Not From Here

My mama is from the hollers of West Virginia, but I'm not. I am from Texas, and not Ohio as some would like you to believe. I came to the Piedmont of North Carolina as a middle-aged grumpy old man.

Other than those couple of years when we attended a family reunion, the soda machine where I bought Welches grape soda for a quarter, and my mom nearly driving us off of a mountain, my connection to Appalachia is thin.

Unexpectedly, I've found myself in a place that makes me feel the divine, discovering really old music, and being around good welcoming people. My heart is in the mountains.

I'm going to hike up and down these mountains, listen to great music, eat lots of food and buy more than my share of novelty Bigfoot trinkets. And once I've done enough, I have no doubt that I'll run into Appalachia's most famous resident.

I hope you'll join me.