Had another adventure yesterday. One of my best friends from Appalachian, Ben, is a raft guide at a river in the southwest of North Carolina. He invited me to visit him this weekend, and I decided that it would be fun. For context, I really hate driving. Not only that, I really hate driving alone. I especially hate driving alone to places I’ve never been before. This was all of those things, and therefore a large part of me didn’t want to go. I love Ben, but that 3-hour (one way) drive was scary. When I was leaving Boone I discovered that my iPod was dead, and thus I listened to the New River Boys CD that was in my car’s stereo about 7 times over during the course of the drive. I now have all of the lyrics to all of their songs memorized. I was pleasantly surprised by how well googlemaps directed me, and I didn’t really encounter any navigation problems whatsoever.
When I got there Ben bought me a Pineapple & Bacon pizza (the best possible combination) and we journeyed over to staff housing. He tried to introduce me to everyone, but I really can’t remember most of their names (Or faces even) so I won’t even try to relate that part of the trip. Ben and I eventually wound up sitting in his room, drinking V8 and watching episodes of How I Met Your Mother on his laptop. Honestly, it was pretty awesome. I’ve really missed talking to him, especially some of the nerdier stuff that we got into. We had a solid discussion on the philosophy of death and the meaning of life. Ben conked out after a couple episodes, but I didn’t even feel remotely tired, so I watched half of the current season before attempting to get any sleep. Sadly, it was only an attempt. I was too cold and had no pillow. Either one of these things might not have kept me awake, but the combination was devastating to entering any kind of tranquil state of mind.
Eventually I got up to turn off the fan in the room, hoping to make it feel warmer, and (klutz that I am) knocked the fan off of its shelf onto the floor. Of course, this woke Ben up and I felt terrible about it. Then I laid back down and tried to sleep. Still couldn’t. At some point my phone alarm went off and woke Ben up. I turned it off and returned to bed, where Ben offered me the sleeping bag that he had been using as a pillow. It was glorious. I was actually somewhat warm and I managed to improvise a pillow. I think I slept for 2 hours, and then it was time for Ben to go to work.
We drove back to the rafting center, ate chicken biscuits, and bought me a really awesome camping headlamp. Then Ben went to work and I sat down to read The Two Towers until he got back. While I was reading a professor from a well-known college asked about it and about what I am studying at Appalachian. Turns out he’s a professor of English at said university (I’d heard of it, but it’s name escapes me currently). We had a pretty cool conversation, earning me (I think) his stamp of English-major approval.
I went to the restaurant by the riverside and sat at the bar. I’ve never really eaten at a bar before, so there was a certain learning curve. For instance, I didn’t realize that I could just flag down one of the people on the other side of the counter and order food from them. I assumed that they only served drinks. I did have a cool talk with Hanna behind the bar when I did figure out how to order food though. (I felt like such an idiot… I can’t even adequately describe it.) The food was pretty good, and I left feeling like the world was a happy, friendly place. Hours later I discovered that I’d stolen the pen I signed my receipt with, making Hanna’s day much harder. (I did return it though, and she was pretty happy about it.)
Got to see Ben again briefly between his two “shifts,” but he had to go and wouldn’t be back from the river until after I had to leave. I didn’t really want to go, but there was little choice. Grabbing some caffeine to help with the raging headache that (inexplicably) had been assaulting me since lunch, I hopped in the car and made the 3-hour commute back, singing along with the New River Boys to keep myself awake. Surprisingly, even with my 2 hours of sleep, I didn’t really feel tired until I got back into my room. It’s depressing to think that I probably won’t see Ben again until August, but I’m just going to pretend I don’t know that.
Instead I’m going to focus on studying for my microeconomics exam and try not to think about how much easier it would be if he could be here to help explain it to me… sigh.
Where's Waldon? 