Ladies & Gents:
Today I’m writing you from my desk in Collingswood, N.J. Five days ago, I was scaling a mountain. Four days ago, I was falling down a mountain. It was quite a trip. Pun intended.
My vacation to Asheville was more than I could have ever expected. The town itself is lovely, and the people there lively and interesting and making one hell of a case for me to relocate (I was invited to a co-working space my first day in town). But it’s the mountains that really made the difference, not just running up them, but driving along and on them on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
I wrote about running the mountains – and fear – here. I wrote about my tumble down the mountain on my way to the Crabtree Waterfall here. But what I haven’t written about yet – and maybe hope to do as a travel story – is that drive: 469 miles over 910 vistas, across 176 ridges, and through 126 tunnels. The lowest elevation is 249 feet; the highest 6,047. The history of how this roadway happened is stunning. Read up on that here.
I made the drive in my 2002 Jeep Wrangler TJ. I don’t think I would have made the drive in my old Honda Civic because making this drive in this car – with its front windows taken out – was part of the adventure. The most common vehicle I saw were motorcycles, and I only passed three Wranglers, which surprised me at first, but perhaps a box on wheels isn’t the most popular way to get up and down mountains, especially if you’re camping since Wranglers don’t really have trunks. My Jeep also has a manual transmission, and it’s the most technical route I’ve ever driven. In some ways, that drive was more challenging than when I drove the car home from Texas when I didn’t really know how to drive stick. The reason? Those 910 vistas. Driving the car up and down those mountains was work. For the first time, I got why some people think NASCAR is a sport. I worked hard on that drive. I’m not sure if my all over body ache is from falling, from driving, or both.
I’m glad I did this and that I found out about the Blue Ridge Parkway on – of all places – Pinterest. I guess there is value to it other than home decorating and wedding planning.
As for this week: I’m still smarting from that fall, and my ankle is a little bit green, so there was no half marathon for me yesterday and I’m gingerly going to the gym today. I’m playing a mean game of catchup, trying to get through what I missed while away and to hit my usual end-of-month deadlines. It’s also time to sell some stories. I try to write one long form piece a year, but I put that aside while writing my book. Right now, I have a big, messy idea charted out that I want to wrangle into a pitch that an editor will read and immediately declare “Eureka! This is the best idea I’ve ever seen!” Or something like that. I’m also headed to Runner’s World on Tuesday for “runch,” which is a run + lunch in the fabulous Rodale cafeteria. It’s not too far a drive, but I hope my Jeep has recovered from turning over 1,580 miles on vacation to make the trip.
Not many stories to share this week since I was away, but if you’re skipping to the end just to see that, I’ll repeat from above. Here’s what I published this week:
I wrote about running up a mountain here.
I write about falling down a mountain here.
What I’m reading: Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County
What I’m watching: Just finished the Mad Men finale. Still thinking on that one. Also catching up on Call the Midwife and Mr. Selfridge episodes that I missed.
I still don’t have a good name for this newsletter, though “Update from Jen A. Miller” is what I used when I did this as an email, and it’s to the point. Plus, as a graduate school professor said once, it’s what comes after the colon that says what the thing is really about. I’ll keep it for now.
Until next time,
Jen A. Miller
www.jenamiller.com
twitter.com/byjenamiller
instagram.com/jenamillerunner
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