the essence

We finally made it to Kentucky, we got to my grandparents around 10:40 last night & we were greeted with some yummy friend chicken & mashed potatoes.

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted last. The time has just flown by & I can't say that I have a favorite part of the trip. I LOVED DC, I'm such a city girl & I had so much fun staying with Ruth & Ernie. Two of our other couple friends live in their same neighborhood so we were able to visit & have dinner with several people. And seeing Ruth inspsired me to want to go home & bake & do more homemakerish stuff.

I can tell you waht my absolute least favorite part of the trip has been: camping for the first time in my life. Ray, always the penny pincher, thought it only made sense to camp because it cost less than $20 a night. Woohoo. It was awful. He even borrowed a tent & two heavy-duty-keep-you-warm-in-a-blizzard sleeping bags. I'm going to kill our friends who lent those to him.

Thankfully the first night he just rented a cabin on a campground. It was really a 12x12 room with a bed & bunkbed in it (& electricity) but no running water. It was only $29 and actually not too bad. It was set in the woods which kind of freaked me out & I made Ray walk with me to the communal bathroom. We made a cmapfire, roasted hot dogs & made s'mores.

The NEXT night was the camping though. It was also on a campground in Virginia & we pitched the tent in a clearing in the woods. I tried to push all of the scary movies (that are usually set in the woods) that Ray has made me watch over the years out of my mind. Thankfully I wasn't unsensibly scared, but it was just plain uncomfortable. I even rolled out my yoga mat to put the sleeping bag on which helped a bit. (In Ray's defense we had gone to Walmart & he tried to get me to buy a camping mat but I didn't think I'd need it) I stayed warm but the side that was on the ground always had a cool feeling too it. And that ground was so hard. I'm seriously a wimp.

The next day my back started to ache more & more until that night my headache was so bad I could hardly move & felt like I was going to throw up. The good news: I got a two Starbucks coffees out of those nights & some massages.

We also found a tiny one room cabin in N.C. for $50 a night, this one with a nice bathroom & a tv. The people who owned the cabin built it next to their house, mostly for when family comes to visit (& the owners were even transplants from Florida). One morning when we woke up to leave the two little boys were playing outside. It was forty degrees & one of the boys was in shorts, a t-shirt, & barefoot.

I have been freezing for a good part of the time, but still enjoying myself. Thankfully we stayed in the $50 cabin for three nights & didn't have to camp anymore.

The Biltmore was gorgeous as always & we bought year round passes again. The leaves are changing, even around my grandparents & I've definitely had a relaxing time. Anyway, I think lunch is almost ready. Forgive speeling mistakes & such, I don't feel like proofreading.