tried to quietly make my way out of the shelter and pull down the bear-bag, which was difficult since the cabling squeaked and it was just feet from the shelter. I got my bag down and walked away from the shelter to open it, as to not wake anybody who was sleeping. I dug to the bottom to get one of the last packs of Pop-Tarts out and ate it for breakfast. I also took the last granola bar and stuffed it in my pocket to eat on the trail while walking.
My buddy got up and ate the last pack of Pop-Tarts and we watched the sun rise over the mountains on another beautiful, clear, winter morning. The plan was to head back South today and see how far we could get – Springer Mountain Shelter, Black Gap Shelter, Amicalola Falls State Park Shelter, or to the car. We both had been craving Chicken Parmesan from Olive Garden for a couple days, so the thought of that certainly played into the equation at some point.
Our three comrades from the shelter awoke one by one while I was packing up my gear and my buddy was refilling our water bottles. I changed back into my hiking clothes, at least what I wasn’t still wearing of them, and got my bag fully packed. We wished our new friends farewell and hit the trail at 8:30 heading Southbound, which was really north to begin with. We were hiking at a fast pace this morning, especially on the flatter terrain. We quickly passed the logging road and made it to a creek where we stopped to refill our water bottles.
While we refilled, the older AT Club gentleman passed us, but he stopped a few hundred yards up the trail at a bridge. We passed him and then a little while later, I stopped to take a pee and he caught up again. We all hiked together for a bit, but my buddy and I outpaced the older gentleman until we stopped to take a break and he passed us. We followed him for a bit until we came to an area with some blown-down trees and lots of branches in the way. I tried to remember this area from the day before, but it didn’t seem familiar – I had remembered us having to climb over a single tree at some point, but here we had to climb over two trees and the branches of other trees seemed awfully close.
Eventually we came to a river with logs going across it, which we were a hundred percent sure we hadn’t crossed the day before. We doubled back and I climbed a hill to see if the path laid beyond some trees that were blocking what looked like a path, but that wasn’t the way either. The older gentleman went on and said he would signal us if he found the trail. My buddy and I waited and discussed our options until we heard the man yell that he had found the trail. We hesitantly headed in his direction, crossing over the logs in the river and making our way up a hill to reach a very faded white blaze on a tree. This area was definitely a part of the Appalachian Trail at some point, though we were thinking it was an old section of the trail that had been rerouted elsewhere. Continue reading
More from this series: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Lessons Learned | Video
Saturday, December 14th, 2013 – Day 0:
My buddy and I drove from Orlando up to Amicalola Falls State Park in Northern Georgia for most of the day. We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Cumming, Georgia to pick up food and last-minute supplies. We arrived at the park around seven at night, after the sun had already set. We ripped open the food containers and I packed what I needed – four packs of beef jerky, five Pop-Tarts, two Granola Bars, a box of Cheeze-Its (or at least the plastic bag inside the box), and a bag of Cheetos.
I adjusted my pack to fit everything that I needed which included: me tent, tent poles, and stakes, my sleeping bag, my food bag, my clothes back with camping clothes, my three-liter Camelbak water bladder, and my work laptop since I was on-call for the weekend. In the front pouch of my bag I had smaller items such as my headlamp, which I took out to wear since it was already night, a trash bag to use as a pack cover in case of rain, a poncho for me in case I needed it, the support phone for work, some nylon string, extra carabiners, and my toiletry bag. On the side pockets I had bug spray, sunscreen, a lighter, an extra Gatorade bottle with Gatorade in it, and my water filter. I also had my phone and GoPro camera in my pocket and in the hip-belt pockets of my pack I kept my toilet paper, the extra backing to my GoPro (waterproof), and a GU gel packet that I had left over from my marathon. I also had my boots and two trekking poles to walk with, plus a sleeping pad attached to the outside of my pack.
For clothing, I had a pair of long-johns for hiking and another for camping, a pair of thin shell pants for hiking and another for camping if needed, a polyester tee-shirt for hiking and a long-sleeve polyester shirt for camping, a wool sweater for hiking and an acrylic sweater for camping, a fleece/shell jacket for hiking and a pull-over fleece for camping, a pair of dress socks and running socks for hiking, a pair of Smartwool skiing socks for camping, and a thin tuque for hiking and a thicker one for camping.
It took almost an hour to get everything ready, park the car in the right spot, sign into the register and begin the trip. We planned to night-hike up the A.T. Approach Trail and camp at Springer Mountain Shelter if we could get that far – nine miles. There were two other shelters along the trail, the first one, the Amicalola Falls State Park Shelter, just outside the visitor center, not even 0.1 miles up the trail and the second, Black Gap Shelter, was 7.3 miles up the trail.
When returning from Georgia on a previous road trip, my buddy and I decided to stop at Ichetucknee Springs State Park for a swim. Upon entering the park, there was a boardwalk that led to one swimming hole while a sidewalk led to another swimming area. Still in street-clothes, we decided to scope out the park first before changing. We walked down the boardwalk for probably a half-mile before reaching the end where there were people swimming in the water and teenagers jumping off the railing of the boardwalk into the water. It was pretty crowded in this area, but the water was pretty.
As we left the area to go scope out the rest of the park, one of the park rangers came down the boardwalk screaming that anyone who had been jumping off the railing needed to leave the park immediately. Of course no one fessed up and he had no idea who it was that was doing it. We walked back down the boardwalk and made it back to the main area of the park, then walked around to the other swimming area. The water was deeper here, so people were huddled around the stairs and the edge of the water. We went to the car to change and returned to the second location we had scoped out. I jumped in the water and was instantly overcome with cold. Just like Ponce De Leon Springs State Park, which we had hit a couple days prior, the water seemed a lot colder than the 72 degrees advertised by all the state springs.
I swam for a few minutes and then had to get out to warm up – even swimming wasn’t keeping me warm enough and it was hard to get enough oxygen in the cold water. After warming up a bit, I hopped back in for another swim, but after maybe ten minutes I had to get out again – now the cold was giving me a headache. I warmed back up out of the water and then we decided to leave and continue our trip back home. The park was nice, though pretty crowded – not something I’ve a fan of. I much prefer solitude over crowds, though I’m sure it’s more based off time of year and weather than anything else. Now that it’s creeping closer to colder days, most springs that I’ve visited have been mostly devoid of human activity, which also improved the visibility in the water since there are less feet kicking up the bottom composition.
A few months back during my first road trip that led to North Florida and parts of Georgia, one stop that we had made was to Ponce De Leon Springs State Park. We had driven all morning up from Tampa to stop at Britton Hill, the highest point in Florida. The next stop on our list was the Florida Caverns State Park, but being hot and sweaty, we decided to stop at a springs and the highway provided a sign for Ponce De Leon Springs – perfect!
We stopped to check it out and there were a good number of people at the park, mostly swimming around in the water. The springs were divided into a circular area on one side of a bridge and a run on the other side. Across the bridge was a hiking trail, so I decided to check that out first. Just after crossing over the bridge the forest begins along with the trail. Upon stepping a few meters into the forest we were instantly assaulted by dozens of mosquitos. We tried to move down the hiking path to pass the swarm, but the entire forest seemed to be infested. We turned around and left the woods and as soon as we broke free of the trees, the mosquitos stopped as if there was an invisible wall preventing them from coming out to the feeding frenzy of bodies swimming around.
We decided to take a dip in the spring, so we hopped in where the run started next to the bridge, since that side was less crowded. The water was probably the coldest spring water I’ve ever felt. All the Florida springs are supposed to be 72 degrees year-round, but this one felt much colder than the rest for some reason. After a few minutes we left the water and the park. I wasn’t overly impressed with it, though it did have some redeeming features. I think the hiking trail would be nice in the winter once all the blood-sucking pests have died off.
I’ve had two experiences with Florida Caverns State Park. The first one was during a road trip earlier in the year that covered North Florida and Georgia. My buddy had said that we had to hit Florida Caverns so I mapped it and it was right off the highway. We had traveled from Tampa that morning and were heading all the way to Britton Hill, so we could stop at the caverns on the way out or on the way back. We decided to hit it on the way back – mistake number one. After Britton Hill, we hopped back on I-10 heading back east, but decided to stop at Ponce De Leon Springs State Park – mistake number two. After a quick dip there, we left and headed straight for Florida Caverns. Using T-Mobile to guide the way – mistake number three – we ended up lost down a dirt road on the wrong side of the state park. Eventually we found our way to the park, but we had missed the last tour of the day by five or ten minutes.
Dejected, we left the park and met with my buddy’s friend in Tallahassee for dinner at Steak n Shake before driving through the night to get to Georgia. The unfortunate instance of missing the tour of the caverns had sparked us to make sure to get more out of that trip, so it may have been a blessing in disguise, but it also prompted a second road trip. After having a weekend ruined by having to go into work both Saturday and Sunday, the next weekend I decided to stretch into a three day weekend by taking Monday off, so my buddy did the same and we headed to North Florida once more. This time, we made sure to hit Florida Caverns State Park early. We got there around ten and the next tour wasn’t until noon, so we spent some time browsing the park.
While we had only expected to take a quick cave tour and be on our way, we now had a lot of time to spare, so we hit the northern part of the park that had a blue hole for swimming. While we didn’t swim in it, it was certainly impressive. In fact, the whole park was nice from the swimming area, to the canoeing area, right down to the caverns. After stopping by all the other places for photos and videos, we eventually worked our way to the meeting area for the tour. The guide took our group down to the caverns and we began our trek through a wondrous cavern, something one wouldn’t expect out of the lowest, flattest state in the union.
We saw both stalactites and stalagmites, mineral deposits forming a rock spike from the ceiling and floors respectively, much like an icicle made of rock. There were several chambers each with interesting formations of rock and mineral. There were even some pools of water that were so still and colorful they looked like glass. We were careful not to touch any of the formations because the oils from human skin cause the minerals to be unable to stick and the stalactites and stalagmites will no longer be able to grow. There was one formation that the guide pointed out had been touched before and we were all allowed to touch it to see how it feels. It was a combination of wet, kind of like the feeling of touching something slimy, and rough, like a rock that had been worn down, but still had some rigidity left.
We eventually ended the tour and made our way back to the sunlit world filled with hiking paths, forests, and waterways. While the park had a lot more to offer, we had wanted to hit three more places that day, so we decided to leave after the tour and hit the road. The park blew away my expectations and I would love to go back sometime and possibly camp out for the night there. It’s relatively close to a small town, but it’s still pretty far from any major civilization. There’s a lot of land in the park and there’s a lot to do. I’d recommend it to anybody who is interested in the outdoors, especially someone from Florida who may not see things like caverns on a regular basis.
I’ve actually hit 100 posts! It’s amazing, though I did have a lot of short posts thrown in there. I try to do one post a day every morning at 7:00AM Eastern Time. That post I try to do at least 500 words for, but sometimes a topic just doesn’t have that much to write about. In the evening, if I have time, I’ll try to post something quick and short – like a video of the day. I’ve decided for my 100th post to go back and look at some of my older posts. And since I do a lot of Top 7 posts, I figured I might as well list out some Top 7s here!
Top 7 My Favorite Posts:
These are my personal favorite posts that I’ve made for one reason or another. I’ll try to avoid any repeat topics.
Runner-Up: Vogel State Park
I liked this post for a couple reasons. The first was that I had such a great time at this park that I enjoyed writing about it and I enjoy thinking back on it. It’s definitely my favorite hike that I’ve done so far. The second reason is because I had that great vertical panorama of the waterfall and WordPress actually let me just sit it off to the side of the post, which I thought looked pretty cool.
7: Reverse Pythagorean Theorem
This was just some mathematical experimentation that I did several years ago, but I’m still proud of myself for figuring out this formula. Sometimes I look back on it and it takes me a while to remember how it works because I never actually use it since it only has one or two practical applications. I still get a little ego boost anyway.
One of my more recent posts that took over a thousand words, I didn’t even get to see the winning game, but I was right there the rest of the way from April first through the end of October. I’m just glad my team didn’t let me down this year.
5: Hang Gliding
This was one of my favorite experiences of the year. I loved hang gliding so much, I actually went back a second time and am planning to go back a third at some point. My first trip I got a GoPro video of me hang gliding and on the second trip I got my POV from a helmet mount. Probably my favorite GoPro videos thus far.
One of my first posts and it was over 3500 words. I actually wrote this all in a couple hours just reliving my childhood playing this game. I think it’s pretty obvious that I really enjoy this game as it speaks to me on multiple levels of rebellion, taking on the corrupt government and corporations which have become one entity, sacrifice, redemption, and so much more. My friend wanted me to expound more on that in another post, but so far I haven’t been able to complete that follow-up – maybe one of these days.
3: Photoshop: Vector Tattoo Ideas
I love playing with Photoshop even though I’m not that great at it. One thing I can do pretty well though is play with shapes and text to create decent minimalist creations. Fortunately, I feel black and white minimalist tattoos look the best, so I was able to create some vector graphics that I thought would make nice personal tattoos. This is my right brain coming out after being cooped up for forty hours a week.
2: Central Florida Tough Mudder 2013
I had originally started writing this post a few days ago to get a jump on it, before I had even run this year’s Tough Mudder. Then once I completed Tough Mudder, I didn’t think I’d have time to write up the post and edit the video before I got to a hundred posts. But here I am including it in the eleventh hour as one of my favorites because it has so many great memories. I loved the obstacles in the race and this year I was able to compete as part of a team, which made it so much more fun. The video came out pretty well too, considering my battery died with only a few obstacles remaining – nooooooooooo!
I love setting goals. I have enough goals to last me a lifetime, but I often don’t push forward with them because I figure I can do them later. This year has been a lot of pushing myself into new things. If you’ve ever watched the movie Yes Man, that’s what I feel like. Things will come up and my initial reaction will be to reject it, but I just think of that movie and will myself forward. It’s let me to many great adventures this year and hopefully will continue – as long as it doesn’t kill me first.
Top 7 Most Popular Posts:
I don’t have any form of Moneyball sabermetrics that determine a combination of view, comments, likes, and such to determine popularity, nor can I even see some of those stats on a per article basis, so I’m just going off of general reaction.
7: Jana Kramer, Easton Corbin, and Blake Shelton in Concert
This post and the one on Jason Aldean’s concert both have been trickling in small numbers of views since I wrote them, but this one seemed a little bit more popular. The concert was great and I enjoyed it, so hopefully all those viewers enjoyed my post on it.
6: Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area and GoPro Test 3
This post got a combination of view and likes that made it pretty popular. I had actually written six posts over six days covering five springs and hang gliding, but this was the one that seemed to attract everybody’s attention.
5: Top 7 Places: Countries I Want to Visit
This post generated a bit of traffic when it first was published, but recently has been buried in everything else. I’d still like to visit all these places though.
4: Video of the Day – Little Boy vs. Drill Sergeant
This post seemed to generate a lot of traffic from Facebook, as I guess the video was pretty share-worthy. I can’t take much credit for it though, since all I did was post it.
This post actually has the most likes of any of my posts – eight. I have a lot of new panoramas that I’ve taken since then, so I’ll probably do a revisit post on this topic soon. I also intend to go back and fix the colors and levels in the old panorama pictures because I just uploaded them as-is from my camera, so they’re a little washed out.
This was a post I made for myself to set some goals to last me for a year. I made some easy so that I would be able to knock them out, since many I have wanted to do for a long while but never made the time for. I also added a couple that I was already in the progress of working towards because they would take up a lot of time and I wanted to keep them in focus. Others I added because they were so out there that if I could knock out just one of them, I would be happy. This post is still attracting people today, though it may be because I keep referencing it.
1: Nudism
This one surprised me because I didn’t think it would be popular at all, and at first it wasn’t, but about a week after writing it up, it blew up and I still occasionally get visitors to it. It actually makes me want to write more on the topic. I’m not a huge nudist and rarely partake in the lifestyle, but I fully support it.
Top 7 Categories:
I’ve written about a lot of things, but what are the most popular categories I’ve written about?
6: [Tie] Games – 6 Posts
Though I don’t play games much anymore, I still have a fondness for a few. I’m sure I could change this category to Final Fantasy VII and it’d have almost as many posts. I’m not addicted, I can quit whenever I want.
6: [Tie] Space – 6 Posts
I’ve always been a huge fan of space, space travel, planets, stars, etc. so it’s no surprise that I’d have a few blog posts on the topic. I’m kind of surprised I don’t have more though.
4: [Tie] Music – 13 Posts
Between country music, concerts, and video game music, I guess I’ve racked up a few notes on this topic.
4: [Tie] Florida State Parks – 13 Posts
With all the State Parks I’ve been to, I’m surprised this isn’t higher, but then again I haven’t written about all of them yet. I have a lot of GoPro videos on these topics though.
I’m a narcissistic egomaniac, so is it any surprise this topic is on the list? It’s probably more surprising that it isn’t number one.
From state parks in Florida to the highest points in two states to cruising the Bahamas, this topic has racked up some pretty decent mileage.
From hang gliding, to marathon running, to Tough Mudder, to hiking and swimming in parks, this category takes the cake.
Top 7 Upcoming Posts:
Here are seven posts or topics that I’ll be writing about in the near future that I’m looking forward to.
7: Looking back on 2013
Once the year is over, I’ll take a look back on it. I can’t wait to recollect all the things I’ve accomplished this year – it’s been so productive from a personal development standpoint.
6: Big Shoals State Park
During my last road trip, we stopped here and I got some great footage of the rapids. I haven’t gotten around to editing down that footage yet, though.
5: Revisit: Final Fantasy VII
A few months ago my friend wanted me to revisit this post with some more personal feelings on it. I started writing it a while ago, but still haven’t finished it yet. Maybe one of these days.
4: Scuba Diving
One of my 10 Goals for this year, I’ve signed up for scuba lessons the two weeks between my triathlon and marathon. I look forward to getting my feet wet – and the rest of me.
3: Florida Caverns State Park
This was a really interesting park that I hit while on my latest road trip, but I still haven’t been able to piece together all the footage I took while I was there. Hopefully I can get to that soon, though I do have quite a few events coming up.
2: Space Coast Marathon
This is still a month away, but it’s only a month away! My training will peak next Tuesday when I do twenty-plus miles before tapering off the following two weeks. This was the first goal I listed on my 10 Goals list and it’s been in the works for a long time. I’m excited to finally get to it.
1: Beat the Heat Sprint Triathlon
I’ll be running this next Sunday, so I should be able to write something up next week. I’m not sure if I’m going to use my GoPro for this or not since it won’t have much footage underwater and the biking and running probably won’t be too exciting. I might be able to whip up a short commercial-length video though. We’ll see.
On October 30th, instead of watching the Red Sox win the World Series like a good fan, I took the day off of work and headed down to Tampa for an Appalachian Trail Conservancy Membership Drive that included a showing of the movie Appalachian Impressions. I’ve been a fan of the Appalachian Trail for several years after a friend put the idea in my head of hiking the whole trail in one go – a thru-hike. During a road-trip that included heading up to Georgia, I had visited Vogel State Park and during a hike there, I had come oh, so close to the Appalachian Trail, but had to turn around due to time constraints and a waning sun.
I had gone to the Athens Theatre in Deland, a much shorter drive, several months ago to see a screening of the movie Mile… Mile and a Half, a documentary of a group of friends hiking on the John Muir Trail. I had thoroughly enjoyed that movie and when I saw the membership drive for the Appalachian Trail contained a movie, I became pretty interested. I requested the day off from work and purchased my ticket to the movie – which was actually just a donation of anything over thirty dollars. I forked over fifty as I believe in what the ATC is doing to protect and maintain the trail and I feel that money is better spent protecting a great piece of nature than some material possession.
On the day of the event, after hitting Wekiva Springs to complete a long swim for my Triathlon training – I completed three miles in two hours and ten minutes, double my personal-best distance that I had set the previous week. Then on the drive into Tampa, I finally hit fifteen thousand miles on my car. I had a feeling that this was going to be a good day. Once in Tampa, with some time to kill, I hit the beach at Honeymoon Island State Park for a half hour before heading back inland to find the theatre.
The event was held in a typical movie theatre, nothing special about it. Prior to the movie, we had a few speakers from the ATC talk about what they do and the Editor of the AT Journeys magazine read a moving story about a father and his son who had started a hike on the trail before stopping due to the father’s injuries. The son came down with cancer shortly after and wasn’t given much of a chance, but he made it through and they made their way back to the trail. A former thru-hiker also spoke about his experience on the trail and read a few entries from his journal, which mostly consisted of lists of food consumed.
The actual movie was interesting, being segmented state by state. The first half of the movie covered the first half of the trail – from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the midpoint in Pennsylvania. It would talk of many of the well-known or important parts of the trail from popular shelters to popular hostels, to every state line. Many thru-hikers were interviewed and their comments were interspersed with the narration to tell the story of the Appalachian Trail and what it takes to thru-hike it.
During the intermission, one of the speakers did a few rounds of trivia with prizes while many of the viewers left to use the restrooms. After the short break, the movie resumed with part two, picking up from the midway point and continuing until Mount Katahdin in Maine. The scenes, the comradery of the hikers on the trail, and the changing topography all made me want to walk into work and quit to go out and hike the Appalachian Trail. I guess that would make the movie a success, as I can’t imagine its objective being the opposite – to keep me off the trail. I still have yet to pass a single white blaze, but I feel it calling out to me. One of these days.
At the end of June I had to work eleven days straight, the last few of which were long ten and eleven hour days. I was also doing freelance work on the side, which increased my sense of apathy over anything having to do with work. I also greatly pissed off my VP of HR by replacing the background and homepage on his laptop with Red Sox images (he’s a Yankee fan) after he left his computer unlocked. I had a Friday off and spent three days doing nothing at home. The following week was the week of July 4th and I had the whole week off work, so come Monday, after stewing for three days, I headed off to the gym to work out and immediately upon leaving, hit the highway and headed North.
I hit I4, then I95, through Jacksonville, into Georgia, through Georgia, past Savannah, and into South Carolina. Upon entering South Carolina I started looking for a place to stop for food and gas, what I wasn’t looking at was my speedometer or the cop that tracked me down. After that delay, I found a place to stop to fill my tank and my stomach. Back on the road, I continued North on I95 into North Carolina and halfway through the state, finally turned off on Highway 64, which I rode all the way to the East Coast and the Outer Banks. It took me twelve hours total to get there from the time I left to the time I arrived.
My Sister had gotten there from Massachusetts the day before, driving down with her husband and three kids. The condo they had got for the week was on the fourth story and looked out over the beach, not that I could see it in the dark of night. The next morning however, I made my way out the door to see the rolling waves on the sand with the sun rising over the horizon. After a week and a half of stress, this was just what I needed.
My niece and nephew awoke, excited to see me. As we live over a thousand miles apart, I typically get to see them only once a year. It’s tough living so far from your family and I frequently get homesick not just for my family, but for the things that I can do when I’m in New England. But staying in the Outer Banks was a great alternative. The sun was hot, but the ocean was cool. I never really swam in it, I would just walk in and let the waves crash against me for a bit before getting out. I took several long walks on the beach – if you consider a mile long, which it kind of is in sand.
Most of the time we spent in the pool, as the kids were better able to swim there. I alternated between swimming with them and lounging around poolside with a good book – first Before the Big Bang: A Prehistory of our Universe, and then Rocket Boys. We also traveled around the Outer Banks on most of the days that I was there, to places like Jockey’s Ridge State Park where we flew kites for a bit, Bodie Island Lighthouse, Jennette’s Pier, and the town of Duck for the 4th of July Parade. There were also fireworks on the beach the night of July 4th, which my nephew did not like because of the loud noise. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though the fireworks were literally going off just above us.
We also got to celebrate my younger nephew’s first birthday while I was there. He was already a year old and this was the first time I had gotten to see him – more reasons why I hate living so far away from my family. He got to eat his first cupcake, and then have the cupcake removed after stuffing his mouth full. I think he liked it.
Eventually after a week of fun and sun, I had to make the long drive home on Saturday. With better planning for bathroom breaks, remembering how to use cruise control, and not getting pulled over, I was able to make it home in eleven hours and thirty minutes! And then I had a whole day off on Sunday before having to go back to work the next day. I enjoyed the whole trip – from the beautiful beach to experiencing something a little different, but most of all seeing my family again. Hopefully it won’t be another year and a half before I see them again.
ren3gade 