We didn't leave Mitchell County much when I was growing up. When we wanted to see a movie, or go to the orthodontist (well, I never wanted to go there but needed to), we went down to Johnson City, or maybe Asheville. We were still in the mountains though, when we got there. Rarely, we actually loaded up and headed off, say to the beach, or Michigan to see family, or Pennsylvania to see family, or some other place family had ended up. I always looked forward to getting back to the hills, snug in a holler someplace. I've talked to plenty of people that know the exact exit on 40 westbound when you can really get a good glimpse of the mountains rising up there (Dysartsville), that's when I feel the "pull" especially hard, and that's when I used to be able to say, "ahh, home again," even if I was still 2 hours from my bed. It was always a comfort, and it still is. I don't live up there, but I swear my heart does.
I've found a lovely community down here, with great folks. It helps. I've found places to plant my hand-me-down tomato seeds, and wander in the woods. Shoot, behind my apartment I found a ravine full of big oak trees, a near-dead stream, and trash, but I love it down there. Sarah says people must think I'm crazy walking out of the woods like that. Maybe I am. Crazy homesick for a place where you could just take a notion to go piddle around out in the woods, where there's more four-wheeler trails, and old logging roads, and less hikers.
This weekend Sarah and I were invited to stay up at Lake Logan in Haywood County. I'd been up that road many times, but never had the chance to look at the actual place. We spent the evening playing music for a little gathering of friends, and they put us up in this little old transplanted Tennessee cabin, right by a little chirping creek. It was called "Honeymoon," which tickled me, because Sarah and I never actually got around to going on one of those.
Anyways, something about driving up through Bethel, staying in that cabin, and that crisp, leafy mountain air made it really hard for me to come back down the mountain. I've heard it "is what it is," but I've also heard "I is what I is and I couldn't get no izzer."
I've heard folks say "I'm bound for such-and-such." I'm bound to a place though, and I mean to get back there.
-Wm.