Hiking and Wining in Deleplane Virginia

Living right off of interstate 66 can have its benefits. The highway often creates a wall of traffic so impenetrable that it feels like I live in a walled city from which there is no escape, but on a beautiful Sunday morning in late June and heading west traffic is not an issue. As escapes out to the country go Sky Meadows State Park is among one of the best. It lacks the majestic waterfalls of White Oak Canyon or the views of Old Rag, but it is less of a drive and still provides a good hike.

It is easy to forget how steep the North Ridge Trail is until you're halfway up it and covered in sweat on a cool 70 degree morning. The entire loop which includes the North Ridge Trail, the AT, and the White House Ambassador Trail is somewhere between four and five miles long. You get some good views of Paris, Virginia and can even see Washington DC on the horizon if you look for it. Sky Meadows provides a good hike to start the day and that was what we were looking for as visiting some of the local wineries was our main goal.

Focus on What you Can Control

Recently I've developed a new outlook on life. For a couple weeks I was feeling overwhelmed by forces out of my control. I was reading other people's thoughts on social media on how people like me are everything that is wrong with the world. I was thinking of writing a counter to this, but it would do no good and maybe I'm a little too afraid of opening myself up for criticism (I should work on that). The fact is we live in a society that claims to value individualism but at the same time is quick to stereotype and has whitewashed many of our identities. Think about America like a stew full of beautiful and unique ingredients but if any stew is cooked too long it becomes a brown indistinguishable mush.

The other aspect of life out of my control that was bothering me is what has become of the American Dream. People have lost the focus on the actual American Dream and only think of the stuff. The American Dream is the little house with the picket fence and two and a half kids. Those are the benefits of the American Dream but it is not the dream itself. Think back to Thomas Jefferson and the ideal American, the yeoman farmer. The self sufficient man. The American Dream isn't having a great credit rating so that you can go into massive debt and have all this stuff it is to be financially independent.

The Easiest thing to do is Quit

I've reached a point in my workout routine where I look in the mirror and don't see the results I was expecting. In the first couple months of working out I saw amazing results. Belts that I wasn't even able to fit into before starting now can be pulled through to the second loop on my jeans, and I can fit into pants I haven't worn in ten years. Now that I've seen those results I want more, but as I've gotten in better shape the improvements have slowed down.

It is a little disconcerting to go from seeing very fast results to not seeing results because the progress is that slow, but progress is progress and while the desire exists to simply give up that isn't an option. Even if I don't make any progress forward going backwards is the worst thing possible. When you've dug yourself into a hole the first thing to do is to stop digging. While in four months of working out I haven't gotten to where I want to be I am in a hell of a lot of a better place than I was.