Ahh.... I'm relaxed

Our trip to North Carolina got off to a rocky start. Justin decided to surprise me and rent a convertible car, and at first I was skeptical. Especially when the attendant pulls around in this sporty, very small, bright red thing (Mitsubishi Spyder).

Justin got very excited and convinced me it would be alright. So the attendant shows Justin how to put the top down and right as we decide to drive away, Justin can't get the top to go back up. The attendant came back out and he couldn't get it back up. We go out for lunch and wait for the manager to come in and he can't get the top back up either. Personally, I'm thinking, Whew, now we can just get the cheaper regular car, but no -- they search the city to find another convertible for us. The only problem is, they show up with this ugly silver boat (Chrysler Sebring).

Justin has basically set his mind on the Spyder and since there are no others in the entire Kansas City area, we take the Sebring and drive all the way to St. Louis where we switch cars to another red Mitsubishi. Here it is with the top down as we are driving away from our first geocache stop.

As is typical for us, we bypassed most of our original plans to disc golf and geocache on the way out there and decided to get to North Carolina more quickly. As soon as we get into the mountains, the rain starts. It rained on us everyday we were there (and even several days when we got back home), but usually the mornings were clear. Here we are at a newly developed disc golf course only about 30 minutes from my aunt and uncle's house -- I call this shot "Through the Needle".

A few holes later, we came to another great shot on a very steep hill in the woods. It's hard to tell from this picture, but we are standing about 200 yards away and at least 100 yards *up* from the basket.

Here is a picture at the bottom of the hill -- isn't it cool?!

We are so very lucky to have relatives who live in the mountains. Not only did we get to stay rent-free, but we had live-in guides who could show us around as well as easy access to awesome views like this -- off the deck of the Raven's Ridge house.

Probably the most enjoyable and memorable part of the trip was our hike on Grandfather Mountain. In my head I kept picturing some nice wooded trails and wondered why my aunt and uncle were referring to it as the "ladder" trail -- there were no mention of ladders on the signs.

Yes, okay -- it does say the trail is very difficult. But actually we were planning on only going to Macrae Peak, which is the second stop listed. Just under a mile one-way -- how hard can that be?

It started off as I expected -- kind of rocky, like the Great Falls Billy Goat trail, but very wooded and much better views like this one.

Then we rounded a corner and I had my first surprise -- I have to use a rope? I know it's hard to tell in the picture, but that is a pretty steep incline and I'm sure it would be nearly impossible without the rope. Turns out, that the rope was a piece of cake and I continued on my merry way.

That is, until I came to surprise number two. Here is Justin being the brave, excited one to go up first. And no, the camera is not tilted in any way -- that is an actual overhanging rock at a crazy angle and a steep ladder underneath it. Now I know where the local name "Ladder Trail" comes from!

I made it -- by squeezing on to those rungs for dear life. I thought I was doing okay until I came to this scene -- the lady coming down was complaining that the ladders were not made for shorter people.

This section was the toughest for me. The steepness was always about the same, and I managed to handle the rungs fairly well. I came to one section where I nearly turned back -- I had to hug a rock and climb around on my stomach to get by -- but in the end it was worth it.

And we made it to the peak!

Look at this view!

Coming back down was another ordeal entirely. I had the benefit of knowing the ladders a little better the second time through, but I still was going pretty slow and tensing up all my muscles a lot. The next day my legs and even arms were pretty sore, but I would still do it again. In fact, we're trying to figure out if we can plan a trip to go every year. We'd like to make it to a farther peak next time.

Other than that, the vacation was nice and relaxing -- just what I needed to get my mind off of work and other stressful things.