Blue Ridge, Georgia
July 2021
After Colorado, we conspired with our friends Chris and Dee—who had also abandoned the Bay Area during the pandemic to live as digital nomads—to hide away in the Appalachian Mountains. From Fort Collins, Colorado to Blue Ridge, Georgia, Shane and I traveled over 1,420 miles, through six states, with two notable stops. First, we celebrated Shane’s 32nd birthday pigging out on some of Kansas City’s finest barbeque at award-winning restaurant Q39. The following evening, we stopped in Nashville, Tennessee to catch a gig at The Station Inn, a humble little venue renowned for hosting the world's best bluegrass. Since we usually just get drive-through and head straight to our hotel on multi-day car journeys, it was a treat to stop and appreciate the local scenes.
When we arrived at Blue Ridge, we were struck by the magic of the mountains. As part of the Appalachian Mountain range, the Blue Ridge mountains are the second oldest range in the world—over 1 billion years old. In fact, during the time period of the supercontinent Pangea, the Appalachian Mountains once extended into the landmass that is today the island of Ireland! Older than the Alps, the Himalayas, the Rockies, and the Andes, the Blue Ridge Mountains have been so whittled down by weathering forces that they are no longer tall, but they are most certainly buzzing with life. In the understudy of the rolling forest, we found brambles of wild blackberries and a multitude of mushrooms. We spotted Black Eyed Susan, Virginia Spiderwort, and more species of ferns than we could count.
We shared a beastly cabin with Chris, Dee, and their little dog, Freddie, for three fabulous weeks. We worked from separate parts of the house during the day, went on joint walks after work, and convened for hours long conversations at the kitchen table in the evenings. By virtue of Chris and Dee’s genuine curiosity, ceaseless creativity, and inexhaustible knowledge on any and every topic under the sun, we never ran out of things to talk about. And as they’re an Irish pair, it’s important to note that many cups of tea were shared during these conversations, often with a tremendous rainstorm rolling through outside.
In fact, this part of Georgia gets more total rainfall each year than the “Rainy City” Seattle, Washington. As a general rule, Blue Ridge summers are hot and humid and you can expect afternoon showers or torrential storms most every day. During the work week, these showers and storms affected the strength of our satellite internet signal. With all four of us working from home, this was incredibly stressful—the one key ingredient to making life as a digital nomad work is solid internet wherever you are. We agreed to monitor the issue and check-in regularly to try to make our time together work for as long as possible.
Understanding the outrageous force of the afternoon storms, we made the most of our weekends in the morning hours. Our first weekend in Blue Ridge, Shane ditched the gang to go to a Conor McGregor fight in Las Vegas with Andrew D’Arcy, where they got to enjoy temperatures over 110°F/43°C and the beautiful sight of McGregor breaking his leg during the first round of the fight.
Thankfully, Chris and Dee were kind enough to adopt me. We walked around Blue Ridge town and discovered an unassuming Irish pub—a massive corrugated shed—called the Boro Inn where we stopped for a drink and chatted with the proprietor and barkeep, Father Brendan Doyle, a former priest and Irishman. It was an extravagantly eclectic pub complete with animal heads and hides, displays of armor, and a collection of antique barber chairs.
Our second weekend, we brought Shane back to the Boro Inn and also enjoyed a Dee Dolan deluxe picnic at Blue Ridge Lake Recreation Area. While the recreation area was rather simple—one picnic table in a clearing along the lake—we had a great time soaking up the sun and splashing in the water with some locals. For our third and final weekend, we went out for two lovely dinners and I finally convinced Shane to go on a morning hike with me in Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, with the trailhead only a 10 minute walk away from our cabin. With or without company, I got a big, long hike in every weekend.
After three wonderful weeks with really erratic internet, we made the tough decision to end our stay early. It was such a gift to merge paths with Chris and Dee on our digital nomad journeys, if only for a little while, but we were inconsolable to be going our separate ways so soon. We loved sharing this beautiful place with our beautiful friends. Thankfully, it wouldn’t be long before our paths crossed again in a big way.
