The Drive

We left at 10:45 am after Jen's nephew's Pre-K graduation. Ipods were loaded with songs. We sang Indigo Girls for most of the Florida I-75 part of the trail. I kept eating out of boredom and felt too big for my britches, literally, by the time we hit North Georgia. The air got crisper and cooler as we drove north. Each state line welcome sign brought on a little cheer, woot and clap.

We decided to take a turn off the highway at Macon and take the scenic route, which added 2 hours to our trip, but life's too short not to see the sights. We were worried about it getting dark by the time we reached the mountains, but it amazingly stayed light until 9:15pm. Once we hit North Carolina, the A/C was turned off, the windows were rolled down and I got cold. :) The air smelled so good. Jen remembered the smell from her childhood trips here with the family. It smelled like a mix of fresh alfalfa and jasmine to me. (Jen: I never knew what that smell was, but it has always smelled like North Carolina to me. I have so many memories from NC trips as a kid, both with my Dad's side and Mom's side of the family. My grandparents used to have a cabin in Mountain Home that we affectionately called "The Hut".)

Tired and road faced, we finally arrived at our exit and took off on a country two lane road. The speed limit was 55 and I couldn't fathom how cars could drive so fast around the twist and turns without seeing what was ahead. I drove 35/40, damned be the 4-wheel drive trucks behind me. Jen asked me to slow down. "I'm already going 10 below the speed limit!" 8 miles off the highway seems so much farther than it sounds when there are no street lights. (J: I was freaking out - it seemed like we were going 60 and I was white-knuckling the door handle.)

We found our turn, and we went from a two lane country road to a one lane gravel road, if you could call it a lane. I started hearing music from 'Deliverance' in my head (cue the dueling banjos here). We couldn't see anything unless it was directly in front of us. The road got steeper. A broken-down army truck was on the side of the road. The directions said third house on the left, but we couldn't see any houses. (J: I thought we might have to sleep in the car until it got light out!) Jen wanted to slow down but I felt if we slowed down my car would start sliding backwards down the gravel path!

We finally pulled up to a house right in front of us, both scared out of our minds but not admitting it. Good God Almighty, it was our rental property! Next task, finding the key in the 'scarecrow'. (J: The directions on the paper that the owner gave us said, "Key is in scarecrow beside" Well...beside WHAT? We were in no mood for riddles.)

We took our gas station flashlight and walked around the house, in the woods, with nothing around, looking for a scarecrow. It was finally found by the front door, sitting on a bench, not event 2 feet tall. (J: It may as well have been a clown. Creepiness factor -- HIGH.) We crawled through the 2 inch monster bugs and finally got inside. Phew.

Neither of us could sleep because we were so damn scared so we stayed up and watched a movie. (J: Both of us had minor anxiety attacks but managed to get to sleep at around 2 am.)