As many of you already know, our good friends Chris & Bethy recently moved to Boone from Bethel. Chris was a Jesuit volunteer the year prior to my first JV year in 2005. He apparently also got the Bethel bug and stayed around for the following 7 years. Whew. Time flies.
Anyway, it was a real treat to visit with these guys in Boone. Leaving Bethel was a bit traumatic for all of us I think so it was nice to share our experiences downstates and console one another. Ha! Andrew and I spent a whole week hanging out with Chris in between his classes and paper-writing sessions (it was the last week of classes before finals!) and meeting up with Bethy for lunch at the sweet natural foods grocery store where she works. It's great to see Chris so excited about his graduate program- appropriate technology. Appalachian State is a beautiful campus right in the heart of Boone, within walking distance. We were also happy to spend some time with Jill & Jesse in town with their sweet babe Adah. (More former Bethel folks!!)
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| C.P. gave us a tour of some of the campus' sustainable building projects. |
One of the highlights of our visit was hiking down Linville Gorge, which was about a 45 minute drive from Boone. We ended up losing the trail once we made it down to the river in the gorge- it didn't appear to be maintained well. Naively looking for an adventure I suppose, we made the mistake of trying to bushwack a quarter mile to intersect with the trail downriver. Our orienteering was right on, however, we didn't anticipate such a crazy rhododendron jungle off trail!! We found ourselves tasked with precariously walking over a lattice of twisting rhododendron branches, three feet off the ground. I was nearly impaled a few times by jagged branches (yikes), but in the end we triumphed! (Chris is, after all, a former wilderness guide for wayward youth...) Our whacking paid off- we stumbled upon a beautiful waterfall and found another perfectly maintained trail back up the ridge.
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| Linville Gorge |
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| Chris & Bethy at their rental in Boone. |
Random sidenote: I am suddenly and inexplicably a cat person! Cats love me and I love them, despite a lifetime of misunderstanding and fear. These cats and another of their siblings in the photo above followed Chris, Andrew and I on a long walk around a farm property outside Boone. I think this new cat connection is due to my Reiki attunement. I guess they can sense it- who knows? Andrew is thrilled, of course, as he has always been a cat lover. And for the record, no worries, I still love dogs too. :-)
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| Bethel does things to a person... |
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| Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina |
Despite a week of exploring, we managed to resist getting stuck in western North Carolina. Whew. It was definitely a cool place to hang out and we both loved the landscape, but I imagine it's the old-timers living alternative lifestyles that really make the Asheville and Boone areas special. Unfortunately, we didn't get to connect with any homesteaders or backwoods types. Maybe next time. And then we'll be so inspired we'll have to stay.
And so with a healthy fill of Appalachian air and some good ol' rest and relaxation, we took off for the short 2-hour drive southeast to Charlotte. There we spent a couple nights visiting my yogi uncle, Everett, and his girlfriend Katherine. Their new condo is in a fancy, yet empty, highrise building downtown. I'm pleased to report that during our visit, I beat Andrew in two games of pool. And Everett. Sweet! Andrew beat me back the next day but hey, I never thought I had even a chance! Anyway, many thanks to Everett for assisting me with my yoga practice and for stimulating our minds for the next few months. :-)
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| Uncle Everett in Charlotte |
Well, from Charlotte we had planned to head west on the long journey to Oregon via Missouri, Kansas and Colorado... But plans change and so we chose to head just a few short hours south to Canton, Georgia to visit Andrew's friend Charley from college...
... and then we were lured quite a bit further south to visit more of Andrew's college friends, Beth & Matt... and somehow here it is almost Christmas and we're planning to continue the journey for a tropical, well swampy anyway, Christmas celebration in the Everglades! We're hoping our Alligator Acres experience prepared us for Alligator Alley...
Happy Solstice & Merry Christmas!!
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