a few weeks before mother’s day, unsure of what i wanted to do to celebrate myself (and the birthing of three children), i was poking around some state parks to see what camping options were available. much to my surprise, gorges state park had one last campsite opening, so i snagged the reservation, not really […]
hiking
yet another escape to stone mountain…

a few days back, it was “cardio day” on my workout routine, so i packed my standard cardio items to go to the gym after i dropped off the girls at school. then, on a whim, i grabbed some bare minimum hiking essentials also. i literally had no idea which activity i planned to do, […]
impromptu to boone. (mostly a tale about another solo hike).

in an attempt to spice up our life a little, and not sit around all weekend in this stupid house, we made a semi-spontaneous decision to head to boone with the fam. and then we also made the decision to have me go up a day early to have some alone time without the fam. […]
spring break (in my late 40s).

my spring break at forsyth tech was a measly four days long and also did not coincide with the girls spring break from public school, so it seemed like another good time to make a dash into the wilderness, for a little solo, camping, hiking, rest, and recharge trip. since it was the first week […]
another stone mountain escapade

after a busy holiday season and then a stupidly snowy january, when the first day of sunshine rolled around (with the kiddos sitting in their desks at school), i hopped in the car and headed to the mountains. stone mountain is a favorite local hike, and it had been closed for a bit of time […]
happy birthday to me. camping/hiking edition.

my little rest and relax trip to virginia over fall break reminded me how much i need some camping/hiking/outdoor/alone time built into my schedule. so, for my birthday weekend, i snagged a campsite at hanging rock, then proceeded to get way ahead on my school work so i could properly enjoy the downtime, and then […]
the random happenings of october

let’s seeee here. it’s february as i’m typing this. i have a lot of fond memories of the month of october. a few bittersweet. but mostly fond. i guess that’s the whole idea of the sweet in the bittersweet, though. anywayyyyzzzz… let me kick things off with an update about school. i wrapped up the […]
whirlwind visit with the jacksons.

in late october, we had a surprise and very whirlwind visit from our road life friends, the jacksons, when they found themselves with some extra time while passing through the area on a long stretch of travel from the northeast to florida. i had already made plans to take a hike to hanging rock that […]
fall break recharge.

so, these days, community college operates on 8-week mini-semesters. i sort of got an explanation about why things are trending that way from derek’s sister who teaches at forsyth tech, but i’m not sure i agree with the reasoning. it’s pretty intense to cram an entire class into 8 weeks, and i definitely felt like […]
labor day hanging rock hike.

i managed to drag two of the other four members of my immediate nuclear family out to hanging rock on a beautiful (slightly warm) labor day for a little hike up to moore’s knob. (we actually made the decision to do the lesser traveled moore’s knob trail instead of hiking to hanging hanging rock when, […]