Every summer, my father always tries to convince my mom, sister and me to take a family trip up to the mountains. I cringed at the idea of being away from my creature comforts. However, after seeing my dad downtrodden from my lack of enthusiasm, I decided that this trip was necessary. This is my last summer of high school and I think my parents were feeling that this trip would be one of the last times for them to go on a trip with me before leaving home for college. Finally, I conceded and my older sister also decided to take time off from work to also come with us to the mountains.
After riding for three hours by car, we arrived at our campsite at Black Mountain. Since it was already 7:00 in the evening, we went ahead and pitched the tent we were to sleep in for that night and got ready for dinner. For dinner, we ate the rice that my dad cooked on his small burner and some Korean side dishes of flank rib and cabbage. Before long, my dad and sister prepared a campfire. As night came, we turned on a camping lantern, and roasted corn cobs and potatoes in the campfire. When we all sat around the campfire, we were able to have valuable conversations and time to bond. Soon it was time to sleep and we all crowded into the tent, even the dog.
The next morning I woke up feeling grimy and sticky. My dad was already up preparing breakfast. We had rice, cooked yellow squash and onions, and luncheon meat. After this hearty breakfast, we had to pack our tent, sleeping bags and other baggage into the mini-van and ride up to Mt. Mitchell, the highest mountain peak in North Carolina. At Mt. Mitchell, we looked at the mini-museum of Mt. Mitchell’s history and then we purchased local wild muscadine jelly and honey at the mountain refreshment stand. Before long, we ate lunch at the picnic tables at Mt. Mitchell, where my dad used his burner to cook ramen noodles. After taking a couple of pictures here and hearing one hiker say we were making everyone else hungry with the smell of our lunch, we went back and loaded our van with the burner and other items unnecessary for the hike.
We hiked for only a mile, but the steep walkway made the trek seem much longer. After walking this mile, we arrived at the top of Mt. Mitchell where we took pictures of some very breath-taking scenes. My fear of heights did keep me from getting close to the edge of the mountain, but I was able to catch some very nice glimpses of mountain peaks and balsam trees. After this, we traveled back down to the mountain museum/stand and got into the mini-van right before it started to rain. This made me feel sorry for the survival teams and motorcycle riders that were hanging around the Mt. Mitchell parking lot. However, my sympathy for these individuals was interrupted by my tiredness. I was soon asleep and was awoken fifteen minutes later by the slight motion sickness that was caused by my dad’s driving on the curvy mountain roads.
Soon we were home. We were exhausted, grimy and hungry, but after eating dinner, we were refreshed and soon having a lively conversation about how much fun we had. My mother, sister, and I thanked our dad for being the expert hiker and cook for the trip. I was truly impressed by my dad’s experience and skills in mountain traveling.
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