Getting away

We decided to take a trip up to the mountains over the weekend.  It was unbearably hot on the island, with a new record set on Saturday.  The mountains were cooler and stunning in their beauty.

We watched the fog creep up from the valley and continue up the mountain where we were staying with a friend.  His drive way is straight up on a gravel road.  No room for error either on these roads with no shoulder and steep drops into gorges and ravines.

I was reminded of hiking in these mountains when I was in college.  I would spend a weekend every once in a while hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  Those were the days when I was in love with a graduate student who was a few years older than me.  We would camp out under the stars, wash in cold streams, and walk for miles.  Once we walked through a patch of nettles which caused our skin to sting and itch.  Tending to those spots where the nettles hit against skin was soothing in many ways.  We ran naked through meadows, picked wild flowers to put in our hair and made love every chance we got.  I haven't seen her in years but still remember that magical time in the mountains.

Now my wife and I make our own magic but without the wild abandonment of youth.  Likely there will be some good times because we are going to continue our vacation by going on the boat for a few days starting tomorrow. Off the grid again which is okay by me. A time to chill out and be rocked to sleep on the water.

I just hope that my back feels better--pulled a muscle in the lower back over the weekend and the pressure on the nerve is quite painful at times. I took a muscle relaxer and a hydrocodone pill this afternoon.  I don't like to take prescription pain killers, but I was hurting so badly that it seemed the best thing to do.

I picked up Pandora's ashes this morning.  She was reduced to a small container. I look for her in the morning, expecting to hear her meow.  No more worries over her now though.  We can go away knowing that the animals are doing well.

I can feel my eyes getting heavy.  The muscle relaxer is relaxing my whole body. Time for sleep.  Hope that your week will be a good one.  I'll leave you with a few shots of the Smoky mountains.  
 

Fog over the lake near Robbinsville, NC

Old log cabin near Robbinsville, NC

Nantahala National Forest

Tree of Shame at Tail of the Dragon

All kinds of parts and pieces of motor cycles are hung up on this tree at Tail of the Dragon. 

Catching up and letting go

We got back home from Mexico after a marathon at the airport in Phoenix. Long lines in security caused delays, and we missed our connecting flight by 5 minutes. We finally got home around 10:30 AM the following day.  Strange how such a delightful vacation can end so abruptly as a problem occurs. But we were simply tired and not angry or disturbed. I saw a lot of people who were arguing with the airlines and getting worked up. It was not the airlines problem. And there was nothing that could be done. So we talked, had dinner, and looked at our photos.

After getting home, I felt really tired. I came down with a head cold within two days and have felt pretty miserable.  But I am now on the mend.

My wife was surprised by the landscaping magic that occurred while we were gone. It was a present to her. And it turned out beautifully.  There are still a few finishing touches to be done (and the orange cones aren't staying!).  But we have been enjoying the transformation.

I also sold my first sailboat which has been living on a trailer for the last three years. She left today with her new owner.  This makes me happy.  I had to wait until I got to a point when I felt that I was no longer emotionally attached to the boat.  And I know that she is going to a great new owner who is so thrilled to get her. 

Somehow it seems that our trip is now so far away.  It was a wonderful time. But I am ready to be a home body for a few months. And I am looking forward to getting back out on my boat next week.  My wife will be heading up to Nantucket for her annual get away with a few friends. 

I was talking to a fellow on Tuesday night after the meeting. He asked me how I stopped obsessing over other people that I loved.  I said that it came about gradually--a little bit of letting go over time, until I finally realized that obsessing was just wasted energy that fueled anger and anxiety.  And then it was the realization that the other person has a higher power, no matter what that is, but I knew that I wasn't it.  It is hard to explain the relief of not obsessing about what others do.  I have no control over them and could let them be. 

I hope to get around to reading more of your posts.  I have a lot of catching up to do on the blogs. Happy Saturday to all of you. 

Another day of adventure

Yesterday we spent the afternoon and early evening riding along the ridges and cliffs and beach of the Pacific. It was truly magnificent and startlingly beautiful. 

The horses were sturdy and sure footed,  looking almost like mustangs. The guide was on an Appaloosa. We passed through miles of cactus and brush. One of the cactus trees was 600 years old! We saw abandoned homes left by Americanos, mansions now dilapidated. I wondered if these were a casualty of the Great Recession. But the view from every home was the most magnificent I have seen in a while. The guide said when we reached the top of a cliff that this was his office. I could get used to such an office. 

The ranch where the tour starts and ends has several acres but is poor. There were 47 horses and all seemed to be well cared for by the workers. We saw strange looking pigs, very much like a peccary. It was a charming place, like something out of a Western movie. Goats, chickens, ducks also roamed around. I bought a poncho and blanket at the tiny store. 

As we drove back through the streets, I was also intrigued by the parts of Cabo where tourists at resorts don't go so much. The little shops and open air food places were fascinating. So many photographing opportunities of real life. I hope to go there this week to take photos. Resort life is comfortable, but I would rather be among the real people who live here. I don't understand coming to a country as full of life as this and only staying by the pool to drink and sun bathe.  Seems incredibly lacking in cultural curiosity. 

Anyway, here are photos from the ride yesterday. Today we are going sailing for a few hours. I hope I'm not boring you with photos and travelogue babble. I am so glad to be here. I know that I will want to come  back again. 

Here at the Pacific

We arrived in Cabo San Lucas around noon. It took a while to get baggage and make our way to the shuttle past all the hucksters. Competition for tourista dollars makes for a lot of land sharks. We were polite but not interested in a timeshare. 

After getting to the resort, we got something to eat and then walked to the nearest store to buy a few items for tomorrow. We plan on doing some cooking for breakfast and then eating out at local restaurants for a few meals.

This is a stunning place with the Pacific waves incredibly strong. So many sailing yachts of all kinds were out near sunset. And it was interesting to watch the boogie board competition going on. I have taken quite a few photos with my big camera but am sharing a few taken with the iPhone for ease of posting. 

Tomorrow we plan to go on an excursion into town. And there may be zip lining, horse back riding, historic tours planned as well. We will take each day and see what unfolds.

It seems alcohol casts its shadow every where. The screams, curse words, and door slamming coming from the room next door were cut short when I called security. I'm not willing to listen to people screaming all kinds of trash at each other. Now it's quiet. 

I have to say that the staff have been wonderful. They remember who we are and seem to truly want us to enjoy being here. I want this to be a place we can come back to again. I am definitely intrigued with the sail boats at the nearby marina. Any where with water makes me happy.

Before we left home, I learned that a fellow I know died suddenly. He was a bad alcoholic who would take in drinking buddies. Evidently, he took in a guy for a few days and got into a fight with him. The police were called and the fellow who beat up Larry was arrested for assault. Larry was found dead the next morning. 

And his dog, who is a sweet Labrador mix named JuJu, was taken to the animal shelter. When I heard about that, I drove to the shelter to rescue her. Fortunately, she has been adopted by a friend who has a yellow Labrador. He met me at the shelter and was able to take JuJu home that afternoon. It was a great relief to know that she has a good home.  So at least some part of the sad tale has a happy ending. 

It's time for us to take an evening walk. More from Cabo later.

A real adult vacation and other happenings

The weather has turned hot and humid here.  I knew it would because that is so characteristic of the Lowcountry.  It has also been dry for over a week, and I have been watering the garden and the plants that are waiting to be put into the front yard beds after the irrigation system is laid out.

We decided to have the front lawn landscaped too.  I think that it will be truly stunning when completed. Right now, it looks like a dirt baseball field or a farm plot that a mule has plowed because all of the old grass was scraped up.  But soon it will look like paradise.  It actually looked good before all of this, but after seeing what magic was created in the backyard, we took the plunge on the front yard transformation too.

I didn't write a Mother's Day post yesterday because it seemed just too much. Last year, Mom had died in February. My mother has been dead now since 2005.  The loss of those two women has been incredibly hard. I think about them not just on Mother's Day.  Reaching the stage in life where I am without parents and no close blood relatives is sort of depressing. So I decided that yesterday, I would go for a sail with some friends and then visit the parents of one of my friends.

The sail was on a cat boat which is gaff rigged and only 18 feet. It was a lot of fun, even though we had light air.  The impending storm only concerned us for a few moments.  It did make for a spectacular backdrop for the city though.

I am getting ready to embark on another adventure. We leave for Cabo San Lucas on Saturday morning. Neither of us has been to Baja California Sur before, but I am familiar with the abundant marine life around the Baja peninsula, sandwiched between the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. And I have read and re-read Steinbeck's Log from the Sea of Cortez, detailing a marine specimen-collecting expedition he made at various sites in the Gulf of California (aka the Sea of Cortez), with his friend and drinking buddy, the marine biologist Ed Ricketts. 

We are now trying to decide what to pack and what to unpack.  I am only concerned about taking my camera bag and tripod, knowing that a couple of pairs of shorts and shirts in a backpack will do me just fine. I can tell you that we are flying there. I have had an unbelievable number of people ask me how I am getting there--as if we are going to sail. I haven't calculated the time it would take to get there averaging 6 knots, but suffice to say, sailing would take a much longer time than we currently have. Now that would be a voyage! 

I am hoping to take in a meeting when I am on vacation. The condo where we are staying is about one mile from the town. So I will be looking for the Serenity Club when I am in Cabo.  Somehow, I think that just being in that place on vacation will be serenity enough. 

Hopefully, I will be able to do some short posts while I am away. I am not sure about the wifi situation. Maybe I will just be off the grid. But if I do post, it will be with some photos and to tell you what is going on. A real adult vacation--the first one in a long time. Too long. Be well. 

Calm and peaceful vacation with a side of adventure

We have had a great vacation so far.  Today, we are resting up from our hikes and white water rafting. Both were quite the experience.  We hiked up to the summit of Grandfather Mountain on Sunday.  It was a strenuous hike on some pretty rough terrain.  But the scenery as you can see below was gorgeous.  It was about 45 degrees and blowing 35 mph at the summit.  But it felt wonderful after a hard hike up.

Swing bridge over a gorge

View to summit of Grandfather

On Monday, we went rafting doing some class 3 rapids.  We were paired up with a couple having two young children who spent most of the time complaining or crying.  I am reminded again of why we don't have children.  I am sure that everyone loves their own dearly, but the rest of us don't necessarily find them as charming.  In their defense, I don't think they were the adventuresome sort and would have rather had some other activity.  The dad was detached and personable. The mother talked non-stop and kept asking us if Paula Dean was from our town.  She said that she thought her saying the "n" word was no reason to fire her.  Needless to say, we both had to practice "pause when agitated" several times.  Luckily, most of the time we were paddling, and the rushing water was drowning out her noisome chatter.  I now want to do an overnight trip and will probably try to book so that we either are the only couple or find a couple of friends to go along.  It was spectacular scenery--sheer cliffs, beautiful trees, and a winding river.

On Tuesday, we hiked through Linville Gorge and to the headwaters and plunge areas of the falls.  A lot of walking all day!  But the scenery continued to amaze me.  I am reminded of just how much beauty there is within several hours from home.  And the peacefulness was amazing.

The twin falls

Water rushing to the main falls

The gorge

Rafting area

We had an unintentional adventure today in the rain and fog.  I mapped a route to visit an area near Blowing Rock.  My iPhone with good ole Siri gave me directions.  The route took us off the tarmac onto a gravel road that wound for a couple of miles as we climbed the mountain.  We were surrounded in mist and clouds with not another car or person around.  Another exhilarating opportunity to take the sports car for a run on the switchbacks!

Shrouded by clouds and mist

Tomorrow, we are going zip lining through the tree canopy and over some gorges.  I hope that the rain will stop by then.  So far, it has been nice to try some new things.  And I know that whitewater rafting is definitely something that I want to do again.  

Tomorrow night, I am heading to a meeting. There will be another opportunity on Friday to go as well.  I feel amazingly calm and peaceful.  

Hope that you are having a good week.  

Heading to the mountains

We are getting ready to head up to the mountains for a week.  The weather here has been rainy and humid.  The wind that has been blowing since mid-February has become calm which adds to the feeling that the dog days of summer are here.  The forecast for the mountains looks to be chilly at night with the highs for the day around 70.  I can tell you that will be a welcome respite from what we have been experiencing lately.

I am taking along photography gear, of course.  There will be new terrain to photograph and hopefully some waterfalls will provide interesting and beautiful photos.  Hiking, relaxing and visiting sites in the area are definitely something we want to do as well.

Although I live on the coast and consider myself a coastal person, I do like the old Smoky Mountains for their weather beaten beauty.  I haven't hiked in the Rockies so I know that I would like their spectacular majesty as well.  There is something about the Smokies though that brings back many good memories of childhood vacations--a chance to get away from the coast and get into some cool, crisp air.

And their geology is fascinating.  Here is a summary from the National Park Service:
Between about 310 and 245 million years ago, the eastern edge of the North American tectonic plate collided with the African tectonic plate becoming part of a "supercontinent" known as Pangaea. Continental collisions take place at a rate of a few inches per year over many millions of years and are the result of continuing global-scale plate tectonics. Evidence of earlier plate tectonic geologic events are found in rocks of the Great Smoky Mountains, attesting to an incredibly long and active geologic history in this area. During one of these earlier continental collisions, tremendous pressures and heat were generated, which changed or "metamorphosed" the Smokies sedimentary rocks. 

The last great episode of mountain building uplifted the entire Appalachian mountain chain from Newfound-land, Canada to Alabama. These mountains probably were much higher than today, with elevations similar to today's Rockies. As the African tectonic plate gradually pushed against the edge of the North American plate, the original horizontal layers of the rocks were bent or folded and broken by faults. Huge masses of older, deeply buried rocks were pushed northwestward, up and over younger rocks along a large, nearly flat-lying thrust fault, known as the Great Smoky Fault. 

Following this final episode of Appalachian mountain building, the supercontinent of Pangaea broke apart, and the North American and African tectonic plates gradually moved to their present position. The new rugged highlands, the ancient ancestors of the Smokies, were subjected to intense erosion from ice, wind, and water. As mountain valleys were carved, tremendous quantities of eroded sediment were transported toward the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico by rivers and streams. 

As the mountains were worn down, the layers of rock most resistant to erosion were left to form the highest peaks in the Smokies........ Most of the beautiful waterfalls in the park were formed where downcutting streams encountered ledges of very resistant metasandstone that erodes more slowly than the adjacent slate or metasiltstone. Today, geologists estimate that the mountains are being eroded about two inches every thousand years.

Several of you asked about the movie that we saw.  It was Kon Tiki and was excellent.  I read the book many years ago and saw the old documentary film at some point when I was a child.  But this newly released movie is really worth seeing.  What an adventure to travel nearly 5000 miles on a raft! I could feel an urge to do something similar with my boat.  And there may be an opportunity for me to sail from the Dominican Republic back to SC later this fall on a friend's catamaran.  More will be revealed with that adventure.

Not much else is going on, except we are making plans to create an outdoor cooking and dining area in a wooded area near one of the outbuildings.  It will have a stone fireplace, with a wood fired oven, a fire pit, teak furniture, and containers of plants.  We are designing it now and that should provide some interesting DIY opportunities beginning in September, once we are finished with the staging of the parent's home for real estate listing.

So far, we have moved over 70 boxes from their house to a storage unit. Gradually, we will go through those boxes to decide what to sell and what to keep.  Much of what they had are antiques, including china, glassware and collectibles.  It has seemed like an overwhelming task in the beginning, but every day we are making good progress.  In about two weeks, we expect the house will be ready to list.

I have found great comfort in going to meetings and working with those I sponsor.  I have a list of meetings to attend next week.  I enjoy going to meetings out of town and find that most people are friendly and welcoming.  It's another way to practice the principles of the program in my life.

I had an opportunity to do that last week when I had a meetup with about 20 sailors at the marina, taking half the group out on my boat for a two hour sail. We also hosted a group of about 16 photographers from around the area at the house following a photo shoot in the historic village nearby.  Both events went well and gave me an opportunity to socialize with other people with whom I share a common interest. But now, it's nice to know that I don't have any further obligations for a long time.  I can retreat back to some relative solitude and look forward to enjoying time with just the two of us in the weathered mountains.

Home alone

My wife left on Friday for a week long vacation in New England.  She is staying on one of the Cape's islands with some friends from graduate school.  This is a much needed vacation for her.  I've talked to her several times since she left, and she is happy and relaxed.  That is enough to make me so very happy too.

In the meantime, since she left, I have been keeping busy with the yard and garden.  Today I went to the boat for a couple of hours.  It felt good to be on board for a little while, and then I had to get home to take care of the animals.  Pandora is fitting in nicely with the other cats.  She is eating well and purrs every time I come near her.

The blueberries are ripe in the garden so I've been eating them every day for about a week.  I've picked several tomatoes as well, and they are ripening on the window sill. And the eggplant are starting to ripen too.  It looks like a good year for the garden. The drip irrigation system helps a lot, and it's on a timer which makes things easy.

I am going to see my father-in-law tomorrow.  Hopefully, he will feel good enough to be pushed along in his wheel chair outside.  He is so very thin and fragile.  My wife and I can sense that his death is not far away.  I don't think that he ever really got over his wife's death.  But it is father's day, and I want to spend some time with the old man.  

Next week, I will be back at meetings.  I'm chairing one on the newest Al-Anon book Many Voices, One Journey. I'm going to focus on the period from1925-1950, the time of active alcoholism and isolation that started founders, Lois and Bill Wilson, on the road to recovery.  Who knew that Al-Anon used to be called "Non-Alcoholics Anonymous," or that sometimes women whose husbands started drinking again were asked to stop coming to meetings, or that there was a major fight over whether to allow adult children of alcoholics to join the fellowship? 

That's about it from here.  I hope that your weekend is going well. 

A week away

We have been enjoying a week at a resort down South. We got here on Sunday and have been enjoying a different kind of beach--developed--and a fabulous fitness center. We've been in yoga, Pilates, and the hot tub which has done some amazing good on my lower back.

Early in the morning we get up and go for a morning walk. Then we go to the fitness center, and of course, there are naps and a few shopping expeditions for groceries.

One of the main reasons we came was to attend an AA/Al- Anon conference that starts here today. There will be speakers and workshops. I have been before and liked the conference. So we coupled this with a time to get away and not be too far from home if we are needed.

It's been a great time so far. And I suspect it is about to get better with seeing old friends and meeting new ones. More on this later.