BLUE RIDGE, BLOODWORMS, AND STONE MOUNTAIN

    This article is carried by both the Commerce Journal and the Cooper Review. While the Review takes a Christmas break, the Journal keeps on trucking, creating a small problem for me. If I continued as normal the Cooper Review would have two articles to deal with after cranking up in January. To solve the problem I go back to the early days before these articles were carried by the Journal. This old December weather has given some folks a little cabin fever so let’s hit the road and read of a 1988 vacation, especially redone for the readers of the Commerce Journal.

       Jean and I left Friday, June 24 at 8:15 p.m. to travel northeast for a few days. By 6:00 p.m. Saturday we reached Asheville, North Carolina and after a night’s rest traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway where we saw many scenic views and enjoyed the cool weather. Rhododendron has beautiful purple flowers and occurs all along the parkway in North Carolina. Sunday afternoon we completed the 380 mile parkway and spent the night in a Roanoke, Virginia campground. Monday, June 27, 1988 we left the 380 mile parkway only to discover the start of the Shenandoah National Park, another hundred mile trail along the mountain tops.

     The Appalachian Trail is a 2100 mile footpath from Georgia to Maine. Legendary Granny Gatewood raised eleven kids then got bored. At age seventy she walked the entire 2100 miles then turned around and walked it in the opposite direction. We came to McCormick Gap where the Appalachian Trail crosses the highway. For a few years I had been reading of the trail and it was pulling me like a magnet. Jean let me out to hike the two miles over Bear Den Mountain and she met me at the other side. The hour hike was highlighted with ripe wild strawberries and a beautiful view of Waynesboro, Virginia.

     At Loft Mountain Campground Monday night the temperature dropped to fifty eight degrees and it was probably eighty at home. Park Rangers warned everyone to keep their food secured inside their vehicles so bears wouldn’t be encouraged to visit. Tame deer disregarded the signs about not feeding the animals and begged for handouts.

     Tuesday, June 28, 1988. Jean let me out at Ivy Creek Gap and I hiked eight miles on the Appalachian Trail over three mountains in five hours. On the trip I met Bruno Kammerling from West Germany and he had been hiking for thirty days on his way to the southern end of the trail in north Georgia. Wednesday, June 29, 1988 we stopped at a bait shop in Gloucester, Virginia that advertised “Bloodworms.” Jean said she had rather not fish. Nearly all houses are two stories and have oil tanks for heating fuel. By noon we passed through Newport News. Wide bridge over the historic James River. Huge fishing pier. Suffolk at 12:50 and North Carolina line at 1:35.

     Up here they have Roses instead of Wal-Mart. New Bern at 4:45 and on to Cousin Don Hargroves’ condo at Carolina Beach at 7:30. Don and his wife, Sherry, have a long fishing pier outside their back door running out into the Atlantic. I could lose a cotton crop if one of those was near my house. Shrimp at Big Daddy’s Restaurant for supper.

     Thursday, June 30, 1988. Up at daylight to walk on the beach. Sea gulls, pelicans, terns. Later, Don carried us in his four wheel drive pickup up the beach to where a man drowned a few days ago.

     After saying goodbye and yall come we moved on south to North Carolina State Aquarium and historic Ft. Fisher which guarded the Cape Fear River to keep goods from going to Wilmington during the Civil War. Crossed Cape Fear River on a fifteen minute ferry ride. Gulls didn’t miss a single piece of food thrown from the ferry. On to Myrtle Beach where we hit rain that plagued us the rest of the day. Watched people catch sharks from a pier where a sign plainly stated, “No shark fishing.” Apparently no one told the sharks they weren’t supposed to bite. West toward home and hit Interstate 20 at Columbia, South Carolina.

     Friday, July 1, 1988. Slept last night in our pickup camper at a rest area between Augusta and Atlanta. To Stone Mountain at 10:30 where we learned the ear on Robert E. Lee’s statue was taller than a man. The North has Mt. Rushmore, the South has Stone Mountain. Time zone change near Anniston. Pastures very brown from the severe drought. Into Jackson, Mississippi at 2:30 where we read in a newspaper about a two week old baby girl apparently thrown from a bridge then found tangled in a trotline. Got back home a few hours later after having a good trip. Some year reckon we will go somewhere and just sit instead of traveling so much. Nah.

     Emily Sue got sick and her husband called 911. When asked where he lived Bubba said it was at the south end of Eucalyptus Street. The operator asked him to spell it and after thinking a few minutes said, “How ‘bout I just drag her over to the end of Oak Street?”

     Earl and Jake were fishing in a small boat. Jake says he’s gonna have to get a divorce he guesses cause his wife hasn’t spoken to him in a month. Earl commented, “You better think about that—them kind of women is hard to find.”

                              etra327@live.com

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