The Great Outdoors

In late October we recreated one of our favorite family vacations and took the kids to Spruce Pine and Tweetsie Railroad. Tweetsie was actually Birch's all-time best vacation memory as a child (although, in truth, it was competing against a lot of cemetery treks through chigger infested woods that were only registered on local maps).

About 3 years ago, we also rented an RV that is stationary on the side of a mountain in Bear Den Campground in Spruce Pine. It's all the benefits of an RV without having to drive and fuel one. The RV has two bedrooms, a "living" area, and a bathroom, complete with shower. There is a picnic table, playgrounds, lakes, all the woods you want to explore in, and a lot of friendly campers close by. This year we printed off directions from the website instead of using the GPS. That's a harrowing story Birch would rather tell in person.

Most of the time the kids spent in their "fort" in the woods. Holt was especially fond of the fallen tree, and even more fond of climbing as high as he could and flinging himself onto Birch. That oughtta really benefit Birch's chiropractor.










There were also several picnic lunches carted outside into the fort. Somehow a turkey sandwich always tastes better when it's possibly in jeopardy from an army of ants.
But truly the part my kids would probably agree to enjoying most was just the RV itself. With so little space, it's amazing all the tiny parts that go into making this a home. Every possible inch of the interior serves some purpose. I'm guessing it's much like a NYC apartment.

You really get an appreciation for how small the set-up is when three of you get food poisoning from some hamburger meat from Kroger. Lucky for you, there are no pictures to follow.

Holt and Carolina shared one room, and Juliana got the futon in the middle section, leaving Birch, Z, and me to the other tiny bedroom. You could blow a spitball from one end, and ping it on the head of the person in the bed on the opposite end. Not that I know this from actual experience.

I wish I had thought to get pictures of the kids inside. Next time.

We stayed at Spruce Pine for three nights, and on the second day had a trip planned to Tweetsie Railroad. If you've never been to Tweetsie, think Silver Dollar City (are you old enough to remember that?) in the mountains of North Carolina. It's built around the history of the first coal train. The train circles the mountain, and when you take the ride, your train is stopped by a bunch of thieving indians, complete with gunfire, explosives, and outhouses (let your imagination run wild).







When we woke up on that morning it was cold. Not just cold, bitter. We seriously considered cancelling, but decided to go, even if we only lasted an hour. We made layering an art form. The kids looked like marshmallows. And I'd like to say that as the day wore on, it warmed up, but that would just be me rewriting our vacation.

I will say that we had so much fun, it was bearable.

There were also rides galore, although the only takers with me are Holt and Mouse, and count Mouse out if snacks are involved. Holt loved the thing that spins you around (I'm sure it has some much more elaborate name that that) and Mouse is always the lover of the ferris wheel. Juliana drove the car with Mouser, and checked off that box for the day.



We ended our time touring the jail and the country store, eating funnel cake (always in season!) and riding atop some horses and in the back of some covered wagons.







Although our day at Tweetsie was full of mental snapshots I'll treasure for years, the whole day my mind kept recreating the moments of the trip there. We realized on our way that my brakes were shot. Going-into-the-rotors shot. Our trip back to Spruce Pine was DOWN the mountain. There was prayer involved. I suggested a taxi.

The next day, Birch had to drive further DOWN the mountain to try to find somewhere to get it fixed before we completely descended as a family at the end of our stay. He (thank you, Jesus!) found the ONE pop-owned "in his garage" shop that was open on a Saturday. The fellow was already working on someone's brakes and told Birch he could maybe get to it Monday. He asked Birch if he was local. Birch asked him what the correct answer was. The lady who owned the aforementioned car piped up and offered to let Birch step in ahead of her.

Amazingly, Birch was back within a few hours with new brakes and a fairly smallish hole in our checking account. There's something to be said for small town God-fearing people who still exist and don't completely take advantage of a situation that is completely fair game. Chalk that up to another great memory of our vacation.

The next evening we (and by "we" I mean the kids) changed into Halloween costumes and went trick-or-treating to all the campsites. It was a new spin on Halloween. Kicks regular neighborhood festivities in the puptent.

We talked our vacation up so much that next time, Gramma and Big may come along. We may do cabins close by, or possibly two RVs. Depends on how adventurous Gramma feels. She surprises me sometimes.

And I've decided that if "camping" involves running water, heat, (for goodness sake, we even had satellite tv), and music piped through CD speakers, well... I'm outdoorsy! Who knew?