Boone

Who's in the mood for an OG Rachael blog about how vacations don't always live up to expectations? Get ready for some pretty pictures and a whole lot of frivolity.

We just had a nice little long weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains; and while yes, it was beautiful and yes, it was a refreshing change of pace, Tim and I are not sure it was a great value in terms of where we stayed. In fact, this trip has us rethinking Airbnbs altogether. I’m embarrassed to say how much we paid to stay there, and it’s tacky to talk about that anyway, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. (And for a couple of you who told me I need to go to Substack, I tried, but it wouldn't let me upload photos, only gave me an error message. And you know I can't blog without photos!) 

The photos of the house looked lovely, and it had five-star reviews (including a very enthusiastic review by a mom of five, of which the youngest was a baby). I was excited to take the whole family (minus Delaney with her marching band commitments) to the mountains for some hiking and fall weather, and a nice break from the usual hustle and bustle of the weekends. I don't know if I'm the only one this happens to, but I got so uptight hoping for it to be perfect. My stomach tied itself in knots in the days leading up, and I had a sore lower back, which for me is often stress-related. We don't do this stuff often, but made a spur-of-the-moment decision back in February to make this reservation, get it on the calendar. But as the final 10-day countdown approached, I could feel myself getting all wound up about it because, as the family's memory-making activity planner, I feel so much pressure. I don't think I have the stomach for weekend trips because it's too short of a time to be trying to ensure everything turns out perfectly. It didn't help that around here, Columbus Day isn't a day off for most people, and NOTHING was canceled. We were just walking away from it all. 

We left around noon on Friday, and after a few traffic delays, arrived in Boone as the sun was starting to set. I tried to reacquaint myself with driving on hills and windy roads again, as I've become so accustomed to the flatness of North Carolina's coastal plain. Everything was so picturesque that I wanted to turn my head and look at a mountain view or a pretty house, but things changed pretty quickly every time I took my eye of the road for even a second. 

Tim had placed a Walmart grocery pickup order hours earlier, but it turned out to be asking too much of Walmart to have it ready even an hour later than scheduled. So he canceled the pick-up order and went in with three of the kids, while I stayed in the car to try to nurse Thomas and do some people-watching. Boone is a very lively little college town, and it was a busy night at Wally World.

With groceries crammed in any available space and Tim behind the wheel, we left Walmart and set out for our little Airbnb. The owner had texted many instructions, and I scrolled back through them now, looking for the pertinent information to give Tim as he negotiated the last few turns. There was just a little bit of light left as he turned onto a very narrow and steep gravel road leading up a mountain. "He says turn into the second driveway after you see the house number sign; or you can keep going into the neighbors' cul-de-sac and turn around and come back to it, which some people find easier." Tim saw no reason not to take the sharp left onto the second driveway, but the car couldn't quite turn that sharply. So he had to back up a little and try again. And then we weren't going backward or forward for a few tense moments as the motor revved and gravel flew. But he figured it out, and as we were going up the driveway I said, "I'm sure glad I wasn't the one driving!" Annie said, "Me too!" and I laughed. I think the only one who couldn't see any humor in this was Timmy, who dreads mountain roads and heights in general.

Tim would become a pro at this driveway after a couple more times up and down over the next couple days. I told him he should try just going up the road really fast, and then as he's about to pass the driveway, slam on the brakes and turn the wheel hard. Then I giggled at random for a while every time I pictured that. I do crack myself up.😊

The house had a rustic log cabin feel, and was decorated with lots of bear and other assorted wildlife kitsch. It was all decked out for fall now, with little pumpkins on the table and trays of pinecones. I'm partial to pinecones myself in decor; I felt right at home immediately on walking in. Everything looked very clean and smelled nice. The bedrooms all looked cozy and inviting.

Annie staked her claim to a bedroom she'd have all to herself, and the boys ran downstairs to check out the highly anticipated game room. Foosball and this other game were broken, but the ones that worked were good to have. I think air hockey was a favorite. I took a few minutes to shoot baskets with Joey.

After a long day on the road, we were hungry and tired, so Tim turned the oven to 400 to make our Red Baron pizzas. I was changing Thomas on the bed when I started to smell something burning. I came out of the room to see black smoke billowing out of the oven! Tim was like, "You've got to be kidding me." Amazingly enough the smoke alarms didn't go off, but he turned the oven back off quickly and we opened up the doors. There were two ovens, and the pizzas cooked in the other one without incident. That was a relief because we had no backup plan for dinner that night. Smoking oven notwithstanding, the kitchen was well stocked, up to date, and had high-end appliances.

We like to wind down by watching a little TV before bed, so we plopped down on furniture that turned out to be surprisingly uncomfortable; then went to bed on a mattress that was super saggy was not supportive of my 44-year-old body in any way. I would have gladly traded the Bosch dishwasher for a decent mattress. And so you know I'm not The Princess and the Pea here, I have found the mattresses in all other rentals and hotels in recent memory to be satisfactory. None of the Airbnb reviews mentioned the mattress. Is this a taboo topic? Is it considered impolite to leave that honest of a review? Does nobody care about the surface they're sleeping on after a day of sitting in a car or walking on trails? I realize that renters also receive reviews (Tim was actually turned down as a prospective renter of a property near my parents' because he didn't have any reviews), so maybe this has something to do with it?

I didn't have much planned for the next day, which was Saturday. I thought for the first part of the day we'd just relax at the house and hike the trail up the mountain we were staying on. Then later we would go to Mass and out to dinner afterward. That's pretty much how it worked out. But once the sun came up in the morning, I found out that being in the house was not enjoyable at all. It had almost no natural light coming in, and not a lot of artificial light either, despite what the bright Airbnb photos would lead one to believe. My pupils were adjusting size based on the brightness of the windows, and as a result were the size of pinpricks, making everything indoors appear shadowy and dark. If I hadn't had a Kindle, I would not have been able to read in there. Tim couldn't see anything either. Someone might say, "Why did you go to the mountains just to sit inside?" To that I would reply that for what we paid, it SHOULD be just as enjoyable to be inside the house as out, and with a baby in tow, there has to be rest and downtime. Even without Thomas as an excuse, this is the way we are; if we didn't want to be comfortable and happy indoors, we could have stayed at a hotel or camped, which is what you do when you just need a place to lay your head at the end of the night, and don't care how nice or homey it is. 

Timmy took the picture because he didn't feel comfortable walking out onto the rock.

Had the weather been warm enough to sit outside, I would have enjoyed the huge porch with the rocking chairs and table. I could have sat out there with a book and some tea for a long time. But not with Thomas. There was a broken slat on the railing, and he could have easily wiggled through that opening. The stairs at one end of the porch had nothing to close them off with, so it was not a place we could take him even had the weather allowed. Life with a toddler, I know. But it makes me appreciate the beach houses with their little gates. Is it so hard to do?

Nothing about this house was babyproof. There were so many things for him to get into.

Tim's selfie with some random family back there🤣

The hiking trail from the edge of the driveway up the mountain was great exercise. I found myself very intrigued by a little structure perched on the side of the mountain that looked like kind of a lookout. I wished I had binoculars to get a better look, but I didn't dare try to go down the side of the mountain to get to it, and to test the wooden walkway that led to it. There was no need to die on this trip! But I am fascinated by abandoned places, and I always want to at least look in the windows if not go inside for a tour. I did not take a picture, though. The view at the top of the mountain did not make me want to break into song as one Airbnb reviewer described, but maybe I have impossibly high standards. Timmy was a good sport even though all of this was like a punishment to him. He was so glad just to be on the way back down.

By now you might be wondering, is there anything I really liked about this trip, anything that I didn't find fault with? Yes, a few things: Mass was good, it always is. The dinner we had at the Indian restaurant afterward--yummy, and with great service. Then we had leftovers the next day. The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Rough Ridge trail, which is where we took most of the photos in this post, was a fun excursion. I had never been on the Blue Ridge Parkway before, and I'd assumed it was just a scenic expressway, and we would just see beautiful views as we flew by at 65 mph. But the speed limit is only 40, and there are so many places to pull off. I would have liked another day to drive around there and make another stop or two. We noticed that the further we drove, the more fall foliage there seemed to be. We must have been gaining elevation.

After our little hike to the top of another mountain--this one with a much more satisfying view, we drove along the parkway for a while longer before deciding to have Panera for a late lunch. For Timmy. Panera would not have been our pick, but it seemed like a fitting reward for the kid we kept dragging up mountains. Panera (really all fresh bread) is his favorite. We waited nearly an hour for our food even though the restaurant wasn't even that crowded. It was people using the app for "rapid pickup" that were breaking the system. We were dining in, but they didn't give us buzzers like they'd do at home. We just stood there waiting and watching the kids working their tails off getting orders ready, thinking surely any minute ours would come up. When I finally approached with my receipt to ask about our status 45 minutes later, the girl told me our order hadn't even come up on their screen yet, but she'd start working on it anyway. We ended up having lunch at almost 3! But it was yummy. Nobody fell apart during the wait, not even Thomas.

I don't know when our next mountain trip will be, but I'm glad that we have now familiarized ourselves with Boone and the surrounding area, and I feel confident about how I'd go about planning another getaway and getting the most for our money. But if Timmy has his way, it won't be anytime soon.