Day 51: Last Day of Vacay Musings

Today was our last day of vacation. Tomorrow morning, we’ll pack up and head from our Airbnb in Burnsville, NC to our home in Demorest, GA.

I often have the urge to try and get in too much on the last day of a vacation. I was able to resist that urge today. We did take in a few new spots, and enjoy our first full day of nice weather, but we didn’t overdo it.

After a lazy breakfast, we left the Airbnb at around noon. We started the day at the South Toe Bridge–a suspension foot bridge across the South Toe river. The banks of the river are wide at that point, making it a great spot to skip rocks, swim, and just generally hang out. So we spent a good hour and a half there to start off our day.

Once we were ready for a break from the sun, we headed up to White Oak Falls–another spot where you can allegedly get into the water though with a great deal more shade.

We only made it about 30 minutes at White Oak Falls. There was little to no riverbank to speak of, making it fun to check out but not a great place to just hang out for a long time.

The plan from there was to head to Black Mountain Campground and find a place to eat lunch. About a mile before we made it to the campground we spied an empty picnic table on national forest land along the bank of the South Toe River. Not knowing what we might find at Black Mountain Campground, we stopped and at lunch on the banks of the river.

From there, the plan was to head on down to the campground and hike to Setrock Creek Falls. However, when got to the campground the parking lot was entirely full and after a few seconds of deliberation we decided we had no interest in fighting a crowd and headed back to the South Toe Bridge instead.

We spent another good 90 minutes at the South Toe Bridge building rock towers and castles and swimming, and then headed for the Airbnb where we ended the day with burgers and s’mores.

Vacation Clarity

Every time I go on vacation it gives me clarity about various things. This vacation has been no different in that regard, and I’m going to be making a few changes when I get home.

I’m holding off making up rules on the fly tonight. I’ll try to find time to sit down and think these ideas tomorrow when I get home. But in general, I know I want to make some changes around:

  1. Eating: I need to get my late-night snacking and excessive coffee drinking under control.
  2. Exercise: I want to get an exercise bike and add more cardio to my current exercise regimen.
  3. Work: There are a few areas of personal weakness that have grown more clear to me in the past week and I want to work on those areas.

I hadn’t really taken real vacations until about 2 years ago, and this marks the fourth real vacation I’ve taken in the past 2 years. This sort of clarity is a big part of why I’ve grown to think of vacations as a lot more than just a chance to go do something fun.

2 thoughts on “Day 51: Last Day of Vacay Musings”

  1. Sounds like it was a great vacation!

    I had not thought about exercise bike but it makes total sense. One option is to buy a regular bike and get a trainer. Then you can ride the bike stationary in the house. Here is a great article about the various types of trainers available: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/10/the-smart-trainer-recommendations-guide-winter-2019-2020.html

    You might want to also consider getting something that connects to Zwift https://zwift.com/ . Its a virtual reality world for bicycling.

    Reply
    • That’s cool. I hadn’t thought about a trainer.

      My goal is really just to find a way to add more cardio to my weekly workout rotation without overdoing it on running and hurting myself, plus my wife has been dropping hints about wanting stationary bike and a Peloton subscription (just the app @ 12.99 / mo, not the bike)–she has friends who just have a regular old stationary bike and use the app and love it.

      A trainer is an idea though. I have daydreams of doing some sprint-distance triathlons at some point the future. Hmm…

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