A Little Time Away

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Craziest thing in the world...head out of town between Thanksgiving and Christmas for a little 'Down Time'.

But sometimes, well, you take it when you can get it.  Our 38th wedding anniversary was in August, and, well, that was an exceptionally busy month,  followed by more busy months... around the middle of November I looked at the calendar and looked at My Sweet Babboo and said, 'If we're going to get away, we're gonna have to do it the week after Thanksgiving.  The next break after that will be February."

So he got online and began looking to see what was available.  He found a cabin on Lake Chewalca, a state park about 4 hours south of us.     We didn't know anything at all about the park, but it said the cabin had a lake view and, being a state park, it was affordable.  So he booked it, and last Thursday we headed out of town, with a rather rainy forecast.  But that was ok.  I was just ready to do nothing.

We had phone reception, but no WIFI.  Which was just fine.

The cabin was built in the 1930's.  The whole park, from the building of the dam for the lake to the cabins and other buildings, was a CCC project.

As it turned out, our lake view looked straight across the lake to the dam...which is barely discernible  in the gap in the trees.  We did a bit of hiking before the rain moved in, and discovered that the dam was actually at the top of a pretty little gorge, just above where a grist mill had been in the late 1800's.  We clambered over way more rocks than I probably should have, given that I'm on PT for Achilles tendonitis, going up and down some pretty steep inclines.  But it was surprisingly picturesque.

The gorge continued to drop at least twice as much again...the sound of the water rushing over the rocks was lovely.

We hung out in the cabin whilst it rained on Saturday.  It was, like, 70 degrees despite the rain, but the compressed fire logs add more ambiance than heat and we went through almost a whole box over the weekend.

Despite predictions of more rain, it was a gorgeous day on Sunday. After attending a church in the area pastored by some friends and having a lovely chat with them over lunch, we did a teeny bit more hiking, mostly to find evidence of how much the lake level had risen and dropped with Saturday's precip.  Looked to be about  6 - 8 inches...and it knocked a LOT of the color out of the trees.

Chewalca State Park is apparently a mountain bike racing venue;  there were  strange hazardous-looking features scattered throughout the trails, and I watched a couple of college guys go barreling down a trail that I couldn't have navigated on foot without a sturdy stick to help.  Amazing.

We really enjoyed our weekend and, despite some slight issues with the cabin, hope to go back sometime in the future.  When I'm not on walking restrictions for my ankles.

Now to shift focus to holiday happenings.  But at least I had a chance to destress and catch my breath a bit with my favorite guy.