Flowing With Nature: Mountain Adventures Continued

Tuesday Greetings,

It's the day after returning home from a fabulous mountain trip. So far, I'm feeling in somewhat of a bitter-sweet mood, however....I'm truly thankful for this recent phenomenal travel experience I had with my son and our friends, but also desiring to still be functioning, perhaps even living (for at least part of the year), in the mountains. I haven't quite adjusted, physically or mentally, to being back at sea level. I have happy and sad feelings trying to somehow co-exist. (Let's see who wins!) :-) Writing about the experience soothes me, though, so here I am remembering riding a Zip Line through through the mountain air and landing in the cool water of the lake!

Exactly a week ago, Christy, Caleb, Dalton and I joyfully, prayerfully, and giddily set off at about 8:30 a.m., in Christy's eco-friendly Hybrid car for a 9-hour journey to the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia. Our destination: ACE Adventure Center. Christy had visited that area for a similar trip about 11 years ago, and this year, when wanting to create a memorable vacation for her son, she kindly invited Caleb and me to join them. She had no idea that for many months I had been deeply craving a visit to the mountains. I owe so much thanks to her for helping me to manifest such a burning desire of mine. I have now witnessed the mountains in ways I hadn't even imagined! Christy, as I told you, everyone needs a friend like you! Thank you for being in my life! Our friendship has grown even stronger and the trip is forever etched in my heart and mind.

On the way to the Appalachian Mountains, we stopped overnight in North Carolina and spent the late afternoon and night with Christy's generous friends, Deena and Andy! Heartfelt thanks to them for welcoming us into their home and making us feel so comfortable. Their neighbor who had visited ACE back in October, brought a DVD of his white water trip over so that we could get a "taste" of one of the wild activities we would be experiencing in the mountains. I was somewhat apprehensive about the white water rafting activity that Christy was gong-ho about, but saw from the video that regardless of my uncertainty about it, it was sure to be fun....even if it meant somewhat nervous fun! :-)

The next morning, we were back in the car for the final three to four hour leg of the trip to ACE. We could literally taste what was to come, especially when we started to see the

mountain scenery as we drove along winding roads, traveling up and downhill often. "Mommy, can I call Daddy to tell him how awesome the mountains look?" Caleb asked. The scenery was indeed incredible. We oohed and aahed the whole way. I often let out screams of delight because this was really happening. Christy giggled at me and, at times, revealed her own ways of communicating excitement, such as rubbing her hands together in anticipation of great fun!

Eventually, we found ourselves on an even narrower winding road that reminded me of some of Bermuda's narrow, hilly roads. That road ran through a residential area with older homes lined up along it and led us to ACE's Welcome Center where we would check-in and receive the key to our log cabin, our sleeping quarters for the next five nights.

The Loft! Each time I went up to the loft, I felt as though I was climbing the stairs to a tree house! Fun!

After driving higher up the mountain and identifying our cabin, then picking out our rooms and realizing that the accommodations more than met our expectations, our first activity at ACE would be at the lake where the boys were itching to take part in the many varied activities there from riding a Zip Line high in the air down into the water, to holding on to a silver triangle (in Zip Line fashion) and swinging into the water, to sliding down a huge water slide and other slides, to climbing an iceberg, to jumping on a water trampoline, to running an obstacle course from one trampoline to another, and the list goes on.

As the boys got acclimated that first day to mountain lake life by water, Christy and I hung out on the land around the lake as we chatted to each other, other guests and relaxingly got an overall feel for the place. The majority of the folks we encountered seemed to be talking about White Water Rafting....Our all-day trip (6 1/2 hours) for Day 2.

Stay tuned for our adventure down the New River Gorge by raft. What a wild ride it was! Fortunately, I'm here to tell about it! :-)