Anniversary Trip to Oxford

If you would rather skip the terrible beginning to this story, just scroll down to the pictures. If you want the real deal, well, read on...

If you've lived over a decade, you know life throws curveballs. We seem to be in the curveball business when it comes to getaway trips. We try, despite busy schedules and finances, to prioritize at least one trip a year together, if not more. But the last three (this being the second, I'll get to blogging about the third and most recent trip sometime) have been...particularly interesting. On our previous anniversary, I got a horrible stomach virus and our car broke down on the way home (see the full story here.) We thought, surely nothing like that could happen again, right? Hahaha. (shaking my head)

The story began with a co-worker offering a family lake house "anytime we wanted." While I wouldn't take anyone up on this, she seemed particularly adamant about the offer and another friend/co-worker had already stayed there twice and loved it. So we called the grands about keeping the kids for 5 days and put it on the calendar. Normally we would just stay a weekend away, but the offer of the lake house for free enabled us to stay longer. 

We planned on leaving after I got off work on the last day of school. I arrived to work that morning and asked my co-worker for the directions (which she hadn't sent yet). She then asked if I'd gotten her email that she sent late the night before. I had not, so she proceeded to tell me that the cleaning lady had discovered that the air conditioner was not working at the lake house. Don't start panicking. Okay, so...this can be fixed, right? I asked. She wasn't sure. Her father (the owner of the lake house) had a lot going on in his business and she didn't know if he could get to it. Heart beating faster. No sweat, just give us the number to the company you'd like to look at it and we'll call and take care of it. We don't mind, really. The promise of a free stay somewhere was too good to pass up.

I waited, off and on that day while working, for an answer from her about getting it fixed. I called Davey and we agreed that we would still go, even if the AC was broken. We go camping, how bad could it be? Plus, we planned to go hiking, kayaking, and jogging, so we figured we'd be outdoors a lot. Since our last anniversary trip had been ruined by a stomach virus, we were looking forward to this trip more than ever.

More time went by that day. No answer. I texted Davey and told him to go buy a big fan.

I didn't want to bug her, but seriously? I had to have my kids packed and ready to go right after work and then we were supposed to hit the road. I didn't even have the directions (despite asking and emailing in the weeks prior).

I finally got a text after I left work (at this point, we were really stressed). They told us we couldn't go. Her family completely pulled the plug. On the trip we'd been anticipating for months. The trip we had been so thankful for due to someone's generosity. The trip that had been way overdue. The trip that we'd so carefully planned, from child care, to kayaking reservations, to researching hiking trails. You can't stay there. My stomach is queasy just typing this. We were devastated. "Go and do something nice and stay somewhere this weekend with your husband" I was told. I suppose if you own two houses this is no big deal. Sorry if I sound hurt, but I was!

We did the only thing we knew to do. We thanked God for some Christmas money that we had put away (though we had hoped to use it for something else), and we tried to pick up the pieces. We found a good price at a hotel near the places we had planned on visiting, booked it (with a sinking feeling though...having to spend that much hurts when you had a free place hours ago!), and left, promising each other that despite the emotional roller coaster, we were going to have a great time. 

Well, we did have a great time. We had a wonderful time actually. Once we got there and put the whole mess behind us, we just thanked the Lord that He made a way that we didn't have to cancel it all. Plus, I was with my best friend. Can't go wrong with that.

Wild flowers at Cheaha State Park, AL

One thing we did was a kayaking trip. Tallapoosa River Outfitters is a small place in the middle of nowhere. It was way out in the country in Alabama. Most country people you'll meet, and the nicest too. Funny thing about that kayaking trip. It was supposed to be a 5.5 mile trip...we went about 12. Completely missed the take out. Just kept on going for miles. I had grabbed my iPhone last second (actually went back to the car to get it and rented a waterproof box) just so I could have a camera on the way down the river. Good thing because I also had a GPS to show that we were definitely not going toward the Outfitters place. Mind you, this is in the middle of nowhere. There aren't places to just climb out of the river, and even if we did, there would probably not be a road for miles. Amazingly, I was able to use my phone to call the place, and we pieced together where we might be. We finally found a place to take out near a bridge where some folks were fishing. We hauled the kayaks up a hill, and then waited for what seemed like forever for the guy to come pick us up. Thankfully, they weren't mad, more amused. Apparently, no one had ever done that before. Awesome. Leave it to us. He drove us back to the store where our car was, and we even walked down to the river to see where we should have gotten out. We still have no idea how we missed it. It still drives me crazy. So, even though we were tired and hungry, it was a good laugh!

At the beginning of the 5.5 mi-turned-12-mile-trip

The old bridge and road where we finally got picked up. Deserted doesn't begin to describe it!

Other highlights from the trip include walking around some old towns, taking time to take pictures (not always easy with kids in tow), perusing antique shops, and a visit to Cheaha State Park. We hiked and enjoyed this beautiful place. The waterfalls were really fun!

Don't fall!

 One of the nice things about a trip like this, for us, was the ability to just take our time without a plan. We also got to goof off a bit with pictures and I was able to teach Davey a few things about my camera. I think he did great!

Above the waterfall

Taking the plunge. It was COLD!

 At the end of that day, after hiking and trail running, we had dinner at the lodge and enjoyed the view.

While the trip got off to a rocky start, we forgot about it by the end (in fact, I forgot about it while blogging as well!). We are thankful that we still got to go and have a great time.