It took me a month to write about my road trip with my mom. It ran right into my long weekend away with Paul. It’s been a long tough year and “vacations” don’t usually happen without visiting family and traveling to doctors. I actually wrote this last month but my health gets in the way and it never made it to the computer. It still deserves to be posted.

Our lovely friends give us our time at their rental cabin. After driving the curving roads in New York and New Jersey with my mom, I needed to drive the switchbacks of the Nantahala River Gorge. Illness has made me more the passenger than the driver for more than a decade but my mom needed a driver this time and it was liberating! So I made Paul pull-over so I could drive. Once the slow car pulled over it was awesome… Why do people break while in the curve.. seriously, WTH anyway…

The cabin is familiar and feels like home. The mountain lake is pristine. Our one indulgence — the boat rental! That morning I really wasn’t feeling well but I knew I just had to get on water. I hope if you are reading this you have a place, thing or activity where everything leaves your mind and you’re just happy — better… joyful.

Paul and I both love the wind. Skimming through the emerald waters reflecting the trees back. I have to say “no” to so many things. It protects me. I’m pretty broken but a chance to stop the boat and dive in and swim or float, I’ll take it. I can no longer do freestyle or backstroke. Bone growth is a huge issue. I never liked breast stroke. Really, my weakest stroke but it will do. The thrill of diving off the boat – I still have good form but no matter how smoothly I enter the water it still takes a mighty toll on my body. It’s worth it!

What would you do “anyway?” Even if it sidelined you for a bit?

I love water, so white water rafting with some real rapids is on my list. It’s been a while and I’m ready. Others… not worth it. It’s an easy “no.”

After our day on the boat I was couch-bound by 5 PM. Did I mention.. WORTH IT!!

Next day, we made it to a mediocre Apple Festival but you just need a destination to make you travel new roads. We found a little main street in Tennessee and this brand new craft brew pub… Funny thing, running through the middle is the state line. Tennessee and Georgia. We were kind of tickled. Find the joy. All the little joys add up! Stock them in your memory!

I’ve had a very tough year but lets focus on a little joy. We went to an alpaca farm. And I painted one of the cute alpacas. I posted in on Instagram and someone asked to buy it that same day. What a happy thing!

Yeah so we hung out with a bunch of alpacas and it was really cool. Then we ate ice cream.

Live. Just live life and push, a little — maybe a lot — but live.

What do you do for little joys and big ones too? Do you write them in a journal and keep track of your moods so on those bad days you can remember that not everything is always so bad? Do you know Health Storylines has a journal and a mood tracker right in the app?! Download the health storylines app for your medical journal or all your journaling. Handy idea! Use my link to download the app! 

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#acromegalywarrior #keepgoing #vivelafrancenc