Culpeper article from Friday

Five of my friends and I headed to the boondocks of Lancaster, Va. to spend the weekend on the river. We immediately dropped our backpack of sunscreen and bathing suits in the beautiful blue cottage and headed to the local convenient store — and by local I mean the only store at all within a 20-mile radius.

We parked next to a rusty red pickup truck and immediately saw two old men with pipes who greeted us with a smoky, “hello pretty ladies.” We smiled and acted like we were just as excited to see them as they were to see us.

We walked through an organized mess and straight to the refrigerated area.

“Mmm, excuse me ma’am,” I asked. “Are there any cases of beer that aren’t cut in half?”

The clerk explained that it’s cheaper for them to order beer in 18 packs, so they cut the boxes into 6 or 12 packs and pass the savings on to the customers.

“Brilliant.”

Luckily, there was no reason to leave the cottage again.

We spent the rest of Friday basking on the dock and grabbed some barbeque before a violent summer storm made its way down the river.

I often forget how polluted the typical night sky is by street and house lights, but with just a flashlight, the six of us put on our rain jackets and headed to the dock.

For more than 30 minutes we let the clouds drench us in the warmest rain and admired the lightning’s ability to illuminate the entire night sky. I went to bed wondering why I don’t dance in the rain more often.

A cup of coffee and a cool morning breeze began our Saturday. The being lazy and getting tan part went as planned, but a lost cell phone and bracelet, a few scratches from kayaking and bruises from the zip line left us warn out and ready for sunset.

So there we were, listening to the infamous Dawson’s Creek theme song, “I Don’t Wanna Wait,” while watching the big ripe tangerine sun fall behind the mountains. I figured, why wait? Let’s dance.

We danced around until the early morning of Sunday to the greatest songs of the 90’s and watched the diamond sky overshadow the peachy sunset.

Prior to recent years, I never wanted to vacation anywhere unless amusement parks and restaurants were within walking distance, but these days I want nothing more than good friends and salt water.

So college advice: I spent the weekend imagining myself in a teenage sitcom inspired by songs written when I was drooling over my fifth grade math books.

Go to the boondocks, hop in the water, maybe even drink a few cold ones if you’re legal… or don’t do any of that. But what you definitely should do is surround yourself with people you are not afraid to dance fearlessly with. If you can do that, a 90’s playlist will do the rest.