After settling into the Blue Moon Room [1] we rested for a bit before heading out to dinner. Given that the restaurant at Solomon's Castle [2] closed at 4:00 PM, that meant we had to drive some twenty miles [3] back to civilization—in our case, Arcadia [4]. Dean had warned us that it would be dark and suggested we take along a flashlight, one being provided for us in the room.
“Dark” would be an understatement. I can't recall the last time I saw darkness that dark. Sure, it made for a spectacular view of the night sky (especially since the moon was still below the horizon) but we still had to navigate those swaying stairs [They didn't sway! —Bunny] [Did too! —Sean] [Snot! —Bunny] [Too! —Sean] [ENOUGH! —Editor]. Fortunately, our iPhones had a built-in flashlight app to augment the provided flashlight so we could safely navigate the stairs and flood the forest alongside them to assuage our fears of the noisy wildlife infesting the immediate area around the castle.
And driving along unnamed county roads unlit by modern technology was fun, although not as fun as driving along unnamed county roads unlit by modern technology in the mountains (which I have done, but that was a few years ago in North Carolina), but still, fun. It took me a few minutes to learn how the brights work in the car since that's not something I normally have to use here in Lower Sheol. Even better—we had to avoid opossums, rabbits (“bunrabs” as Bunny calls them), a fox (!) and one rather large and impressive looking deer (well, that last we didn't have to avoid—it was standing off to one side of the road, thankfully). That was more wildlife than I've seen driving on mountainous, unnamed county roads in North Carolina.
[2] http://www.solomonscastle.org/
[3] https://boston.conman.org/2015/01/09/Middle-of-Nowhere.jpg
![[3] https://boston.conman.org/2015/01/09/Middle-of-Nowhere.jpg](https://boston.conman.org/2015/01/09/Middle-of-Nowhere.jpg){kind=link}