"perhaps you should consider avoiding blunt force trauma to your head'

http://www.wcnc.com/traveler/stories...3b9ac4cf.html:

Mike's Tuesday Travel Journal: The hills are alive…

Entry 221

10:57 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 3, 2007

By MIKE REDDING / WCNC
E-mail Mike:



WCNC

Photos from the mountains

Sorry for the completely cheesy title… but the hills are alive.

We just finished putting together our “Mountain” show for you. It’s on
this Saturday night at 7:30 in living color and (shouting now) IN HIGH
DEFINITION!

(Okay back to my normal soothing, hypnotic voice…) I admit I’m more of
beach bum than a mountain man. But my favorite sport/hobby is rock
climbing and the coast doesn’t offer that. So, over the last couple
years, the mountains have become my recreational choice on free
weekends.

I used to surf a fair bit. You can call it surfing. Or maybe you could
call it "Mike repeatedly falling off a surfboard." But, a couple of
concussions later, I needed a different activity where I didn’t bonk
my head so much. I tried mountain biking. Same results. Doctor Parker
said, “Mike, perhaps you should consider avoiding blunt force trauma
to your head.” Now in my mid 40s that started to make sense to me.

So I tried rock climbing. It works because when I fall (and I fall
often… a theme in my life) my buddy catches me with a rope tied to my
harness. When you wipe out while surfing, you have to hope the ocean
will spit you out. When you eat it mountain biking you have to hope
that tree will move.

Anyway, back on topic, I’d like to thank the geography gods that I get
to live here. Check that. Maybe it’s the topography gods. Maybe both.
Whichever. I’m grateful. I have the mountains to my west and the ocean
to my east and I get to live smack dab in the middle of one of the
prettiest parts of the country.

What do people in boring states do for fun? Kansas? Oklahoma?
Nebraska? Iowa? The biggest objects in those states are manmade and
they’re belt buckles. I mean those states are pretty in their own way
but they have zero variety. No mountains. No ocean. Just a whole lot
of flatness. And corn. I guess you’d get used to it. Someone obviously
has.

You and I should wake up every morning and thank our lucky stars we
get to scratch out a life in the Carolinas.

A whole bunch of you took trips to Charleston, SC., and the North
Carolina Outer Banks after we took you there on the Carolina Traveler
shows in May. The responses I’m getting prove that you all agree with
me. You don’t have to leave the Carolinas to have the best vacation on
earth.

So Saturday night I’m taking you to the mountains to show you a few
things you shouldn’t miss there. Honestly there are 30 things you
shouldn’t miss but I could only fit four in this show. And it will
take you at least two weekend trips (or a week-long trip) to the high
country to accomplish the four things we hit on. But they are so worth
it.

Plus the amazing pictures Andy captured will make your head spin.
Seriously. It’ll look great even if you don’t have hi-def. Andy and I
both bought hi-def TVs just to watch our show. It was purely
coincidental that the NFL broadcasts in high definition. Honest.

So, tune in Saturday night and you’ll meet four sisters named, Faith,
Hope, Joy and Toni. Not kidding.

You’ll also meet the grandson of the true to life “old man on the
mountain.” He’s a descendent of one of the greatest men ever to live
in the Carolinas. Their family owns the most beautiful mountain this
side of the Mississippi.

Sorry for the cheesy “this side of the Mississippi” ending there. I
figured I would bookend it for you.

OK, I’ve got to get writing the next show.


See you Saturday night,


Mike Redding

--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande