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Today (08/08/08) is my birthday. And with it being August 8th, 2008, I wanted to do something special. So, it was my desire to wake up in a tent at my friend Andy's property near the Cherohala Skyway. After a fun day at Carowinds on the 7th, my daughter and I made the drive and set up camp. We got to the site around 9:30. It was dark. We set up the tent, made a small camp fire and had something to eat. After some star gazing and contemplating the sounds of the night in the wooded forest we went to sleep. I got up this morning to have one of the most peaceful mornings in a long time. I always forget how peaceful this place is to me.


Here is a look around the camp site. This place has changed so much over the last 7 years. We've cleared the site from Rhododendron thickets to a nice peaceful sunlit camp site. The cabin site that we cleared last November (Titled: The Big Dig) is here as well.


As I was noticing several bear bite marks in the picnic table (made out of recycled plastics), I had pressed my fresh ground coffee (Ethiopian Select Blend) that I picked up in Durango in July. Desert Sun Coffee is the best stuff I've had in a while. It was a great way to start the day!


With that, that sun was shining and I was playing my guitar. My daughter snuck in some video of me playing while she chilled out on the hammock.


While you are listening you are looking straight up into the tree canopy while swinging on the hammock.


I found myself in an acoustic doodle of the diminished-harmonic minor arpeggio-ation around G major and E minor with some D major.


I started playing guitar 22 years ago. I let it go for a short while in the 90's, but have stayed with it going from a metal head to an acoustic doodler. I have so many pieces of music recored on scattered-about media (cassette tapes in boxes) and in my head that I have written on the acoustic guitar over the years. I intend to record it all at some time in the future. It soothes my soul and comforts my thoughts!

Then we had high-elevation mountain pancakes on the Coleman stove. They turned out pretty well. The sun was shining and it was a nice morning. Those tress that we cleared over the years for the cabin site are letting in a lot of sunlight.

It was going to be a short day in the mountains. We had to pack up and get back home. Short and sweet, but very nice and needed!