But this is a sign that it is time to take a real break. I can go for months without really noticing, and then suddenly I am out of gas. So we found a gap in the week -- one where everyone else is working hard but where my presence is not truly necessary -- and we escaped on Friday afternoon.
We had no plan at all. We threw some clothes into a bag and got in the car. Jon checked his phone to see what was going on with the traffic. Red red all around the Beltway, all the way south, all the way north. It was Friday afternoon, after all. So we went west. I said I didn't want to spend our whole time in the car, so that meant we had to stop after I had finished my first nap. We stopped in Front Royal. First indulgence: frozen custard. Second: a used book store. Third: a room at a run-down but perfectly fine motel with a swimming pool. We got into the pool and floated around, happy as clams. Next: dinner at a very cool restaurant that specialized in local foods, cooked slowly, served with attention and warmth. Then to a movie. We go to a movie about once a year, so it is hard for any movie to be good enough for that. This one was good, and probably better than we realized, in comparison to all the bad movies we have missed.
The next morning I started getting text messages from workers at 5 AM, but I went back to sleep in between them, and we didn't really get moving until about 8:00. Went to the farmers market downtown and chatted with the vegetable grower. This was one small market. May have been more crafts than produce for sale. We bought some plums that will be ripe next week and moved on. Bought a lovely picnic lunch at the same place as last night and headed up into the Shenandoah National Park. Temperature was perfect, somewhere in the 70s, cloudy with some sun sometimes. We looked at the map, identified an easy hike, and set off on the trail to find the waterfall. After about a mile or so, Jon said this was not the hike we thought it was, and we were never going to find the waterfall. I hate backtracking, especially uphill on a muddy trail, so we went back to the road and walked the mile or so to the car. Oh well. The trail to the waterfall was really the fire road. We decided to skip the waterfall, as there were lots of families with dogs going down the nice wide gravel path that we somehow overlooked (okay, I overlooked it. Jon thought it was the right one and I said it wasn't...).
Lunch at an overlook, sitting high in the clouds, peeking through at Massanutten Mountain. It was just lovely.
Because I hate backtracking, we decided to come home through Thornton Gap and Sperryville, and that meant we were going to be driving right past The Farm at Sunnyside and we should stop to visit. There was zero cell phone service from Skyline Drive all the way down the mountain and into Rappahannock County, so we could not give any warning of our arrival. We just arrived, and were greeted warmly. We watched them pick squash and cucumbers but did not offer to help. No one minded that we just stood on the edge of the field and chatted while they did what I do many days a week.
Came home to find that everything had gone perfectly in our absence. The only thing, of course, is that when I leave, Carrie has to work all day long on a day that she would ordinarily be taking a break. And that is a luxury that can only be afforded rarely -- when I run out of gas.
But now I am feeling ready to get back to work, having eaten ice cream, floated in a perfectly clear swimming pool, hiked on a beautiful day, visited a small business that deserves to thrive (that sells deluxe picnic lunches), and had a full day of chatting with my husband. What could be better?
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