ESCAPE TO THE MOUNTAINS!

There's something about the rugged outdoors that calls to me constantly. Perhaps it's derived from my youthful ventures of hiking(wandering?), building forts, and spending nearly all free time in between meals in the woods that has created such a desire to occasionally separate myself from urbanized society. For those who are familiar with where I live in Gettysburg (mailing address places us in Biglerville, while technically we reside in Arendtzville) and the surrounding are, the term Boonies is really the only appropriate word to describe home.

Understandably, the shock from residing in the Boonies for 20 years and subsequently moving to Granada was and still is quite extraordinary. I feel like I'm living one of those sappy "moving to the city to chase my dreams!" songs, except that my dreams are to visit every bar, every discoteca, and steal a beautiful Spanish child. Not sorry.

Our god-send Allie DeRosa provided us a list comprising of select bars, discotecas, weekend trips, and other activities to do during our stay here. This last has basically been our Bible, so thank you Allie (and the other Kappa hoez who added to it). Being the extreme mountain man that I am, the 'weekend getaway to the Alpujarra' captured my attention almost immediately. Further inquiry and research provided that we could rent homes at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range for outrageously low prices. In just over an hour this past Thursday, we quickly browsed all available houses, settled on a medium-sized, quaint home in Orgiva that fit 8 persons, called, and finalized our reservation for the upcoming weekend.

It was perfect in every respect. The house was just the right size for the 6 of us that ventured there Friday night, 3 more that joined us Saturday afternoon, plus an additional 4 friends whom we randomly passed walking to the grocery that camped out in our backyard. Don't tell the Land Lady. It had a patio and pool, and was constructed in the middle of an olive orchard.

We collectively purchased groceries for the weekend, and had some lovely family dinners each night. Friday we hiked the huge hills behind our home, and my butt muscles still hurt. It was incredibly fulfilling reaching the top with sweat pouring and blood leaking from our wounds we were forced to endure on our trek. Slight exaggeration maybe, but not really.

Saturday was not quite as physically exerting as Friday. I merely woke up, ate some breakfast, napped by the pool, ate lunch, laid by the pool, randomly collected our camping friends from the street, ate dinner, played some games and made healthy life choices... womp.

My favorite part of the weekend was waking up and walking outside to only be greeted by the almost haunting silence of nature. For a few seconds it was as if there was no one else for miles... and then Johanna (LA GRITON) woke up. Though the weekend was unforgettable overall, those seconds of silence and solitude I'll treasure most.

I'm already famous in Orgiva. TTFN :-)