And here is my second place winning story--titled by Shellie Ann. I won two nights at a cabin at VSP!
Linda's Nest
The nest was about to be empty, and I was terrified.
As her older siblings grew up and left home, I consoled myself with "I still have my baby for years and years yet!" The youngest by seven years, she is Mommy's girl, my pride and joy, and we are so close that her Valentine's card to me said "You're My Person" on the front.
Her dad and I were not so close, and as the years passed and my baby got to be a senior in high school I became more and more worried about our marriage surviving without her presence to give us purpose. What would we talk about, if not for her successes, failures, daily ins and outs? What would we do with all the time that would suddenly be open without horse shows and homework to deal with? We didn't like each other much some of the time, and we had absolutely nothing in common except for our daughter. We were afraid of what the future would bring.
Then one day a colleague at work mentioned her new hobby--kayaking--and assured me that anyone could learn to do it, even an almost-50 comfortably padded woman like me. It sounded like so much fun I had to try it, and I was instantly hooked. The biggest surprise? So was my husband! Within two weeks we owned a pair of kayaks, and our adventures had begun.
Bear Creek Lake State Park was the perfect place to learn, and soon we were ready for James River State Park. I fell in love with the glorious James the first time we paddled on it. At first we tried to get our daughter to go with us, but she didn't enjoy kayaking, so he and I went alone. I mentioned on one trip that I missed camping but felt I was getting too old to do it without some creature comforts...and he suggested we look for a camper. Very shortly we were the proud owners of a well used camper that we renovated and broke in with a trip to Pocahontas State Park.
We were enjoying life, finding time for ourselves, getting outdoors and exercising, and at the same time discovering we actually liked each other after all. We visited three more parks that summer and by November, when we hit Holliday Lake State Park, it was too cold to kayak. He suggested we try hiking. I laughed! I have a bad knee and did I mention that comfortable padding? But I was game, and we tried. It wasn't always pretty but by the end of the winter--and trips to three more state parks--we could hike eight miles in a day.
We began "training" by hiking as often as possible and made a goal of hiking part of the Appalachian Trail in all 14 states it passes through--starting with Virginia, of course, at Sky Meadows State Park and Grayson Highlands State Park.
We get away by ourselves a couple weekends a month now and we never are at a loss for things to do or things to talk about. We're always hiking or planning hikes or camping trips. All in all, we've visited 28 state parks and have plans to visit the rest in the next year. To that end, this past winter we've started visiting cabins at parks that are a bit too far to take the camper to. We've enjoyed cozy, romantic weekends at Fairy Stone State Park cabin 1, Douthat State Park cabin 19, and Chippokes Plantation State Park cabin 3.
Cabin 1 at Fairy Stone State Park
Sitting snuggled up in front of a fire with a couple of novels and a glass of wine after a day of hiking in the snow would be good for anyone's marriage! We celebrated our 2st1 wedding anniversary this year and thank Virginia State Parks for rejuvenating our marriage and making us ready for another 21 years.
Oh, and our daughter? 4.0 at college and doing great except for sometimes wishing Mom would hang out with her a bit more!
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