It was definitely 81 degrees this evening when I was wrapping up a short walk with Murray, but we’re still slipping into soup season over here. Rémy made turkey chili with kidney beans on Monday for a cozy night around the fire pit, then chicken soup with homemade chicken stock on Tuesday for a night on the couch. The chicken soup was definitely a sign that (a) we were both recovering from our Pfizer boosters and not feeling 100 percent, and (b) I had just recovered from a cold and had passed it on to Rémy. My bad. But the soup was fantastic. I love fall.
Back to walking – I started walking without braces and crutches around weeks 7-8 post-ACL surgery. It felt so hard but moved so fast once I got going. Suddenly I’m back to long walks (5 miles or so) by myself, and shorter walks with the pups. Things really picked up the weekend of October 1, when Rémy and I took the pups to Brevard for a little weekend getaway to celebrate our two-year wedding anniversary.
Our main intention: to relax. We rented a cute little Airbnb cabin called The Pines, which overlooked the mountains and was a short driving distance to the Pisgah National Forest, Oskar Blues Brewery and downtown Brevard. We’ve had a lot of good times in Brevard – I grew up spending weekends here with friends and Rémy and I have spent a couple of weekends with friends here as well. It felt like an easy, peaceful place to return to for a quiet getaway. The back porch had the best view of nature, and it was fenced/gated, so the dogs could lounge out there with us. That’s actually where they spent most of their time.
We did some movie-watching, some reading (I’m hooked on a memoir, To Shake the Sleeping Self), minimal cooking via some Trader Joe’s frozen picks, lots of walking, a little beer-drinking (loved the live music and IPAs on tap at Oskar Blues) and some hiking. I picked out the Moore Cove Falls Trail in the Pisgah National Forest because it was short – just 1.5 miles, led to a waterfall and was family friendly in terms of difficulty level. We brought the pups along, and that distance was about all I could handle with my knee, and about all Maisie could handle, at the time. The leaves hadn’t quite turned, but they were falling and sun was streaming through the trees and the path felt ethereal. Highly recommend.
The weekend was the perfect way to usher in our third year of marriage, plus my third month post-surgery. I hadn’t walked so much since early August, and I felt stronger suddenly. Ready to get back to it, let go of hesitation and trust my body’s ability to heal and keep going.
I’m still going.