I had pretty much the perfect weekend in a way that was unique to being in this place. I haven’t had any regrets about moving, but I have moments when it strikes me how crazy it was to move across the country, kind of on a whim (though a thoroughly researched one) and I’ve wondered if it was worth it. But this weekend really took advantage of the location.

Friday morning, there was a meeting of a group for creative people in the area, and I went with a friend (the person who used to have the apartment I now live in, and we turned out to be kindred spirits). I picked her up and we drove to the next town over to the park where the meeting was, which was on top of either a very tall hill or a very small mountain on the edge of the Blue Ridge. It was absolutely spectacular up there. There was a fog/mist, so it looked a bit overcast down in the valley, but up at the park we were above the mist. The meeting turned out to be a fun mix of theater people, photographers, writers, artists, musicians, etc., and the backdrop of the speaker was an incredible view.

We took a scenic route home, with my friend directing me around some sights in town. After I dropped her off, I continued exploring, taking each of the major roads I hadn’t been on yet to the edge of town and then driving around one of the neighborhoods where I think I might want to get a house.

Saturday morning, I walked to the farmers market because I needed zucchini for a recipe I wanted to make, and while I was there I found a stand from an apple orchard. They had some samples, and I’d never had fresh apples straight from an orchard that weren’t from a supermarket. The flavor was so much more intense than any apple I’d had, so I had to buy a small basket of mixed apples (the grower made me take a couple more) and I chatted with the grower, swapping apple butter recipes.

On the walk home, I saw a deer running across my street, a few blocks from my house. That’s the fun mix of urban and rural here. I can walk downtown, where there are sidewalk cafes and shops, but it’s still rural enough that there are deer running around (one night last week I saw one in my yard, near my front door). I sat on my porch and drank tea and finished reading the newspaper to recover from the hike up the hill, then I went to the park, where there was an art show. I browsed all the booths and made mental notes of things I might want when I have a permanent house.

Then in the afternoon, it clouded up and rained off and on, and it made for a good reading day. We got a mild thunderstorm in the evening. I’ve seen people talking about liking thunderstorms, which always sounded odd to me, since I’m used to storms meaning the potential for danger, but this was gentle, with just some rain and distant thunder. I opened the curtains and blinds in my bedroom and sat on the bed and read, looking out at the rain every so often. The view and sound were basically one of those “rainy evening” ambience videos on YouTube.

These were all things that were reasons I wanted to move here, and I felt like it validated the decision. Just looking at the mountains makes me happy. The few vacations I took back in Dallas were road trips to mountains, which took at least three hours of driving to Oklahoma mountains or about five hours to the Ozarks. Now, I can be in mountains in half an hour driving either east or west from my home. My town has a couple of tall hills that might technically be mountains, and the hill I live on is about the size of an Oklahoma mountain. Since I’m also surrounded by trees, I can’t see the mountain ranges from my house, but I can see them while I go to and from the grocery store. Just going to and from Kroger gives me breathtaking views, and the trip to and from Target is practically a religious experience.

Meanwhile, I like being able to live in a wooded, country-like place but still walk downtown. I love being able to buy apples from the farmer, right off the tree. I also love the arts and creative community around here. And I love being able to have a thunderstorm that isn’t a serious threat.

This weekend, I’m going on a guided nature walk at one of the city parks. This morning, I took a walk in the park, and it was crisp and cool, and the leaves were just starting to turn vivid colors. I love getting into fall weather so early. This is pretty much Thanksgiving weather in Texas.