a 24-hour get-away

This past week I was feeling pretty down on myself. I can't exactly tell why, though I could speculate pretty well if I tried. Anyway, I decided to take a trip to clear my head. Originally I thought about going to Virginia Beach (i LOVE that place!), but a 14 hour drive one way and work on Monday just didn't seem like a good or logical idea. Then I thought about how much I love the mountains. That's what people did in times of old for peace and revelation--they went to the mountains. So I followed the example of several scriptural prophets and drove four and a half hours to the Great Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee.

I didn't leave until about 5:30pm, which put me at the national park at 11:00pm. I forgot that it's in the eastern time zone until I got there and looked at my phone which had updated itself. The drive was nice, and I was probably fine after that. Four hours of blaring whatever music I wanted because I didn't have to worry about anybody's preference of music except myself, and I didn't have to worry about the volume bothering anyone else either. I yelled along with the lyrics to my Avril Lavigne album, I cried during my entire Goo-Goo Dolls CD, danced and had fun to my punk rock mixes, and felt rather fulfilled by the time I passed through Pigeon Forge. There was hardly anybody else on the road by that time, which was nice. I made it through a sobriety checkpoint without the cops thinking I was drunk (and I wasn't, of course), and I rolled the windows down as I drove through the woods and up a mountain in the dark.

I pulled into the camp ground parking lot at Cades Cove, and nothing was open. I found some parking spots away from all the other cars and pulled into one. I didn't feel much like setting a tent up in the dark, plus I was tired. So I cracked open all the windows, shimmied into the back seat of the Camry, rolled up a towel for a pillow and used my mission blanket for warmth when it got chilly during the night. I went to sleep really quickly. It was nice and quiet and I had no service on my cell phone. What else was I gonna do?

I had intended on sleeping until it got light outside. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. About 5:00am I woke up to some guy retching just outside my window. I came out of a dead-sleep, and wasn't sure if I'd heard correctly or was just dreaming. Then I heard him again. I immediately felt grossed out and lost whatever amount of appetite I had that early in the morning. I leaned up just enough to see out of my window. There was his car, parked right next to mine. It wasn't there when I went to sleep. Why was he all the way up in the mountains puking this early in the morning when he wasn't here late last night? Whatever. I plugged one ear and rolled over so the other was buried in my make-shift pillow and dozed off some more. I woke up a couple more times the same way, then finally I heard his car start and leave. Thank goodness. I sat up and looked at the time. 5:49am. It was just beginning to lighten up outside. I decided to find a spot to watch the sunrise. But I didn't dare get out of the car to find out what leftovers my neighbor had left around in the parking lot, so I drove around a bit to find a good trail.

On my way to find an outlook for the morning sun to break over top of, I suddenly realized just how badly I needed to use the bathroom. I laughed to myself as I recalled so many various men bragging and claiming "the world is my bathroom." I adopted that motto for myself this morning.

Then I finally was hungry. I found a nice rock to sit on by one of the trails I'd found, and took to eating the granola I'd brought with me (which, the Bear Naked Mango Agave Almond is delicious!) and read some from the Book of Mormon. It was so picturesque--there I was, sitting on a rock by a bubbling little stream, reading the scriptures in the silent, cool morning of the Smoky Mountains. Life could not have gotten any better.

I finished up, feeling entirely uplifted. It was like happiness was slowly soaking back into every cell of my body just by spending time in the middle of the mountains. As I continued walking, I found a place where a fire had apparently been. It was quite an interesting phenomenon. On one side of the path, everything was charred and dead and burnt, while the other side was lush and green and beautifully overgrown. I took a picture to try and capture the effect.




I continued driving and hiking around for the entire morning, enjoying every second of it.

I decided I want to live down a road that looks like this:

I don't know where I'll find a place like that to live, except in the middle of nowhere. But I am going to find a place similar enough one day where I can live and enjoy going out to visit with Mother Nature often.

I had to drive into Gatlinburg to gas up at one point and nearly gagged when I saw the gas prices there. $2.25 a gallon! In Clarksville it's $2.09. As I finished putting just enough gas in the tank to get me by, the screen on the pump read "Thank you for your business." I laughed out loud, and without thinking sarcastically said back "Thank you for eating my wallet!" Then I realized I was talking to an inanimate object and the guy at the other pump was staring at me. I just smiled and got in my car and left. I didn't care what anyone thought of me.

Aside from the outrageous prices there, I fell in love with Gatlinburg. It's a huge tourist spot, but it's such a beautiful little city. The architecture and old-fashioned designs of lots of the older buildings there just enthralled me. I drove down the same street four times just because I loved looking at everything so much. I could easily live in a place that looks like that and be completely happy my entire life. One day after I've saved up a huge wad of cash I'll take a real vacation to Gatlinburg.

My last destination before I decided I was ready to come back home was a place I'd been three years ago, almost exactly to the date. It's the highest point on the Appalachian Trail and the tower built there looks like something straight out of star wars. As I drove farther up the mountain toward Clingman's Dome, I suddenly found myself in a cloud. The last time I was there was like that too--so foggy I couldn't see more than maybe 50 feet in front of me. It's really cool, but I was kinda bummed out. I really wanted to see the view from the top of the mountain! As I walked back down I recognized where the walking path met up with the Appalachian Trail. When I made it back to the car, my hair was practically dripping wet because of how dense the fog was. I loved it!

On the drive back down there were patches of light where the sun was melting through the fog. Words can't describe what a beautiful experience it all was, being there and seeing and feeling what I did. What a refreshing and all around lovely experience! I'll have to do that from time to time when I get to feeling overloaded or unhappy. That was one of the most therapeutic things I've ever done. I know I love it, but I always seem to forget just how much I love the outdoors until I make it back there again...