Apple Picking

I had never heard of apple picking at Carters Mountain, until last week, but now that I am one of them this is just the kind of place we Suburbians have to go experience with our children.  Apparently, I am 10 years too late on the discovery because now everyone flocks there to check the “we went and picked apples this fall” box.  People like me (as a friend said to me this weekend) would have found it much cooler when no one else had heard and therefore it would be just us in some stranger’s orchard.  Yeah, that would be nice and what would happen is that we would be on the news, arrested, all five of us. 

So, I too wanted to check that apple picking with my kids box.  How cool does it sound that we drove one hour west to C-Ville and picked apples with my kids?  I mean, hand me the phone people…who can I call and tell?  Who can I one up?

We made the drive Saturday.  The weather was a perfect 65 and the trees still colorful.  My husband and I talked about all the home improvements we will do, since we will not be buying a home anytime soon, and the kids sat in the back and marveled at the tree and all their color…yeah right…I wish…they had their headphones strapped tightly to their ears and the only colors their eyes saw were from the Goonies movie they were watching.

Now, I will say, the ride was beautiful and I did yell at Bee and Joe a few times to look out of the window at the trees.  They just turned their headphone clad heads towards the windows and looked back at the flip down screen nodding yes to me with their eyes part glazed.  I would like to think that they will remember the tree lined highway and all the colors zipping past them.

We arrived at the mountain.  There were metal stakes to mark each parking spot.  My husband smashed into the front end one and it got locked under our license plate and we pulled back and forth with our Suburban until it snapped and we watched the metal line bounce back and forth touching the front bumpers of all the cars in our row.  We tried to duck down and hide but the people were staring at us.  I waited an extra five minutes before climbing out.

It was cold on the mountain.  The kids had thin coats and my husband was in shorts and a short sleeve shirt with no coat or sweatshirt.  I had told him to wear jeans…I said nothing only smiled while he froze.  I had the baby plenty warm and we all piled out.  My son almost knocked down a toddler while the angry father looked on at him like he was too big to climb on pumpkins, I wanted to smack that man and his toddler and tell him that Joe could climb on pumpkins too even though he is almost nine. Next Joe threw a fit because he didn’t want apple donuts but chocolate chip cookies.  My daughter stuck her whole hand into our hot apple cider and insisted it did not burn her as she wiped it against her leg for the next twenty minutes.  She kept running back and forth over the pumpkins, finally stopping when she twisted her ankle.  Big Lou freaked out when we first arrived because it was his feeding time.  I was walking around trying to get the older ones to listen while I fed the baby his bottle.  At one point it was propped on my chin as I juggled the stroller, a bag of donuts a slice of apple pie and a glass of white wine.

My husband ventured off to get us hay ride tickets.  We loaded onto the tractor and notice a couple with glasses of white wine.  We thought, well, they have kids with them, we can drink wine, where is our wine.  My husband asked the man to wait and he ran into the wine tasting shop and got us each a glass.  We rode through the winding country side of apple tress and vines and drank our wine and the kids enjoyed looking at the old, burnt out truck and vine covered house and yes, the apple trees.

I don’t know if it was the wine or the cool breeze and beautiful views but this was far more then a check the box item experience.  We laughed as we used this giant picking stick to get the apples down and even harder as Bee climbed the tree and fell out.  We were breathless as we walked up and down dirt paths and into the old, broken, hollow house.  It was an adventure.  Me and Joe talked about a new story idea and my husband bought a case of that delicious local wine.  Big Lou slept the entire time as he hung in the baby sling around my waist.  I highly recommend you make this trip a part of your must do yearly experiences.  The apple picking trip, no matter where you live, but make sure it is part vineyard too…it adds a little enlightenment.  Check.

Happy Monday

E