One Month

This will be a short post due to lingering, overwhelming exhaustion.

I have not smoked a cigarette in a month.

To celebrate that, my little family and I went to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains.

I have been there before. Having spent all the summers of my youth in a girls' camp in the southern Appalachians, I adore the mountains. I love them. I love them. I love them. I cannot emphasize enough how much I love the mountains. I am not a beach girl -- I hate the salt and the wind and the crashing surf with all those biting fish and stinging things. I love the mountains.

But this time, we decided to go to Abrams Falls. That's a five-mile hike, round-trip. And it's up hill and down hill, and the sign at the start of the trail even warns that it is a hike of "medium" difficulty, and it could be a 3 to 4 hour hike.

It took me about 5 hours. I was literally the last person to stumble out of the forest Monday night.

People that I left at the falls... passed me on the trail.

Seriously.

I was the LAST person to walk out of the woods Monday night.

But at least it wasn't pitch-black. And I didn't get attacked by a bear or anything.

I do love the woods -- I particularly love the mountains. The verdant, fertile, black, old, rotting earth under the mountain laurels smells so delicious to me. It's so rich and sublime. Even in our drought, in the darkest, shadiest spots on the trail, trickles of underground springs made things muddy and mossy for me. I adore that kind of earth. I would live there forever if I could.

But I only get to visit.

Since I survived the whole ordeal, I do get to point out that I made it five miles and didn't need anyone to carry me out of the forest. Even my sister Amy thinks that if I still smoked, I would not have made it -- and I think she's right. I might not be past the point of being susceptible to lung cancer, but I am a lot better than I was 28 days ago.

I can't believe I still haven't smoked.

On the other hand, I am awfully glad I've made it this far.

Thank you, Chantix! And thank you, Chantix bloggers!!!!!! You guys keep me going when I think I'd like to have a cigarette!!!!!!