Surprise

Right now I'm simultaneously watching The Bachelorette finale online and So You Think You Can Dance on TV. It's back to my busy, busy schedule after a long weekend in the south.

Monday was Cheri's birthday, and Amy had bought me a plane ticket to go down there to surprise the old broad and go camping with them. I wanted to jump out of a cake naked, but I couldn't find a giant hollow cake. So for about a month we'd been keeping my visit a secret, and it was hard. I almost said to Cheri a few times, "I can't wait to see you! ...at Thanksgiving! Not soon at all, what a bummer. Anyhoo, I gotta go, bye." I told my mom I was excited because I'd never been a surprise before, and she said, "You were a surprise to me!"

I flew down on the Fourth and stayed with my mom and Robert that night. We went straight to the new house from the airport for a pic-i-nic lunch and picked wild blackberries for dessert later. Then we went downtown to watch the fireworks.

Saturday morning my mom took me to the drop-off point—a gas station—to meet Amy and Cheri. All Cheri knew was that they were going somewhere for the weekend, and Amy kept making stops to stall for time, so when they pulled into the gas station Cheri was mad because she just wanted to get going. So they parked on the opposite side of the building where Cheri couldn't see me, and Amy got out. I went back to the car with her and Cheri was floored. It was great. She couldn't believe we'd been able to keep it a secret—well, more Amy than me.

Then we took off for the campsite in Tennessee. Now, I had only been for-real camping once, so I was pretty useless. My job was to look pretty while they set everything up. I did "learn" how to "chop" firewood, and Cheri did offer to let me start a fire—I'm sure against all fibers of her being—but she's so obsessive about building her fires that I thought I'd do it wrong and get yelled at.

Cheri also didn't know that Amy had booked us on a whitewater rafting trip the afternoon we got there, so that was another surprise. It had rained on and off all day, but cleared up before we went. It was on the Big Pigeon River—class 3s and 4s. I went rafting on the Gauley in West Virginia a few years ago, which I think is 4 and 5. I liked this because it wasn't scary, and I actually paddled instead of clinged to the raft. We shared a raft with four other southerners, I think from Atlanta. They were loud and funny. One guy thought we were all sisters. I was like, "Okay, those two, maybe." At a calm stretch of the river we jumped out/fell in and swam.

Sunday morning was nice, and we went for a short hike to an overlook. The woods were very dense and green. People had said they saw bears around there. We cooked grilled cheese sandwiches over the fire for lunch and I burned mine. Then it started storming. We huddled under the tarp, but the rain blew in on us, so we ran to the car and squeezed in the front seat. We sat in there for a while trying to decide what to do. It didn't look like it would let up, so we decided to pack up and go home. But not before taking our shirts off. You know, so they wouldn't get soaked. We packed up in the rain and I "helped." As we were driving out of the campground it cleared and the sun came out.

Monday was Cheri's birthday, and also my half-birthday, which we only half-celebrated. We went for a nice hike at three waterfalls—Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, and High Falls. We waded in the water for a bit at Hooker Falls, I showed off my leg bruises, then we went to Triple Falls and climbed up the rocks to the top, where we laid on a rock in the sun with no one else around. That was my favorite moment. That night we wanted to cook a camping dinner at the fire pit in their front yard, but it rained again. So we cooked inside, then had a fire later and Amy played her guitar—beautifully—while the dogs fought in the wet grass.

I left on Tuesday, and Amy waited with me at the gate. It was another hard goodbye—the hardest yet.

[Pictures coming later.]