Happy, Yappy Abingdon Days
Editor’s note: Post contains video and a little cursing. Totally worth it!
Kel had a little time between leaving her old job and the beginning of her new one.
I had a couple days between drives back and forth to Iowa.
We both needed some time to reconnect, relax, and laugh.
Bless our very much loved spouses who, despite the busy-ness of both families’ lives, said, “Go! Have a fantastic time. I’ll handle everything.”
And go we did!
For historical accuracy, let it be made clear that Yessa, Kate, and Betty were not happy about this Weekend Getaway for two of their moms.
Not happy at all!
(There you go, Trips. Now the world knows you were displeased about our trip!)
So we sent them this picture:
We thought that would help.
We met in Abingdon, VA, a 5-6 hour drive for each of us and it was perfect, perfect, perfect!
We arrived at our clean and cozy Airbnb at the exact same moment. Then we followed each other around the condo complex in our respective mini-vans, trying to find the correct home-away-from-home.
The one drawback to the condo was the lack of a wine bottle opener which we remedied on our first night with a quick run out to the grocery store. That bottle opener now lives in my van so we won’t have this problem in the future.
Kelly did have a little trouble with her suitcase when it was time to head up to bed. Multiply the cackling laughter you hear here by one million, and you’ll have an idea of our weekend all wrapped up in a giggle.
Waking up that first morning was like a revelation. Kel mentioned that it took her a bit to know what she wanted to do, but I knew exactly how I wanted my morning to look. After a great night of snuggly sleep on flannel sheets, I did yoga, made my coffee, got ready for the day, then settled on the couch to work on a craft project while I waited for my roommate to be ready to chat.
It was so perfect because I’ve been having these moments of doubt around what my life looks like as the children grow older, and this time away reminded me that I do know what I value and need to feel nourished and refreshed.
Kel had driven through a downtown area on her way to the condo that looked intriguing, so after breakfast and morning ablutions, we headed out for our day and to see what adventures awaited.
The adventures and laughter began right away when we were stopped at a stop sign and Kel said, “Did you see that pig? There was a pig running down that hill over there!”
Kel and I are so alike that I was immediately sure she was right and had visions of us rescuing some family’s potbellied pig that had escaped. It didn’t matter that we were in a subdivision with houses all around.
We drove over, ready to jump out of the van to capture the pig to earn the undying gratitude of the grateful family, only to have a large yellow cat climb up out of the ditch to look at us with a quizzical look.
Huh.
A cat.
That makes so much more sense.
Then we laughed at ourselves for thinking that a pig was a logical thing to see in a subdivision.
Kelly asked me later in the weekend if I had seen the cat sitting in a bird bath that we drove by and my response was, “No, but I saw the pig.”
Then she slugged me.
Oh, my GOSH, we laughed all these days. So much laughter.
And being together was so easy. I have many family and friends that I adore, but Kelly and I are so alike it’s seamless in some ways.
When I go out with many of the people I live with–you know who you are–we all know that I’m going to be carrying the emotional and verbal load. If there are people who need to be connected with or questioned, it is most likely me that will be doing the questioning and conversing.
I don’t mind that!
But what a gift of ease to know that Kelly is like me and will talk to anyone. She finds the world…and people…fascinating and curious and interesting. She’s not going to look at me like I’m on oddball because I’m talking to strangers. She’s not going to get tired of me getting a story from some person I’ll never see again. She gets it! And she does it, too!
Case in point:
After we saved the imaginary pig from…well…nothing.
There was no pig, and the cat didn’t need saved, BUT, we would have saved the pig.
After that we drove downtown and walked around to explore.
Abingdon was much more beautiful and interesting than we ever expected! We parked and began to walk and discovered the Daniel Boone connection in Wolf Cave.
Then, much like puppies seeing a squirrel across the road, we saw a Meditation Labyrinth that we needed to experience.
It took us both awhile to settle into the experience. I began walking first and Kelly squealed up on my keister like we were at the Talladega Superspeedway, but then we found a spacing and pacing that worked for both of us, and we managed to maintain quiet for a full 5-10 minutes!
After we savored the peace of the labrynth, we wandered back toward the Wolf Cave house. Now there was a white gentleman in a stocking hat in the yard, and we began to pepper him with questions.
Mark, the realtor for the home, told us of its history, the attempts by the son of the previous owner (and the owner’s estate) to sell the house, and then he asked if we wanted to take a look around inside.
We spent an hour walking all over inside the house, talking of stories Mark knew about the house, ghosts, and ideas for where we should visit in Abingdon in general.
There were so many gorgeous features; fireplaces, individual tile around the fireplace hearths. beautiful wood trim, and great leaded windows. The house had been a place to stay for actors who would become famous, and there were still numbers on the doors to show that previous life.
The entire house had had the bathrooms and heating system pulled out. Mark had priced out about 1/2 million dollars to refurbish the house. The higher into the house we went, the rougher the rooms became.
There is another home on the property which is all set up to be a long or short-term rental. We only peaked in the windows, and looked down on it in the backyard when we were on the upper floors of the larger house.
Then we headed out the front door to enter the basement, where the original kitchen would have been. Some refurbishing had been done down here to shore up the house when the tilting became apparent.
Finally, after tramping all over all the floors of the house, we headed out back to go into the cave.
We didn’t explore very far, though the cave goes on for blocks under city streets. There would have been belly crawling, and we weren’t game for that on this trip.
The property is for sale for a little under $1,000,000. If you click through on the link in the first sentence of this paragraph, it tells a little more history of the house, and shows pictures from inside the other home on the property. If you decide to buy it, tell Mark that Kelly and I sent you.
We thanked Mark profusely for our personal tour, promised him that we would go visit his lady friend at her Salt Spa, “Salt Of The Earth,” and then headed off to see what else we could get up to.
Mark had told us of several places to visit and potential hikes. We meandered our way to the Artisan Shop to look at locally made crafts. The Artisan “factory” used to be housed in the Cave House we had just toured, and now it is housed in the old jail.
It was fun to read the history of that building, as well as look at the wares.
Then we tried to get arrested by looking in the windows of another historical building, that now seem to be apartments.
By now we were a little cold, so we remembered our promise to Mark and headed to “Salt Of The Earth.” They were having a sale on a session in the “salt cave,” and since Kel and I were the only ones signed up for the hour-long session, we jumped at the chance.
Cell phones weren’t allowed in the “salt cave,” so I can’t show you Kel and I relaxing in the zero-gravity recliners. (Kel had trouble figuring out how to work them. 😉 Then we were crying with laughter as we put hunks of salt on any parts of our body that were achy. You could also remove clothing to expose more skin to the salt ions in the air, or lay on the Himilayan sea salt covered floor. (Think beach, but sea salt instead of sand.)
All of this sent us into peals of laughter. It felt so good to laugh until we cried. The salt cave was like the strangest therapy session a person could ever have.
And in an unexpected bonus, I’ve sent Kel pictures of salt when I see it so she knows I’m thinking of her.
Salt Cave: The gift that keeps on giving.
Our other big adventure of this time away was enjoying The Virginia Creeper Trail. We took several walks on this gorgeous path, talking, dreaming, and planning.
Finally, a stop at a bakery, which was recommended by one of our several new friends we made in Abingdon. (Seriously, this town was so friendly!)
Our last day in Abingdon, we had another jaunt on the creeper trail, then hugs, and gratitude that as much as we loved our time together, we were both so happy to be heading home to our respective families.
What a tremendous blessing all around.
