crazy trip!

I just got back from one of the greatest weekend trips of all time. I set out with 4 friends to summit Mount LeConte in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. I suppose it was just a normal backpacking trip except for the 5 guys in a veggie oil powered F-250, the hitch hiking, helping stranded motorists, and a drunk redneck named Butterfly.

We ate lunch atop Charlie's Bunion (Brandon pictured at left on top of Charlies Bunion) which was lovely. Summer Sausage, Beef Jerky, and Crackers. What more could you want, really? The scenery along every turn was phenomenal. I was quite impressed with my side of the country which I had begun to grow bored of. There was so much variety and there was green everywhere. As we summited Mt. LeConte; low level clouds moved in below us and began to push upwards from the East while fog began to spill over our heads from the West. There was plenty of room in LeConte's shelter but we decided to sleep on the front porch of a cabin that was smaller than a VW Rabbit. Four of us on the deck and one overhead in a hammock. The cabin was a part of a small rental village at LeConte which was completely deserted except for 3 guys and 2 girls who seemed to be shooting some sort of film. The guys had huge beards and were dressed like Amish people and I suppose the girls were supposed to be Amish too only they didn't have big beards so I couldn't tell. I hope our late night game of farting in the sleeping bag and then wofting it at your neighbor didn't keep them up too late. We laughed a lot that night. 35 degrees was pretty warm for January 7th but we were still pretty cold until we got into our bags which was only a matter of seconds upon finishing dinner. I think we were in bed by 7:30 or so which was so early but we didn't care. 12 miles isn't too bad when you're hard core but my core is not quite as hard as I should like and so I was pretty beat. The hike down the next morning couldn't have been any better. It began to rain only about 2 minutes after we left our porch/kitchen/bedroom. The rain was welcome as we had already prepared with Gore-Tex from head to toe. There was so much fog moving about as we traversed the side of the mountain and at times we would catch glimpses of the mountains across the valley and at one point there were about 4 knobs with fog sliding over and around them. It was amazing! We caught up with a few older guys as we made our way to a parking lot. It was not THE parking lot but only A parking lot. Our veggie oil machine lied in waiting only 5 short miles uphill. These two men were nice enough to give me a ride up to get the truck while everyone else stayed behind and cleaned up the Alum Cave Parking Lot. What conservationists they were! It turned out that at least one of those dudes was a Christian and he was stoked to hear about my Nica trip. I exchanged email with him and will be keeping him posted on the trip. Nate was an inspiration to me as he led the charge in pulling over to help two different roadside situations on our way back to Raleigh. The first was a broken down Chrysler New Yorker whose transmission was stuck in low gear. I got it unstuck in about 1 minute and we sent them on their way. The remaining ride home was fun to say the least as we took turns driving and riding in the back with all of the wet gear and vegetable oil. The conversation with Josh was good as we looked forward to our eminent departure. We eventually began to doze off until the truck swerved off the side of the road and came to an abrupt halt. Nate suddenly threw open the rear hatch and said, "you guys wanna ride with a girl for a while?" Josh and I immediately saw the silhouette of a woman running in the dark towards the truck. She was quite the redneck and introduced herself as Butterfly. I'm not sure if this one had been through full metamorphosis yet, but Butterfly it was nonetheless. Josh suggested that she ride up front so she could instruct Nate as to where she was going. It was dark and raining and she was walking on the side of a huge highway and I'm talking the "long stretches of nothingness" highway and she was soaked. Fish joined us in the back and Butterfly took shotgun with Nate driving and Brandon in the middle. Butterfly was so sure that Brandon was Nate's son although they are only 3 or 4 years apart. She was convinced that Nate wanted to offer her as a gift to our very dear friend Brandon to which he was flattered I'm sure. Did I mention that Butterfly's first question was, "do you guy's have cigarettes and can I drink this", as she held up a can of beer from her purse? She wreaked of alcohol already and Nate politely informed here that there were laws against open containers. She obliged him and decided to take four or five pieces of Fish's gum, which was on the dashboard instead. Nate dropped the gospel on her as he so readily likes to do and she returned her own version back to him. We were out of our way only about 10 minutes before dropping her off at her friends house. (yes, it was a single wide) We wish Butterfly the best of luck in all her future endeavors.

We finally arrived back home without spending a dime on gas and with some great stories to tell our friends and families. It was a great farewell trip for Josh and I with some of our best friends. I'm glad I have friends that make me better. Thank you God for your beautiful creation and for giving me friends that show me how to love you, and how to love your people better.