Disconnected in Mouth of Wilson

So my goal to get one blog post out each Sunday or Monday looks like it has met its match – traveling followed up by being sick. I tried with all my might to stay up Monday night once we got back in town to get a post out, but my mind and body just weren’t having it. After a trip to the local Walgreens clinic on Tuesday, a diagnosis of pink eye and a sinus infection made me realize why. However I’m on the mend now, so although I’m a little late here we go ~

My family and I spent an extended 4th of July holiday weekend in Mouth of Wilson, VA (aka the middle of nowhere) … and oh how pretty the middle of nowhere was. If anyone is curious, the town is named so because it’s where the Big Wilson Creek dumps its waters into the New River. And if anyone else is curious as to why we would stay in such a place, well that’s simple – my family likes to make holiday plans last-minute and considering we were searching for a cabin that was 1/2 way between Atlanta and Baltimore exactly 2 weeks before the 4th of July holiday, there wasn’t a whole lot to choose from.

The cabin we ended up renting was amazing though – plenty big enough for 10 people with beautiful views and a trout stream running through the property. I would highly recommend staying there, if you don’t mind being in the middle of nowhere, needing 4WD to get up the incredibly steep (but scenic) driveway, and having absolutely no cell phone service. It was heaven for me, but to be honest I wasn’t sure how my niece and two nephews would take to being “disconnected” from reality – I mean they are teenagers so how would they survive, right? They managed. I think they may have had the most fun out of all of us. Hiking the property, chasing after lizards and turtles, playing in the stream, falling in the stream, catching fish, playing football, etc … a lot of outdoor time was crammed into a few days and I think it did everyone good.

On Saturday we made our way into the town on Independence, VA (about 10 miles from where we were staying) – supposedly they were having fireworks and we were going to celebrate the 4th. We stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant, and although I was a bit disappointed when my “frozen mango margarita” turned out to be a Bud Light Mang-O-Rita blended with ice, they did have some pretty darn good Mexican food. Unfortunately my 18-month old wasn’t about to stay up until 9:30pm for fireworks so I missed the show, but according to the rest of my family it was phenomenal. I mean the town is called Independence – it’d be a real let down to have a show that wasn’t great – but the town of Independence is like 2 square miles, so we really weren’t sure what to expect. Apparently they did not let down.

Sunday led to even more disconnecting, which meant more outdoor time, more campfires with s’mores, more eating and drinking, more magazine reading, more appreciating and taking in the beauty around us. I felt myself becoming a little sad at the thought of having to leave this heavenly place the next day. I truly felt relaxed on this vacation and I think it had a lot to do with being disconnected.

About an hour into our trip home on Monday, when we finally had cell phone service, my phone started beeping and ringing and buzzing with the voice mails, text messages and FB notifications I had missed over the weekend, and I honestly thought about turning my phone off, for good. How wonderful would it be to not have all the “stuff” that overfills our lives? How wonderful would it be to continue having no clue what was going on in the world? Ahhh … then I snapped back into reality and realized that as wonderful as it was to do without it for 4 days, I did feel a little lost. I came to grips with the fact that my reality includes cell phone service, a Facebook account, an Instagram account, bills, work, stuff, and more stuff – much like most of you out there. I would recommend disconnecting once in a while though. It does a body (and mind) good 🙂