Top 12 of 2012 (part 2a)

The second half of my 2012 highlight reel. Again, in no particular order.

Jeeps at Nemacolin
This past summer, Mallory worked in the Adventure Center at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in southwest Pennsylvania. One of the activities they offer is an "Off-Road Jeep Driving Course". Dad, Aunt Margaret, and I drove up to PA to help Mal get all of her stuff home at the end of the summer. We planned our trip with enough time to get to do some of the activities at the Adventure Center. While we were there, Mal's friend Matt, who had the day off, offered to take me out in one of the Jeeps. Of COURSE I jumped at the chance!
After teaching me the basics on their instructional course, Matt directed me to the other side of the resort where they have over 20 miles of driving trails through the woods. It was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done! I drove that Jeep through creeks, over logs, up (almost) vertical inclines, etc. I'm ready to buy a Jeep and do it all the time!!

There were a couple of times that Mal jumped out of the backseat and ran ahead on the trail to video me going over or through something crazy. These are screenshots from some of the videos she took. The last one is me (duh) and Matt - Mal's friend, now my friend too.

Women's Weekend (and Emily Floyd)

While I was still in college, my friends Lindsay Hancock, Anna Gayle, Dana Martin, and 2 of their other best friends Buffy Smith and Shelly Kaiser, started an annual weekend for women at Windy Gap. It is one of my favorite things to do at the end of summer every year! This year, I convinced my friend Emily (one of the Lubbock girls) to drive from Nashville, TN (where she lives now) to hang out with me for the weekend!! We had THE. BEST. TIME. We did basically nothing all weekend and loved every second of it.

This is really a 2-for-1 post because Emily is another one of my favorite things from 2012. We had heard about each other for years from Rachel and Katy (her BFFs in Lubbock, and my BFFs from working at YL camps) but didn't actually meet until 2005 when I went to Lubbock after Summer Staff at Frontier Ranch. Even then, it was only a brief meeting while I visited. We became Facebook friends, and that was about the extent of it. THEN, when I went to Lubbock for Rach and Bryan's wedding, Emily and I reconnected and hit it off instantly. Literally. We decided to be each other's dates for the weekend and had the best time dancing and laughing and getting burritos from Josie's at 3am! We're basically MFEO (made for each other - have you seen Sleepless In Seattle?).

Either way, Emily came to Women's Weekend and she got to experience her first Cheerwine Slush AND her first Bojangle's. I got to experience a pretty epic Sippy Porch jam sesh. It was a good weekend.

I should also mention that Women's Weekend got off to a not-so-great start. My friend Ben and 2 other guys from Goldsboro were on their way up to Windy Gap to play in the band for the weekend when, long story short, their car flipped 4 times, backward, on I-40. I was sitting in, what turned out to be, the traffic from their wreck, when I got a text from Bryan Hancock that said "Ben was just in a wreck. He's fine but might need a ride. He's in Statesville. Can you call or text him?" I immediately started freaking out, but got up with Ben, coordinated where to pick them up, went to the hospital and waited for Matt (one of the other guys) to be released from the ER, and 5 hours later we made it to Windy Gap. Statesville is only about an hour and a half away. (That's the short version of the story, and it's kinda funny now. Parts of it at least.)

These posts are getting longer and longer. In order to keep them (kind of) short and hopefully keep your interest, I'll break the second half up into a few posts. Don't touch that dial.