"When all was said and done, the endeavors that most modern men saw as urgent (such as appointments with bankers and the catching of trains), probably could have waited, while those they deemed frivolous (such as cups of tea and friendly chats) had deserved their immediate attention." – Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
South Carolina and snow do NOT get along. But we have Snowball, the trusty Land Cruiser, so we got along fine. Time for some tropical weather! No hot hot heat? Fine. We’ll settle for some tropical trees. We decided to stay at a City Park near Charleston and holy cow did they have a Christmas light show. A driving loop with a hundred little scenes like these:
On our way to Virginia, we intended to camp somewhere in Kentucky, but when we got to the place Tony had scoped out, we heard metaphorical banjos. As anyone who has seen Deliverance knows, that doesn’t end well. I knew I wouldn’t sleep so we went continued on a quest for a new place and came upon Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia. The camp spots were fabulous, with new bathrooms, and easily accessible hiking. We rolled in at twilight, set up, had some dinner, and called it a night. We woke up in the morning and hiked down to this natural wonder.
We’re very lucky to have friends along the east coast willing to host us while we run from the cold up north. Once Snowball was finished with Fifth Avenue (“Oh my god, like, who needs Tiffany anyway? She can totally go have breakfast, like, by herself for all I care.”), we strolled down to the Philly area and caught up with another of Jess’ teachers for lunch. We left with happy bellies and a smattering of suggestions for nosh in the south, which until then didn’t have much going on in the planning department.
As we made our way back south to warm up again, we stopped by LL Bean’s flagship site and explored the Maine coast.
"Purposefully Unrushed" 