Plain Speaking

Annual Trek to Mountains Much Needed

I rolled back into the offices of Mainstreet Newspapers last Friday after several days away on a much needed—and much enjoyed—vacation. My trip to the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, something that has become an annual trek for me, took place several weeks later than usual this year.

Perhaps that’s why I seemed to enjoy it more as I took in the beauty that is the mountain landscape.

I’ve been making this trip since 2000 and it has been the type of vacation that suits me perfectly. I’m not someone who has to be on the move every minute of his vacation like some people. Yes, I did venture out, buy a few souvenirs, eat at a few nice restaurants and drive over the mountain which leads from North Carolina into Tennessee.

But for me, perhaps the most enjoyable part of my vacation was sitting on the balcony of the second floor of the motel I stayed at and reading a book about the background of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. The river which was only a few feet away from my motel gave a perfect, peaceful backdrop to my vacation and made sitting in the rocking chair on the balcony even nicer.

Cherokee, N.C., where I set up base each year during my vacation, has been a tourist stop for decades. I’m not sure of the exact history of the area, but I know I’ve seen pictures of family members making treks to the same location as far back as the 1940s.

The weather still had a strong touch of summer to it, but it wasn’t the type of heat that I left behind in Georgia, the kind that can be stifling at times. Fall is still several weeks away, even in the mountains, but there were some early indicators that my favorite season of the year was not far away.

It was also nice to get away from news events of the world, if only for around 48 hours. I didn’t look at the Internet during my vacation or even buy a newspaper, which is definitely out of character for me. I only turned on the television set in my motel room a couple of times. I watched the last 15 minutes or so of “Ghostbusters” and also watched a little of the pre-game for ESPN’s debut of Monday Night Football.

Believe it or not, I didn’t even watch the game. It was vacation, after all, so I decided to make it a true break from everything.

Once I arrived back home during the middle of last week, I still had time to get some things done around the house. I then went about the task of cleaning out my e-mail inbox which had approximately 500 spam messages in it. I sorted through the numerous newspapers which had arrived during my time away and stacked them up by dates. It would be a couple more days before I even get around to looking through them.

I arrived back at the office around mid-day Friday. A few college football media guides awaited me along with some phone messages and work-related e-mails. I began longing for more time in the mountains, but realized it would be another year before I made the trek once again.

Vacations are great when you are able to truly enjoy them. Making yourself more tired than when you are working by going non-stop from sunup to sundown is not my idea of an ideal vacation. Give me a rocking chair on a motel balcony with the weather pleasant enough to enjoy and I’m happy.

The break, as it always does, helped recharge the batteries as I face another year back at the grind.

Monticello native Chris Bridges is a reporter and columnist for Mainstreet Newspapers based in Jefferson. He welcomes comments about his columns at chris@main-streetnews.com.