The last morning we were in western PA, we woke to freshly fallen snow, and as I drank a cup of coffee and gazed out the windows at the sight before me, I couldn’t help but wish that I could stay. The week had been relaxing, fun, and energizing. I even said (out loud), “I could stay another day or two. After all, I don’t need to be back in the office for another three days.” Reluctantly, I got up and finished packing my suitcase. We drove to the airport in near silence. Everyone was rethinking all we had seen—the meals we had shared and the photos that we had taken with our hearts.

Later, at the Pittsburg airport, I watched a parade of snow plows race down a nearby runway and listened to the person next to me talk about the “major snow storm” that was bearing down on the part of the state where I had vacationed. “Maybe, it is best that I’m leaving,” I mused.

Then yesterday, I received an email from the friends that had journeyed with me around Lake Erie saying they had not been able to venture out of their home since I left due to the amount of snow that had fallen. “It is a good thing you came when you did and left, ” they said. “Otherwise, we would have been stuck.

“Stuck,”  I wondered . . . “Stuck in Vermilion or Fairport, or maybe some place overlooking the Allegheny River?” . . . .  No, I really don’t think we would have been stuck at all.

“‘This is the land of Narnia,’ said the faun, ‘where we are now; all that lies between the lamp post and the great castle of Cair Paravel on the eastern sea. . . . It is winter in Narnia, and has been forever so long, and we shall both catch cold if we stand here talking in the snow.’

“‘Thank you very much, Mr. Tumnus,’ said Lucy. ‘But I was wondering whether I ought to be getting back.’”

—from The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

After a short drive through the country and woods, we came upon this scene—pure and unspoiled America. I didn’t know it still existed.

Months after leaving Atlanta, I’m finally finding time to enjoy the area around where I live. With each new day, I realize just how wonderful it is to be here and to have the opportunity to wake up and drive into the mountains! Of course, Cocoa loves it and Chip thinks it is just too grand to be true. . . . If Johanna’s mother had been with me when I took this photo, she would have insisted on all of us having hot chocolate and sugar cookies.

We only had a few minutes before we drove home with Chip (the breeder had asked me to make sure Cocoa was with me on Saturday). After Chip was safely tucked away in the SUV, I took a few minutes to drive up to Roosevelt State Park. It’s located near Callaway Gardens, the town of Warm Springs, and Pine Mountain. The park is intimately tied to four-time President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After he was stricken with polio in 1921, Roosevelt searched for a place for treatment and where he could get away from the Washington grind. He fell in love with Warm Springs, Georgia, and ended up building his Little White House mainly because of the nearby warm springs which provided some physical relief from his polio. Several structures within the State park, including the stone swimming pool and some cottages were built by Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. The president loved to drive the length of the park and find a place where he could pull off the road and have a picnic. Locals often told how he would pull up in his car and take time to talk about world affairs with them. It is truly a place of extreme rest and peace.