Here it is, the final blog post chronicling my Spring Break adventures in Blueridge, Georgia. Let's jump straight into it, we're on the home stretch!
After the second day of caving on Wednesday, we had once again stayed up very late partying, watching movies, and gaming. After all, what more would you expect from a bunch of college kids in a secluded cabin? However, it seems that we didn't learn our lesson from the other day, and we ended up sleeping through almost the entire day. Still, I was unwilling to let a day slip by us without going on some sort of adventure, so I convinced a few friends to hop in a car while everyone else was asleep and we drove over to a nearby Amish store. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't really anything that caught our attention, but there was a very sweet old Amish woman who offered us some free food at her store for showing interest in her culture. It was here that I tried "bacon cheese," which, shockingly, tasted exactly like what I expected: cheese with bacon in it. Fearing for my health if I continued to eat it, we hastily made our way out of the store.
After the Amish store, we decided to check out some of the local thrift stores around Blueridge, since most other stores had already begun to close for the day. In my experience, I've never had much luck with thrift stores, since they never really have anything my style. However, the thrift stores in rural Georgia must be some sort of treasure trove, because everyone ended up leaving with plenty of items, whether they be clothing, mugs, or other decorations! Some items I ended up buying were a cool rusty camera sculpture for Wade, a beer mug, a giant crucified Jesus, and a really nice jacket that I ended up wearing for the rest of the trip!
Later that night, after getting dinner at a BBQ restaurant, I was convinced to go on a nighttime hike. I would end up regretting this decision a few hours later. For context, a few friends of mine wanted to go on a night hike, but didn't have enough people to constitute a "safe" hiking group, so they needed one more person. I was already tired and averse to going on a hike so late, but out of the kindness of my heart and my friends' promises that it would be a "really short and quick walk in the woods," I ended up tagging along with them for the adventure. What followed was an agonizing march through the winding twilight of the woods as fog started to set in, blanketing the forest in a vague haze. Admittedly, this looked pretty cool, but after walking for 40 minutes and not seeing the end of the trail, I had begun to get stressed.
Finally, at around one hour into the hike, we finally saw a sign in the distance. Eager to finish the walk, I powered forward, only for my spirits to drop when I read the sign: "Congratulations! You are halfway through our longest trail!" By some accident or mishap, we had somehow gone off of the short trail and onto the longest path, which was just about five miles. With my hope shattered and the thin façade of optimism I was keeping up shredded, my mood had soured and I was really grumpy. For the rest of the trail, I had taken the lead in my hiking group, powering ahead with the steely determination to finish this god-forsaken trail once and for all. After what seemed like ages, I finally recognized where we parked the car, and we drove back to the cabin nearly three hours later in silence. Once home, I was cheered up by some smores!
On our last full day in Blueridge, we decided to all go on an
actually short hike to a suspension bridge in the woods. Although I wasn't exactly eager to go on another hike after the previous night's events, I still agreed to go since we'd all be going, it was a much nicer area, and it was daytime. And honestly, it's a good thing I agreed! We ended up getting some of my favorite pictures from the entire trip, and I was able to show off my brand new (actually old and used) thrifted jacket that I bought the other day! Don't I look handsome? The bridge itself was cool, although I was more interested in the shallow river that it spanned. If I was a little dumber, I might have attempted to cross it barefoot, but fortunately a lifetime of being lectured by my mother about the dangers of the world paid off: it was definitely too slippery to walk on, and I risked cutting my foot on a sharp rock or piece of debris. Instead, I opted to skip rocks across the water with my buddy Matt, and enjoyed the exceptionally tall, thick trees that populated this forest.
On the drive back from the hike, we realized that despite everything we had accomplished over the span of a week in this small town, there was still one store that we hadn't entered, despite driving past it every day, and making a comment or joke about it every time. Our final destination was... The McCaysville Drug & Gun. Here it was, the pinnacle of rural Southern America, the symbol of everything my personal ideology is against, the most cartoonish example of a town in the middle of nowhere with conservative values. After a week of driving past it and making jokes, we felt that in order to feel a sense of closure for the trip, we
had to visit the store, just to see how this lifestyle looks like.
Once inside, we saw... pretty much exactly what we expected to see. Lots of drugs on one side of the store, and lots of guns on the other. But in the middle there was a vast array of corny t-shirts, each sporting goofy quotes about drugs, guns, and God. As soon as I saw these shirts, I joked to Matt that I'd buy a shirt if he bought one too, but this quickly spread to the rest of the group, and by the time we walked outside, we had all bought our own, unique Drug and Gun shirts to commemorate our Spring Break trip together. My personal favorite shirt (which I bought) sported a picture of a gun next to a bible, with text that said:
TWO THINGS EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW HOW TO USE. NEITHER OF WHICH ARE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS. Once outside, me and the boys immediately put on our new shirts and posed next to the store sign, which might be one of the best group photos I've ever taken.
The next morning, we quickly cleaned up the cabin, packed our bags, and said our goodbyes to the cabin property we called home for the last week. However, just because we started to go home doesn't mean that the adventure is over! On our way back, we decided to stop by the Georgia Aquarium for one final activity before making the rest of the seven hour drive home. Honestly, this was a great idea! I had gone to this same aquarium during April of last year, while many of my friends had never been, so I was able to act as an impromptu tour guide and tell them which parts to go to first, and which exhibits to rush. I didn't take many pictures here though, since it had only been a year since my first time visiting, so enjoy the only picture I have (it's not the best). After that, we all piled into our cars and locked in on the drive home, enjoying our company one last time before we would get split up upon our return to Tallahassee.
Overall, this trip was probably one of the best decisions I've made in recent memory. Beyond it being just a great time and providing me with a lot of cool memories and pictures, I was able to really appreciate the new friends I've made during my time at FSU, and cemented my belief that these friends are going to stick by my side for a long time, just like I'll stick to them too. With my heart warmed and my patience restored, my battery feels recharged, and I'm ready to tackle the challenges the rest of the Spring semester will throw at me! Hope you enjoyed reading about my trip :)
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