The city has many comforts but the wilderness, it calls to me.
Our trip to the Smokey’s couldn’t have been timed better.
Don’t get me wrong. Charlotte is a great city. We’ve been enjoying it.
But it’s a city. A really big city. The biggest I’ve ever lived in.
And we I desperately needed to get away to the countryside.
Why?
I like to think that I deal with stress pretty well.
However, add the stresses of moving to a new city, new state, new job, and new house…it all adds up and I was quite frankly overwhelmed.
I felt off.
I listened to my soul and knew I needed to be immersed in Mother Nature.
The deers in my backyard were not going to cut it anymore.
Enter Song Sparrow Hill.
This Airbnb by Tiffanie on her family’s 16+ acre property wins the award for Most Unique and Original.
It’s tucked away in the hills of Tennessee near the North Carolina boarder.
When I saw pictures, I knew it was where I wanted to recharge and refocus.
So we were lead to our campsite by the family’s sweet and protective two dogs, Mangus and Boy.
Apparently the owners bought Boy to tend to their chickens. But once he visited the campsite, he decided to stay there. And so they had to bring another dog to fill his intended position. I don’t blame Boy. You’ll see why. Below is the outhouse complete with a solar bag shower, “running sink water”, and a composting toilet. It was nothing short of charming. Oh! I should mention that ALL of the wood was logged and milled from their property! The craftsmanship is sublime. Y’all it was so perfect. The crisp night. The fire. The warm cup of tea. The stars. Shining brightly above the silhouette of trees surrounding our tent. Perfect. I didn’t get a photo but there was also a wood burning stove inside the tent. You can see the smoke from the chimney in the photo below. It kept us very toasty throughout the night. I think the best thing about this lovely retreat was no cell phone service. You may laugh, however I’m not kidding. Honestly, Khang has been extremely busy with work. This is the most I’ve ever seen him work even in college. Always talking to his team, responding to emails, or catching up with deadlines and this is all after physically leaving work. He was bringing his work home and I was sick of it. While talking well into the night, I teary confessed to him that I secretly wanted to stay there in the enchanting forrest disconnected from the world because our current routine at home wasn’t making me happy. I mean, I don’t need that much attention, but the man was working too much. He agreed and we came up with a solution together. Things are thankfully better. I don’t know how many trips we could’ve taken out there. Hah! Khang said it looks like a painting. I think that’s good haha. Regardless, I love the results and will experiment more. Until next time, Song Sparrow Hill. Thank you for being just what we needed and more. Thank you for reading and following along with me, Jules.
Our hosts even baked us “sweet bread” and had fresh eggs waiting. It was meant for breakfast the next morning, but it didn’t last very long. The bread was our dessert after dinner. It finished nicely after our grilled steaks.
I mean look at this freakin’ badass tent!!
We gathered around the campfire until it got too cold.
This last photo was taken with Hans “freelensing”. It’s a technique where you detach the lens from the body of your camera to get different focus points.