My friends live high in the mountains between Asheville and Johnson City, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous when I arrived there in the evening. I gleefully changed into long pants and a long-sleeved shirt before joining them for supper.
I slept wonderfully and woke up yesterday morning to a picture-perfect kind of day. And I've got an actual picture to prove it:
Suitably enough, my friends had plans to spend the day in the outdoors, so I bade them goodbye and continued east toward my sister's family's home, where I'll be spending several days. As usual for a day after a race, I wanted to get in my boat and work some of the previous day's stresses out of my body, and Lake James appeared to be the most convenient venue along my route. Lake James is a reservoir at the foot of the Blue Ridge Escarpment that was formed by a dam across the Catawba River. It sits between the towns of Marion and Morganton.
On this beautiful Sunday afternoon the lake was utterly teeming with all manner of motorized pleasure craft. Clearly, this would not be a serene recovery paddle. It takes more energy and concentration to paddle in churned-up waters, and of course one can't expect me not to try to surf anytime some good waves come my way.
In any case, I managed not to kill myself out there during my 80-minute paddle, but I was quite worn out when it was over. Fortunately my sister's house was less than an hour away, and when I got there I had just enough time for a nap before suppertime. I plan to spend the next day or two giving my body some real rest before I set my sights on the next race this Saturday.
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