Trying to cram in a vacation before school started again was quite a test of will. Krystal took off a few day, which was a big thing since she doesn’t think they can do anything without her. She finally decided on a cabin in Georgia, only a 7 hour drive. Although that 7 hour drive turned into about a 10 hour one. With four boy, two of them twins under two driving for 10 hours was quite fun at time…. I mean loud, really loud actually.

So, we get to Elijah Georgia. I guess I forgot or didn’t know Georgia had mountain’s but they do. The cabin was in a private community, the cabins were fairly close to the road and the road was very small. windy, lots of curves and on a mountain with some drops down to nowhere….you couldn’t see the bottom. Almost every curve had a deer or two. We are from South Florida, we have no hills or cliff drops and our streets are probably wider than most city’s. (snowbirds needs plenty of road)

So we finally got to our cabin “Sarah’s Cabin” Two story two bed plus a loft with two twin bed’s and a foosball table. That was a huge hit with the boys. The cabin had a large deck on the back. With a swing for the boys and a swing for us, a picnic table and a grill. At the floor level it had a small yard, a hot tub and a fire pit. Most of the yard was heavily wooded and a sharp hill. I could just see they twins rolling down this hill and me having to go get them. I’m sure getting them wouldn’t be so bad just roll down but getting back up the hill might have been a challenge. But you better believe I would have gotten them.

So we were pretty stressed out once we found the cabin, but we needed food to get us through the next few days. So we had to go back into town, so down the mountain again and back up it to settle in for the night. We decided to cook on grill. We cooked hotdogs and got the picnic table all set up to pig out (I already know that nothing on that grill is WFPB….but we were on vacation.)

Everyone was sitting around the table when all of a sudden Collin jumps up…said Beeeeeear (bear)…and goes into the cabin. We had talked about what animal’s might be in the mountains and of course a bear was one of them. Well when Collin jumped up we thought he was joking and we all… except him of course, kept eating.

At some point Matthew went into the cabin and asked Collin to show him the bear. Collin came out and pointed into the woods. Matthew jumped and both of them went into the cabin. So Krystal and I and the twins went to the edge of the deck and low and behold we seen a bear very close to the edge of the woods not moving just watching us. At first it looked like a burnt log it wasn’t moving…. it wasn’t until it moved his head that we took action. We gathered up the kids and made them go into the cabin, then we got all the food into the cabin.  All of that in under a minute!

Krystal and the kids were safe inside the cabin, but I decided to stay at the edge of the deck and try to get some pictures of it.  I have always been interested in photography and I decided on this trip I was going to take my 35 mm and take as many pictures as I could. So I watched the bear, he started walking toward us but stopped when he heard the snapping of the camera. He walked down the hill toward the cabin but realized it was too much of a slope to get to us so he went back where he was and started heading straight to us. Stopping when he heard the snap of me trying to be a photographer. I guess it upset him because he stopped…. and stomped one of his front paws….. and let out a grunt. (Not like a “Hey” grunt…but like a “I’m going to rip you to shreds” grunt.) This was his way of telling me to get the flippers out of his view. I quickly turned and went into the cabin.

By the time I got to the window in the kitchen the bear was right in front of us. I snapped another picture with the flash and he turned and left the property. Now I know lots of people see bears and all the people that live in that mountain and other mountains see bears. However we had small children and seeing a bear come around us with out him being scared of us left us feeling uncomfortable. So Krystal comes up with a brilliant ideal. She pulled the van up to the stairs and the cabin where he would not be able to come up. At least we had a safe place to enjoy the great views and the wooded feel and be a safe place for the kids.

Krystal really wanted to see the mountains and go on a hike, let the boys see nature up close and personal. So the next day she found a mountain trail that was one mile long, a nice trail for the boys and us to enjoy. So here we go, it was seven miles to the trail, the first few were normal, then we turned onto a dirt road. The road was maybe a car and a fourth wide. At first it was fine, it had rained that day and the road started to turn into a sloppy mess and the side of the road turned into a cliff of death. I mean road…GIANT FALL TO YOUR DEATH!

Now I am normally a very composed person, not a lot of things make me lose my shit. However, I cant say this about the drive up the mountain on that day. The cliff of death was on my side and the higher up the mountain we got the more freaked out I got. We would meet a car and Krystal would stop and try to pull over for the car to pass. OH SHIT… I would say please don’t get over any more and the more stressed out I got the more Krystal got stressed out. I keep thinking why are we here! We should not be here! The stress that was building up in me was something I haven’t felt in forever.

I couldn’t hide how uncomfortable I was and how much stress I was feeling, I tried to however, I didn’t want to upset Krystal she was driving and I wanted her to keep calm. Krystal and I have this weird connection, we tend to switch feelings when the situation arises. Sometimes when I need to be composed Krystal will get emotional and vise versa. But not today, Krystal was feeling my tension. She finally exploded and yelled at me “MOM STOP” and of course I yelled back but I don’t remember what I said I do however remember I covered my face and started crying. This is a very rare thing for me to do.

I’m not sure why I was feeling this fear, but it was very intense, very powerful and very real to me. This was not the place we needed to be, Something had happened here and I was feeling all of it.

Once we found the trail and parked the tension was gone, I could breathe and relax. Now we had to walk the mile up the trail with four children. The walk up was very nice the only worry I had at that point was getting up the trail and back down the mountain before dark. I didn’t want to be on that road driving in the dark.

 

When we finally got to the top of the trail there was a beautiful water fall. We sat at the falls and ate a sandwich before the boys took off their shoes and were able to dip their toes into the very cold water. We were able to get lots of photos and enjoy nature.

The walk back down the trail was nice. I found a walking stick and of course all the boys wanted to find one of their own. The twins played in the small streams that crossed the trail and Collin and Matthew both wanted to be the leader of our walk. We can never go very long with out them competing for something.

 

 

The drive down the mountain was fine, no stress, no yelling and no crying. Of course I was not on the cliff of death side anymore and was very happy with that.

We made it home in record time way before night fall. We were able to grill outside with out the worry of bears thanks to Krystal parking within a inch of the stairs and the cabin. We sat outside and watched the sunset over the mountain trees. We played foosball and when the twins went to sleep we played monopoly before getting a good night sleep.

The next day we decided to take the boys fishing, Krystal had promised them she was going to find a place to go and purchased the poles before we left for our trip. The complex had a perfect place to fish, finding it was another story. Up and down the mountain, around very sharp turns, and telling the van “it was ok she could make it up another steep hill”.

We finally found the perfect fishing spot. Now I have only been fishing a few times and Krystal isn’t a pro at it either. However, she was willing to get the worms on the hook and remove the hook from the fish. I’m very glad we went fishing, the boys took to it like they have been doing it forever. The hardest part of fishing to me is the waiting. Cast out, wait, reel in…Cast out, wait, reel in…waitting for the thrill of catching that fish.  Krystal was the first one to catch a fish, then Matthew got one, his was bigger than his moms and now he was a pro…at least in his mind. Collin didn’t got one this time and was not happy about that. Collin and Matthew are always competing and all Matthew had to say was how proud he was that he caught a fish and Colling started screaming…and then so did we.

We had a great time at our fishing hole, however getting back to our cabin was a different story. We got lost in the mountains! The GPS was able to direct us back to the cabin but it took us through all the back roads it could. Gravel roads, steep hills and here comes the stress, this time it wasn’t me however. Krystal was ready to go home at that point she was “over it” was her exact words. Another night of watching the sunset over the mountain trees, foosball and cards before heading off to sleep.

We said goodbye to Ms. Sarah’s Cabin the next day and started the long drive home. Saying goodbye to all the deer hanging out by the road. Saying goodbye to Elijah Georgia and hello to beautiful Florida.

 

I will say as always “it is the best time of my life”, sharing memories with my family. I am truly blessed.