The BackWoods Drifter

I was tagged by my friend Morgan from A Process Of A Miracle to do a 3 things I can’t let go of meme. She was tagged by Channel of Healing.

When I first read this tag I wondered about the interpretation of the phrase I just can’t let it go. Is it interpreted as… I have this big bag of money and I just can’t let it go… or… It’s been on my mind forever, I just can’t let it go? Maybe I’ll write the first two one way and the third the other. Then again maybe I’ll just sit here and confuse the hell out of myself and forget what I was doing to begin with and just ramble for a while. (–INSERT– 1 cup of coffee–)

Getting on with it… here are two of the three things I just can’t let go of.
–Freedom… I like the feel of the wind.
–Independence… this is something that I can’t and don’t want to ever let go of. I hate to think that I would ever need to depend on someone else for my welfare. If that ever happens then everything that makes me who I am will already be gone from here.

With freedom comes independence. I’m sure somebody said that at some point in time under slightly different circumstances.

Anyway the last one interpreted differently than the first two.

I just can’t let go of Mountaintop Removal… I’m sorry, you asked for it. I usually bite my tongue and keep my mouth shut on this topic because bringing it up always breeds controversy. And when you get right down to it my one voice here on Bolt Mountain will make no difference. But really this process is so senseless. I don’t argue the fact that coal is a valuable resource. I know it is. I don’t argue the fact that a person has to make a living. Believe me… I know they do. I argue the fact that the new and improved process of mining coal has some serious flaws especially in the reclamation process. I argue the moral values of the coal company. West Virginia is already a ghost town from previous coal giants coming and going. What’s going to make this time different? They are here to get the coal… sooner than you think it’s going to be you, me and one working streetlight. Coal is not a renewable resource. Once it’s gone, it’s all gone. What will West Virginia have to show for it when it is all gone? Ten years of economic growth, twenty? Doesn’t hardly seem worth it to me. Because when it is all said and done when the coal is gone all that will remain are the mountains… or will they? See… I just can’t let it go.

I was supposed to pass this tag along but since I’ve been away so much I feel somewhat disconnected from the community. So I’m going to tuck this one under my arm and head back to work. I’ve got to be in Ashland, Kentucky at 8 in the morning and Cumberland, Maryland 7am Tuesday. Going to do some work for the railroad. Supposedly just a three or four day start up but that is always subject to change.

One last thing before I go… My friend Morgan has done more to increase my technorati and popularity rating than I ever could have by myself with tag’s, meme’s, awards and things. I don’t always get to acknowledge her kindness. For that, sometimes I feel bad… this is to kind of make up for that. Morgan, I notice and I sincerely appreciate all that you do. Thanks

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“Sometimes I Wonder…” is going to be a new series of posts here at the BackWoods Drifter. Because, well, sometimes I wonder… a lot. Those three words have come up so much in the last few days. When inspiration smacks you in the face it’s probably a good idea to run with it.

This first installment has a lot to do with my current state of mind. Sometimes I wonder what it is that compels me so strongly to move. To leave everything I know behind and start new in a strange place. I usually have just enough money to make a new start and I am guided primarily by chance and circumstance.

The feeling to be somewhere else is like a clock counting down and I feel like I’m running out of time. The longer I ignore the feeling the stronger it gets until I give in and follow where my spirit is so desperately trying to lead me. I usually start getting the feeling to be on my way long before I have a clear picture of my destination. By the time I see my destination the moment is at hand and it is time to go.

I have been able to be a positive influence in someones life at every port of call. Maybe it’s not just chance and circumstance. Maybe it’s a calling of a different sort. Maybe I read too much out of nothing and it is actually just simply my destiny to roam alone. I sincerely hope that the latter maybe is not the case because that is just sad, but… sometimes I wonder.

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The holidays, an impending birthday and a few other events in my life has the wandering blood flowing. I feel the call of the highway song stronger with each passing day. This is not where I am supposed to be. I feel that in my heart and soul. Maybe that is why I move so much, looking for something that doesn’t exist… I don’t know what it is but I feel the need to move on right now more than at anytime since moving back here.

I keep wondering if the AT hike planned for ‘08 will be enough to appease my wandering spirit or will it add fuel to an already burning desire. And thats even if I can hold out that long. I have been thinking of places that I would like to visit. One of those being Alaska, only for a while though because I’m a cold baby. That doesn’t make any sense to me, I hate the cold but more often than not, I move north. I’d like to visit Alaska for the experience. Another possible destination would be Louisiana. I’d like to go down to the Louisiana coast and just lend a hand. I only have one good hand to lend but I’m sure I could use it to make a difference.

I don’t know what the future has in store for me or where this path will lead but I do know this… my path doesn’t end here, at least not in this time. I hear it calling me back to the journey loud and clear.

I thought a long time before deciding to write this post. I don’t mean to be negative but sadly, loneliness is something that a lot of people have to deal with through the holidays. At least I don’t think I’m the only one. For me this is a day in which other people are giving thanks for whatever, it is a day on which I contemplate the things that could be, had my life not been filled with the wrong decisions, wrong relationships, wrong time, wrong place….

At one point I got tired of being wrong so I stopped giving wrong an opportunity. I built a solid steel wall around everything I considered to be safe and never ventured outside of that safe zone. I don’t mean that I haven’t lived. I’ve been around the world, but I was there alone. It’s always been denny against the world, so to speak. I look back now and think it’s just sad.

I think another thing that bothers me a little is the fact that I have moved so much that nowhere really feels like home for the holidays. My parents sold the house we grew up in so even going to their house doesn’t feel like home.

I guess I’m a little sad. I’ll be happy when I have survived another holiday season…

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After two weeks on the road I wasn’t sure of todays post topic until yesterday. While scouting the woods around the job-site yesterday, my friend found this recent buck rub.

He is an avid hunter and deer season began Monday so naturally he was out looking for deer sign. This photo was taken with a cellphone. I enlarged the rub above so you could see the irony in the photo below.

I was wondering who was trying to be clever, the landowner or the buck? Too funny…

Just like that, it is time to leave again. You gotta love it. I’ll be on the road this time until the day before Thanksgiving. Just in case, I hope everybody has a good Thanksgiving. Please be safe.

Until next time…

Sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on a four lane highway looking around at all the big SUV’s and the 10mpg luxury sedans occupied by one person and wondering if global warming is only real in the news.

Let’s talk about global warming when it makes us look good to our peers. Like we really do care about the future of everything. When in reality I don’t believe in global warming because I can’t see it.

I wish that for one day the gas stations could add something to the fuel that caused vehicle emissions to be colored and viewable. I imagine there would be a lot of accidents because you wouldn’t be able to see a thing. Have you ever seen a car exhaust smoking from burning oil? That smoke is expelled with ordinary emissions. “Overall, there were an estimated 243,023,485 registered passenger vehicles in the United States according to a 2004 DOT study.” Can you imagine…?

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The ability to adapt and overcome in a difficult situation. To be able to face adversity and come out unscathed. Those are kind of sarcastic definitions for my job. I started this latest two week journey working in a tunnel 730 feet underground in the coalfields.

The two weeks ended 76 feet above a warehouse floor on the Chesapeake Bay.

I was actually only in the coalfields for a day and a half. The last ten days I was staying in a Best Western on Virginia Beach and working a startup on Chesapeake Bay.

I’ve never been one to stay in one place to long. A few years here and a few years there but I always seem to find my way back to the mountains no matter how far I drift, staying only a little while and then heading again to parts unknown. The last time I lived here and left I ended up in Dallas, Texas. This trip to the coast has really got the wandering blood flowing. It felt good to be out of the mountains and back into the fast paced industrial environment. I can only take the fast paced world in moderation though. Eventually I’ll have to escape to the peace and quiet of the mountains. But for now it has got me thinking.

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On another note…

Today is the 32nd anniversary of the wreck of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, November 10, 1975. Remembering the 29 who lost their lives.

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