BLUERIDGE TRIP Pt.1

 Hey! I know it doesn't feel like it, but it's actually been a while since I've posted on this blog. Where have I been? Deep in the mountainous woods of Blueridge, Georgia. For the last week, I have been whisked away to a cabin at the start of the Appalachian Mountains with some friends, enjoying my first ever Spring Break away from home. But before I get too far ahead of myself, allow me to recount the days leading up to this nature getaway first!

    The plans to spend spring break in the woods had been pitched months earlier, all the way back in October. Back then, as we sat watching some movies, my buddy Tyler had mentioned renting a cabin for spring break, and maybe having a few friends to relax with. I agreed that this was a nice idea, but when he asked me directly about joining the trip myself, I was a little unsure, since it would be my first time being a part of a big trip with friends that I wasn't planning, and it also meant I'd be giving up a chance to visit my hometown and see my family, which I had been looking forward to. Still, he emphasized there was no pressure (for now) and I would later mention my plans to my parents, who were (reasonably) also a little unsure about it.

    However, as winter break came and went, and I got a lot closer with these guys during the months in-between, I decided that an opportunity like this only comes once in a lifetime, I'd never be a young college guy with my friends in the woods again, so I reached out to Tyler and locked in my position with the Blueridge gang. After that, there were a few people who dropped out of the trip, and a few people who were added last minute, but at the end of the day, I knew I had made the right choice by committing to this plan.

    So, much sooner than I had expected, spring break had finally come upon us, and it was just a day or two before we were scheduled to start driving all the way up to Blueridge from Tallahassee, which was a nearly eight hour drive (thank god I wasn't driving). It had been a bit of a lonely week since my roommate Wade had been gone for a week already filming documentaries, so I was eager to start packing my bags, cleaning my room, and say goodbye to my apartment for the time being, leaving it in the dubious "care" of our third roommate and his dog.

    When we had finally reached our cabin in the woods, I have to say I was breath taken. As corny as it sounds, I've always felt a calling to live away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and spend my days resting deep in the isolated forest. The second I stepped out from our claustrophobically cluttered car, I was enveloped in the sheer vastness of the forest in front of me, and the cabin that overlooked it all. If I had any doubts about living in a hut in the woods someday, those thoughts evaporated as I took in one long, deep breath of fresh forest air, and sat there listening for a while. Nothing but silence. There were no far off cars on the highway, no sirens of ambulances hurtling down the street outside of my room- there was simply nothing, the same way all noise gets drowned out when you submerge yourself in a pool completely. Now that I'm back in Tallahassee writing this blog, I cannot emphasize enough how I will chase this feeling of quiet peace for as long as I remain in this DAMN CITY!!

    Anyways... the first night at the cabin was pretty uneventful, to a point where no pictures were taken. That's right... crucify me if you must, but I think we were all just tired after the long drive and ready to crash on a bed (or couch, in my case) for the night. We went to a local restaurant for dinner, where we started a running joke about ketchup that would last the entire trip. Basically, one of our friends really liked the ketchup, and started asking everyone else if the ketchup was abnormally good, since they thought it was house-made ketchup. After tasting it, everyone called her crazy because it was literally normal bottled ketchup, and just to make sure, I ended up calling a waitress and asking if the ketchup here was made in-house. She looked at me like I was crazy, which was pretty funny, but when she brought us the check she actually gifted us a lot of free ketchup since "we liked it so much," which was even funnier. Still, free ketchup is free ketchup.

    On the first proper day of our cabin getaway, we didn't have any special events planned, so we decided to drive down to the small town of Blueridge, Georgia, to act like tourists and check out all of the local stores. We spent hours browsing all kinds of stores, starting with woodworking shops, precious rock and fossils stores, an African art store (how did they get here?), and a bunch of tourist trap gift shops where, predictably, we were the trapped tourists. I ended up buying a lot of stuff, none of which I regret, like this golden bird bowl. I have no idea what it could possibly be used for, but for only fifteen dollars, I knew I had to buy it.

    Other adventures in the town were pretty limited. Something I didn't know about small Southern towns: everything closes at like 5pm! This happy little surprise ended up cutting our town visit a little short, since we were only halfway through the stores in the town before everything started getting locked and shut down. Still, we had a delightful little visit at a gift store full of all sorts of memorabilia, though in the vast array of stuff being sold, there was quite a lot of questionable stuff. Sure, they would sell bumper stickers and magnets, but they also sold "100% genuine ninja stars" or yard signs that went into very explicit detail about what they would do to trespassers. After browsing the store, I ended up slipping out of it alone for a little solo adventure. And guess where that landed me? The local fudge and chocolate store! When I walked in, it was dead empty, so I chatted with the cashier for a while before she offered me some free samples of the fudges. I was more than happy to oblige, so I ended up sampling almost every damn flavor of fudge in the store. I felt a little guilty that I made this poor woman watch me eat fudge for like 10 minutes straight, so I made some purchases and promised I'd bring her more business so I didn't seem like a freeloader. When I came back with the rest of my friends, however, everyone ended up sampling everything too, which meant we were there for another half hour.... At least everyone bought some fudge, so it wasn't a complete waste of her time....

    By the time we got home from our little town visit, the sky had yet to darken completely, so my buddy Matt and I decided to take a little walk around our cabin to explore the surrounding wilderness. After being joined by our other friend Evan, the three of us made our way down some dangerously steep hills until we started to hear the sound of a nearby river, which we immediately agreed to go check out. It was a pretty short visit, and probably not worth the treacherous walk we had to go through, but we took some nice photos at the river, and enjoyed the quiet bubbling of the water as it made its way through the rocks and falls along the river.

    That night we all gathered around the campfire, loaded up some smores, and just enjoyed the wilderness experience. We all got to know each other a little better, talked about which upcoming parts of the trip we were most excited for, and sat silently as the fire crackled away. The next few days were going to be real exciting, so I'm saving all of that for the next blog post!