Nurture in Nature

Last weekend, Jen and I hung out in Harper's Ferry. A girls-only weekend. Friend's bonding. Being out in nature. It was fabulous. Jen, being the social butterfly that she is, has these retreats often. Me? Well, it's been a while, especially bonding with my girl friends. I think the last time I did something like that was back in high school.

Saturday was spent figuring out where Harper's Ferry was in relation to anywhere. Before escaping the city, I almost had us going in the completely wrong direction. Apparently Harper's Ferry is northwest of DC, at the beginning of Maryland's panhandle. My keen sense of direction would have landed us at Front Royal. I know, I'm that good.

The drive there was pretty straight forward. Our initial destination was the Youth Hostel, located 10 minutes away from the town. The hostel sits along the river, up on a hill. We ended up hiking our way down to the rail tracks below. It was the only hike we had that day since we arrived too late in the day to do any real hiking.

Although we spent less than 2 days at Harper's Ferry, we had some great adventures.

• Attempting to drive into Harper's Ferry without a map, we lost the road that we thought would have taken us there. Of course, the road that follows the river wouldn't have gotten us into town since the town is only accessible via the highway.
• When we were finally able to check into the hostel, we were told that a tour group had booked it for the entire weekend and beds may not be available. Lisa, the owner, wanted to contact me, but her copy of my confirmation didn't have any of my contact info. Luckily, a bunk bed was left empty in one of the rooms and as a consolation, Lisa waived our balance.
• Harper's Ferry closes down early. In order to get dinner we ended up driving about 20 miles to the next town over: Shepherdstown, WV, located in the middle of nowhere. As luck would have it, we ate at the local tavern where not only does the chef make really tender chicken, but a local jam band was playing that night. An interesting mix of people ended up in the tavern, including one guy who was a wee-bit drunk and entertained himself by trying to set some other guys shirt on fire with a bic lighter. But the one who stood out the most was an older man wearing full Scotsman attire because "I wore jeans all week and wanted to dress up."
• When ordering Bailey's on the rocks, I forget how little volume actually fills the glass. Therefore, I was the designated driver, which had Jen panicking the moment we got into the car. Coasting along, Jen grabs my arms, turns the steering wheel and proclaims "OH MY GOD. YOU'RE NOT IN THE LINES." So now that I am supposedly "in the lines", all is well in Jen's world except I was now driving in the opposite lane.
• I decided to have a bit of fun further down the road, wondering if her car would handle as well as my New Beetle when going around curves. I kept the car at 55mph as we entered a ver-ver steep curve. Jen begins hootin' and I'm feeling the car tip to its side. We're practically driving on two wheels, which got us safely to the other side of the curve. Thank goodness there wasn't any on-coming traffic because we would have ended up directly in the field.
• It took me about 3 hours to fall asleep because one of our roomies had a cough and another one was a snorer -- my biggest sleeping peeve. Luckily Casey taught me a sweet little trick about wetting toilet paper and stuffing it in your ears as plugs.
• On Sunday, we turned a leisurely bike ride up and down the C&O Canal into a 35-mile ride. That's right. 3-5-frickin'-miles! HARD-CORE! The most I've ever ridden was 16 miles.

Aside from all of the fun, I thank Jen for being the best and checking out Harper's Ferry with me. Mentally and spiritually I needed not only time away from home, but some serious girl bonding time too. It not only makes a stronger frienship, but also a stronger sense of self. And the experience is even greater when you get to spend it out in nature.

It's 2 days later and I'm still flying high.