It's Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting in my favorite chair in my office at home sipping my first cup of real coffee in a week - thanks Dose! - decompressing after a week on the Mountain in a beautiful cabin in Monteagle. Uncle Tupelo (Anodyne) is playing in the background - one of my 10 favorite albums all-time - and one I revisited for the first time in a while in Monteagle. Jude and the boys are downstairs, watching an NBA game and playing Scrabble.
Back to real life.
It was so nice to get away for a week, especially to Monteagle/Sewanee, one of my favorite places in the world. Truthfully, I think I'd rather go there than the beach and I never thought I'd say that. Certainly, the trip there and back is easier.
Jude needed to get away and unplug for a week. I did, too. It was good for our family to spend that time together. We all needed it.
As I contemplated the end of our time on the Mountain the last couple of days, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was one of the last long vacations where the boys will be content to spend time with us, and each other, as opposed to having a friend or two around. J.P. is 12 + and I can't help but think by the end of next summer, when he's a teenager, he may be less inclined to want to spend a week away with only his family as companions.
For the most part, I think, Jude and I still are floating through the age of innocence with our boys. J.P. doesn't have the slightest concern about girls. He doesn't have a cell phone and, in truth, isn't fighting too hard to get one. Neither J.P. nor Joe is into video games to any great extent, which is nice. Our Xbox hasn't worked in weeks and neither one has complained about not having it much at all.
My sense, though, is that a lot of that will change in the next year. School at USN is starting remotely while other schools are starting in person. Jude and I are trying to figure out how to set up some groups, or pods (I hate that word), for the boys so they interact socially with their classmates and friends at school. I think that's important for both of them but especially J.P., as there's bound to be some drift between he and Cooper with Cooper entering 7th grade at Montgomery Bell Academy.
All of that is for later, though. I want to list some of my memories from our week on the Mountain while they're still fresh on my mind.
- Hiking. A lot of hiking and all of it 15 - 30 minutes away from the cabin.
- Fiery Gizzard. One family hike, then Jude and Joe returned two more times. Yesterday, they hiked the two mile loop together and saw a frighteningly large snake on the trail. The day before, Joe took his "crawfish net" and I'm still smiling envisioning him poised over the still part of the creek, waiting patiently for a crawfish to crawl out from under a rock so he could "catch" it. He didn't catch one but Jude marveled at his patience. Joe decided that the "wild crawfish" in the creek on the Mountain are much faster and harder to catch than the ones in the creek at Camp Whippoorwill.
- Foster Falls. We hiked - early one morning - to Foster Falls. The hike down, over jumbled rocks, actually is harder than the hike back out. We were the second group to arrive at the large swimming hole, across from which we could see the waterfall cascading down from high above. J.P. and I swam out to the waterfall, then swam under it. Pretty cool. The water was very cold but not too bad, once you were in it for a few minutes.
- I ran every day while we were at the cabin. Every day, which was awesome. J.P. and I had an unforgettable five mile run on the Trail of Tears greenway, which I wrote about earlier.
- Ping pong. Lots of ping pong on the ping pong table in the garage. I taught Jude and the boys how to play doubles and they loved it. It pissed J.P. off royally that he and Jude couldn't beat Joe and me. Until this morning, that is, when we played a final game before we left.
- Grilling out. J.P. loved lighting the charcoal in the grill and helping me manage the fire. Jude cooked the burgers and I cooked the hot dogs. A great meal.
- S'mores. We built a fire in the fire pit outside. A total team effort. We sat around the fire, in the dark, as Jude and the boys made and ate their fill of S'mores.
- Sewanee. One morning, I went for a run, then met Jude and the boys at the Sewanee football field - always a must visit for us. Jude and Joe threw the football while J.P. and threw the Aerobie on the football field.
- Baseball. J.P. took apart, then assembled the boys' hitting net. The boys hit off the tee, into the net, facing the bluff, almost every day. Doing work.
- Tennis. Two days, we played tennis at the Sewanee tennis courts, adjacent to the golf course. That was some real fun, actually. It brought back memories of when Jude and I used to play regularly. A lifetime ago, we used to play double not he Belmont University courts on Tuesday nights with Cyndi Baines and Kelli McAbee. Those were the days. I might see about getting J.P. a lesson or two at Seven Hills (our swim and tennis club), because he enjoyed himself so much. I also might get my old Prince racquet and Jude's restrung.
- Deadliest Catch. We are way, way into Deadliest Catch which, I think, is on its 16th season on the Discovery Channel. Back in the day, pre-kids, Jude and watched for two or three seasons. This summer, I watched a few episodes from season 4 with the boys and they were hooked. We watched a lot of season 6 this week.
- Papa Ron's. Up in Smoke. The Blue Chair. Gallery 41. No Shenanigan's this time, because food and service was too poor last time.
- Lots of reading. Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby, followed by A Dangerous Man, Robert Crais's latest Elvis Cole/Joe Pike book.
- Jude napping in the hammock, every afternoon.
- J.P. and Joe playing Golden Tee. A lot of Golden Tee.
- J.P. and I listening to the epic J.J. Redick podcast - his second to last for the Ringer - featuring Patrick Beverly. So many good lessons for J.P. (and me) about hard work and what it takes to succeed athletically and, really, in life. It was my second listen.
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