The first day on my own. It was a pretty big driving day. First mishap was retrying to put gas in my car. Okay – I couldn’t open my gas tank. I kept pushing the button but it wouldn’t open. Now this is a rental car and I have never done it before. Fear broke out “0MG, its broke – I’ll have to call the car company, etc, etc, etc.”. Finallly after what seemed like a long time (probably a few minutes of trying to open the little door to the gas tank), I asked this nice couple at ‘the Maverick’ for help. “Now his son has a Jeep Cherokee”, he says as he goes right to the button (I had pushed a few hundred times) pushes it, and says” yep, that’s the gas tank”. His wife (or so I assumed) put her little finger to the crease and opened it right up. So now, instead of the gas tank cover popping open when you hit the ‘button’, you now have to actually pry it open once you hit the button – bizarre. Even more bizarre is that there is no actual cap – ‘what no cap’ – ‘yep no cap’. It has really been a long time since I even rented a car. And don’t get me started about the satellite radio, the panel with options (how I turned my car seat heat on), the climate control and the gps. OMG! I figured out how to use the GPS and that was really the best feature. It got confuse at a few places, but the green line always ran true.
It has really been an incredible day. It hasn’t been easy and driving for 8 hours really took it’s toll on me. Bizarre, I used to drive 14, 15 hour days -they were hard, but not really stressful. I drank a few Mountain Dews and down the road I went. I relaxed into driving as the day went on. Beautiful country, had some panic and some moments of doubt, but ended up strong.
I left Franklin after an incredible time with my Bestest Friends. It was the perfect beginning of my min tour. Mike and Jen stayed up all night and polyerothaned the floors – intense – they went to bed at 2 am – I know because I wasn’t sleeping well and was still up. As typical at Dunghill Manor, a glorious breakfast was served. All the other inns will be working hard to produce such a lovely fair.
I was fueled and really to go, but the first hour of the drive was scary. I just don’t drive enough and I do get a little weird while driving. A little short of breathe, light headed and weird. I hate to say i might be having some panic attacks, but I do think some of that is going on. After an hour or so it became an incredible journey, I relaxed and saw some beautiful country. I am glad I am not trying to drive all day today but enjoy the lovely country, do some hikes and experience the area. There is rain predicted but I still think I can get some hiking in. I do want to try that trail on the low end of the mountain.
Dinner tonight was a Spinach salad with beets (incredible) and lamb lollipops (the best I ever had- exquisite) picture below after a few bites. These people at the Inn are great: fun, funny and very informative. Although it is raining tomorrow I will have an amazing day.
They do Moose tours up here. I might be in heaven!