Vacation can renew your soul

I sometimes take a half day off from work for a “staycation” and although I may relax and get some things off of my to do list, I can’t fully unwind surrounded by stuff I “need” to do. Several weeks ago I took off and left town for 5 days. I headed to West Texas to Fort Davis. It was about a 5 ½ hour drive and by the time I pulled up to check in at the historic Indian Lodge hotel I felt a peace come over me as I stepped out of my car and breathed in the scents of juniper and yucca blossoms. The hotel was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and resembles a sprawling multilevel native American pueblo. Its charming, whitewashed adobe buildings are nestled on a hillside in Davis Mountains State Park at an elevation of 5000 feet, so the air was cooler than I expected. The hotel info stated there was Wi-Fi available but turns out it only sort of worked in the lobby, and the phone service only worked there as well. That meant no working on my laptop in the room and no frequent calls to check in at work. It was amazing! I made it just fine with emails sent once a day and very few phone calls. I opened the curtains at the foot of my bed as I went to sleep each evening so I could wake up to the sunrise breaking through the mountain valley. Glorious view! I tried to capture it with a photo and watercolors on a canvas, but nothing came close to the real thing. As it turns out, unplugging and unwinding from running our small business was just what I needed. I came home refreshed, renewed and ready to get busy! Vacations are good medicine.