Trail Running

Before we hit the open road Kaitlin asked me: “What do you think is the farthest we could drive in one day?” I replied with: “I think we should always get to a campground no later than 5pm, 4:30pm if possible.”

We thought it would be best (and so did the rents) to get set up long before dark so we had plenty of time to unpack and get settled.

So naturally, when we left Crystal River at 11am, we decided to drive straight to Pine Mountain, Georgia, and get to our friends cabin around 7pm. The sun set at 7:05pm.

Although we made it just fine, it was touch and go a few times.

We stopped to get gas— which we have been greatly avoiding while pulling Trudy— and after waiting for our turn and being cut off by an older women who thought the middle of the road was a parking spot, we abandoned our plan to go a little further up the road.

Well, there was a pretty huge dip leaving the station, which is probably why no one went in the way we did, but we had to go down it.

As slow as we could we inched forward. Our hearts dropping had to have been audible when a loud sound of metal and pavement filled our ears. People were staring and not because of Trudy’s incredible good looks.

We both tried to remain calm, Trudy is sturdy, she had to be fine.

A few miles down the road we find a much less crowded gas station and realize the crank and jack attached to Trudy— you know the thing you turn to get her off the hitch and make her level?— yeah, that was now at about a 60 degree angle.

I am very proud at the lack of panic in the car for the next few hours.

We wound and turned up highway 19 and into the sleepy little town of Pine Mountain.

After barley avoiding a bearded man walking his dog in the middle of the road, we pulled in to our friends cabin— Old Chipley.

We should have backed in, but it was too late for that. I must say, our backing up skills have become fairly excellent over the past few days.

Calmly, we made our way into the house, and then FaceTimed my Uncle Kenneth, an expert RVer, to ask him about the damage.

“Darlin’, that does look a little scary but just don’t go havin’ any wild parties in there for a few days and you should be fine, but I’d go get that straightened out in the mornin’.” He has a very thick southern accent typing just can’t bring out so I encourage you to use your imagination.

I will admit, I was still worried. But, this was Pine Mountain, not Atlanta, and everywhere was closed for the weekend so we had to wait until Monday.

Pine Mountain is famous for a few things: The Pine Mountain Trail, and FDR’s Little White House.

We hit the trail first, which was smart considering the amount of pain we would be in the next day.

We hiked 10 miles.

The Wolfed Loop was a 7 mile loop winding past a number of waterfalls we had read about. I don’t know where we went wrong but we didn’t see any waterfalls. After about 5 miles we ended up back at our car so we did do a loop, just not the right one.

A more experienced hiker told us to drive a few miles down the road and pick up the trail to Cascade Falls. “It’s just two miles in and then just hike back out, it’s really worth it.”

I don’t know who measured the miles in this here park but I would like them to re-measure them because there is no way in hell that was two miles.

Exhausted from the day, I am pretty sure I drove well over the speed limit to Taco Tavern where we rewarded ourselves with tacos and margaritas. Worst margs ever but they made up for it with oreo churros for dessert.

I went to visit Kaitlin in Hawaii awhile back and her brother likes to go trail running.

After the 4th or 5th mile here in Georgia one of us decided to just yell out “TRAIL RUNNING” and just start running.

The burning in my legs four days later is making me regret that decision.

Keep in mind, our total focus and energy has been on Trudy and the renovation, so working out moved to the back burner and boy do we wish that wasn’t the case. Getting out of bed in the morning felt like bricks were tied to my legs and rocks were in my shoes, and forget about easily sitting down on the toilet, every thing was hard.

We decided to take it easy.

We drove to FDR’s Little White House just a few miles outside of Pine Mountain.

The most adorable little cottage with a breathtaking view of the mountains was quite the informational tour. From birth to death you learn all about FDR’s life and the events around the world.

FDR was truly a great president, he worked hard to get affordable power to rural America and helped thousands of polio patients gain treatment while also bringing us out of the Great Depression and shepherding is through a world war. My mommy told me that is as political as I should get on here so I will move on.

The winding road back took us to Dowdell’s Knob, a scenic overlook, and then miraculously ended up at the best BBQ in town.

They had one size sweet tea: huge.

We are trying to watch our figures so we shared a platter, split it, and saved the other half for dinner.

Still pooped from our hike the day before, somehow we went to bed at 9pm. But that is ok because we had to figure out a way to get Trudy out of the driveway and to an auto shop early the next day.

My mom asked us why we didn’t put our backs against the car and try to push it with our legs to straighten out the jack. Thats what moms are for, great advice and brilliant ideas.

After removing a spider with a body the size of a quarter I pushed and Kaitlin pulled putting Trudy in her full upright position. I am making it sound so much easier than it was, it was ridiculously hard.

Through great communication and patience it only took us four tries to get out of the driveway and we were on the road again.

Spoiler Alert: We didn’t stop halfway like we were supposed to, we headed right to Cleveland, South Carolina to get hiking to some waterfalls.