" Now let me get this straight,...your hauling a load of fire wood 125 miles into the North Carolina mountains where there's nothing but wood?"

As yall probaly know by now some of the forum members are getting together this coming weekend at the Kickstand Lodge up in the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. We did this earlier in the spring and it was such a kickass time we thought we'd do it again. This time we'll have some members that didn't make it in the spring, and also some that didn't make the Fest, so it'll be a good oppurtunity for us all to meet up with some forum members we haven't met yet, and also to...well..kickback and enjoy a cold beer around the bonefire.
So, I had some firewood left over from last year (I heat with wood) and I got to thinking I'd just haul it up to the lodge for the bonefire next week at the lodge. Now some people might not think hauling a load of wood 125 miles, to a place I'm sure has all the wood a man could want, shows a lota smarts. But ya see, it was more than just hauling wood. Let me say this, I had one "damn good" road trip that day.
I asked my little brother David if he would like to ride to N.C. with me on a road trip. I haven't spent much time with my brother latley like we used to and I really felt like it was time I "made" time. He's got things beating down on him right now in his life and I thought he needed a break away from things,...a day road trip with big brother. Do me good too. Well he was all for it. Truck loaded with wood, and me some beer, we hit the road. Really had a great ride up, the weather was cool, the beer was cold, and we had a few laughs (well a lot). Stopped and had a bite to eat and refill on the beers on the way. David got to meet Mo and Bob at the lodge and we had a few beers while we were there. Mo gave David a big hug when we left, he thought she was pretty cool. On the way back we had a pretty good talk about life. It did David good, and myself as well. It was time well spent with my brother. So, just hauling wood?..nope.

You hear people say it all the time, "It's not always the destination, but the journey". And this is true, some of the best times I ever had was on the journey to ...wherever! The same holds true for preperations for a get together for friends. There's nothing like it when you and your friends get together to work on getting things ready for a party. Hell it's a party in itself. Just ask anyone who was part of The Chainsaw crew last year at Fest II, or this year at Fest III, and I know Brian had a good time getting things ready for our very first Shovelfest in Eldred. And thanks go out to all who made sure we all had some great parties. It is a labor of love. A love for parties, and for your brothers and sisters.
The prep work can be as much fun as the party. So my journey this weekend was doing what I could to make the party a success,....altho it will be a sucess with just the people that are going to show up. But, a little bonefire makes things...well, I just like a damn fire ..ok?
When we first pulled in at Mo's it was like deja vu, it felt like everyone from the spring party was still there somehow, even tho no one was. I got out of the truck and stood there and in my mind I could see everyone laughing and having a good time sitting on the deck. I had experenced this same feeling earlier in July on my way to the Fest in OK. I stopped by Jeffs' (northend) place (Fest II location) to have a beer with him and Joann since they wern't going to make the Fest. When I was coming down the road to Jeffs' house I looked down in the feild by the creek where everybody had camped and it was like "damn what a party". And I stopped on the side of the road to just kinda look the place over and I could remember where everyone had camped, I could see them there. I should know, I think I stumbled into just about every camp there that week. These places will allways tug at me, for they spark memerioes of goodtimes with my friends.

So Saturday while I was gassing the truck up befor I left a buddy stops to say hey. And he ask me.....
" Now let me get this straight,...your hauling a load of fire wood 125 miles into the North Carolina mountains where there's nothing but wood?"

Yep.

So, just hauling wood? nope.

See ya all down the road.