Mountain Birthday Extravaganza - Day 1

I learned some valuable lessons today. First, do not get directions to a state park from the stoned cook at Waffle House who curses as he describes the large river ("and there's this big a** river... oh, sorry, I forgot about the little guy"). Second, do not decide to wing it and not use the GPS, unless you really don't care about getting there quickly. We didn't care, so we took both the directions from the stoned Waffle House cook and decided not to use the GPS and headed west, deeper into the NC mountains. For those who know me, that is seriously throwing caution to the wind - no plan and no GPS.

We were so far out in the country that I'm pretty sure they had to pump sunlight there. The drive, however, was beautiful. There is nothing like mountains to me - they make me worship every time. Isaiah loves them as well, so it was fun to just drive and see where it might take us. We saw a sign for the Dupont State Forest and Isaiah convinced me to abandon our search for the river and turn right. Now, before you chastise me for taking directions from my nearly 8-year-old kiddo, do remember that he is far better at directions than I am. Besides the GPS was with me, just not in use. I figured we'd be fine.

About an hour after we left the Waffle House we ended up in Dupont State Park at the top of a mountain, at a trail head. I'm not sure we were as close to Tennessee as it felt, but we drove west for a long time before we got there, and we're already pretty far west in NC. So, the two of us are wearing flip flops, have no water, no gear - nothing. And we decide to walk down the trail. According to the signs it was 0.6 miles to something called the "high falls" and the path was actually really wide and gravel-covered. I figured we'd try it. Then the unexpected happened...

The sky clouded up, and the heavens opened. We were probably 0.3 miles down the trail when it happened. Yes, it was kinda cloudy when we parked, but the rain moved in ultra fast and came down hard. We decided to turn around and head back to the car. By the time we got close, it started to thunder and we were soaked to the skin. It was 80 when we got out of the car. By the time we got back to the car it was 67.  We were freezing, wet, and giggling uncontrollably. For all my preparation for tomorrow's hike, we had ZERO prep for today because it was spontaneous.

It did provide some great lessons for Isaiah though. First, his mom is a rock star because I have towels in the car (and boy did that come in handy when we got back!). Second, it was a great lesson in hiking safety. We did it totally wrong. We were totally unprepared and we're fortunate it was just silly and nothing else. Isaiah commented on how he felt wet and how the temperature dropped so fast once the rain started. He said, "Mom, next time we need to just have our gear in the car so that we're not caught unprepared like this again."

As we made our way down the mountain the sky cleared and it was sunny. We came back to a sunny hotel and were able to get into dry clothes (which was awesomeness).  It was a wonderful adventure with good lessons. We didn't accomplish what we set out to, but we were together and that's what mattered most. We had a blast swimming in the hotel pool, eating dinner at Cracker Barrel, and just hanging out. He's a happy kid and so far he's having an amazing 8th birthday trip.

Tomorrow is hiking in Chimney Rock State Park. I think it will go better than today... :)