Memorial Day on the Mountain

We're back on Monteagle Mountain, our home away from home, for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

The boys' last day of school was Thursday.  J.P. had a baseball game that evening and as soon as it was over, Jude and the boys drove up to Ben Phillips' cabin in Monteagle, where we've stayed several times and made many happy memories over the past two or three years.  

Jude and the boys are playing golf at Sewanee.  I just finished a seven mile run on the Trail of Tears Greenway - with a first time detour on the Dimmick Trail - and I'm sitting on the back deck of the cabin, drinking a Bearded Iris Tunnel Vision IPA and listening to my favorite playlist on Spotify.  The birds are singing and the leaves are rustling as a slight breeze blows through the trees.  The temperature is in the mid-60's, there isn't a cloud in the sky, and my view is breathtakingly beautiful.  Later tonight, we're picking up two racks of smoked ribs from the Blue Chair at Sewanee.    

It doesn't get much better than this, for sure.  Maybe that's why Lucinda Williams is singing "Blessed," as I write this.  Coincidence?  I think not.

I love it here in Monteagle.  It feels like home.  So many memories made and so many memories to make, I think.  We're going to buy - or build - a place here, sooner rather than later.  That I do know.  

For me, there is magic on the Mountain.

Friday evening, we drove over to the baseball field and played Blitz Ball.  Jude and me vs. J.P. and Joe.  Pitcher's hand (I'll explain later).  I batted left handed, as I usually do, and hit a couple of jacks.  Still, the boys won, as they usually do.  

Jude's favorite part, no doubt, was seeing what appeared to be a Northern Bobwhite laying on it's eggs, right in front of the pitcher's mound.  We ordered dinner - takeout - from Papa Ron's.  Always a go to and a favorite of the boys. 

Yesterday, we played tennis on the indoor courts at Sewanee.  An exit door to the indoor tennis courts was propped open and we walked in with our tennis gear and had the entire facility to ourselves.  Classic Sewanee and one of the things I love the most about the college and its campus.  Open to all.  We stopped by the Sewanee bookstore, then ate lunch at the Blue Chair.  I went for a late afternoon six mile run on the Trail of Tears Greenway.  Jude made spaghetti and we watched "Formula 1 - Drive to Survive."  A perfect day, as most of them are on the Mountain.

This morning, we hiked the 1.9 mile Fiery Gizzard Trail, one of Jude's favorites.  Lunch at home, after which Jude and the boys left to play golf and I went for a run.  

Over the past few years, we've been here in the summer, when it's relatively hot but 5 to 10 degrees cooler than Nashville.  We've been here when it's snowed like crazy.  Big, beautiful snowflakes.  We've been here in the fall, when the leaves on the trees are an explosion of colors.  And, now, we've been here in the spring.  

As Jude so aptly noted today, "time slows down" on the Mountain.  At least, for us is does.