Vacation on the Canal

I was watching a little of My Name is Earl after my run today. In this episode they flash back to the time when Earl was a kid and he vacationed with his Aunt in a trailer on a lake. They were skipping rocks and it reminded me of my childhood.

I had some friends as a kid, I think I was 12-14, and they lived in the next neighborhood. I used to ride my bike over there all the time, and hang out with the three brothers. One was a year older, one a year younger, and one the same age as my brother. We had a great time and a few times my brother and I went with them on a vacation trip.

They had a trailer in North Carolina, about halfway between Virginia Beach and Nags Head. It was on a series of canals that opened to the intra-coastal waterway, there was a trailer park that people either rented or owned a piece of land on. My friends had a trailer on it, not a big one, maybe a sleep 6 sized one that was permanently parked there. Along with a small boat and an outboard, it was a neat place.

We went down there a couple times, us boys riding bikes around, fishing (not my favorite thing) going to the small gas station at the entrance to play video games, and lots and lots of Uno games. I know we had a day or so when it rained all day and we just played cards over and over.

We grew up later and I had other friends with other vacation spots. I had one that had a house in the mountains of Virginia, another that rented a house in the Bahamas every year, and eventually friends that had timeshares as well.

I think, however, that being grounded to a spot is good. It's a simpler life if you have a place that you go to, not wandering around somewhere new every time you look to get away. I've found that we tend to like to go to the same places, but it's never our place.

Maybe I ought to look for a small piece of land, put up our own trailer or cabin. With the high cost of air travel, that might be a nice way for us to get away on a more regular basis. And if we get a place near the National Forest, Tia can take her horses as well.

I'd prefer