Pisgah National Forest

I spent the better part of the first day of my week long vacation in Urgent Care. Emilie has a sore throat. Strep is going around so I thought I better have her checked out. The good news is it isn't strep throat, the bad news is I spent four hours in a waiting room with sick people coughing and sneezing on me; I probably caught the Ebola Hemorrhagic Virus.

This vacation was unplanned. Back in the Spring I had all these grand plans for my vacation days. They turned out to be poorly conceived, half bake schemes. Then work got a little crazy and taking vacation days just didn't cross my mind. Thursday it occurred to me I have four weeks of vacation I need to take before December. I asked my manager if I could take next week off, he didn't seem to care. My original plan was to choose 12 trails here in Michigan to ride; I would ride two or three every day next week. But if I drove 500 miles south, I could ride new trails, in the Appalachian Mountains, in slightly warmer weather than here in Michigan.

The problem with my second plan is, since I did no planning at all, I would have to go on vacation alone. That is a tough one. I can't even force myself to go out and eat alone when I am on a business trip and have an expense account.

Another problem is I took a motorcycle trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina before...I think they filmed Deliverance there.

I figure the only thing more pathetic than taking a vacation alone in an area where I don't belong is looking back when I am older and regretting not taking this opportunity to ride over a mountain range and on trails someplace other than my back yard. I am leaving for the Pisgah National Forest Monday morning. Nothing is more pathetic than regret.