Day one - Horse Pens 40

As I write this first blog entry, I am sitting in my car in Colorado City, Texas looking at the stars as gnats try and distract me from getting my thoughts into written form. We are only 5 days into the trip and have already been through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and are just about out of the Lone Star State. So far we’ve made new friends, reconnected with old friends, seen near parts of the country, heard some unbelievable music, had some frustrating moments and have more mosquito bites than the number of people living in Caldwell, Texas.

Day One-

We got off to an early start from South Carolina, making a stop in Atlanta, GA to take advantage of a Whole Foods. For $106 we got soup, nuts, bread, avocados, hummus, granola, peanut butter, and we even splurged on a little peanut snack and some mate. Mmmm. We had a wonderful Ethiopian woman checking us out named Almaz, who knew all the best Ethiopian places in DC (DUKEM!!!) and who was so happy we knew how to say “Thank you” in Amharic. We made it to our first destination around 3:30 Central time to Horse Pens 40 Campgrounds outside of Ashville, Alabama. Horse Pens 40 has a long (they say 12,000 years, but that’s a little hard to believe) history as a Native American ritual, meeting and peace signing location. It was located at the former division of Cherokee and Creek Indian land, and had been used to trap horses. The pictures cannot tell the whole story, but these rock formations were just unusual. They were massive, in a relatively unrocky area, and some of the natural curvatures in the rock could not have been more accurate if they were done by hand. The whole site had an eerie feeling to it. Daniel and I agreed that the site felt as if it had a big secret it was hiding from everyone. Check out the photos of the rocks and you can see human skulls in the formations. Creepy.

We found a beautiful outlook at the end of some hiking trails were we hung out and marveled in the greenness of what we were seeing. Beautiful.

Back at the camp we met some of the folks who ran the place and it seemed as if they were in on the secret as well. I went into the main house to ask for a can opener and maybe due to my new serial killer haircut, when I asked one of the kids what her name was, she put her hands in her lap and stared into her pasta, not once looking up or responding. I quickly opened my can and left the house, not sure if I had asked "The Question That Shall Not Be Asked" (kinda like Voldemort, ya know?).

After some Southwest Vegetable soup, courtesy of Amy’s, we headed to sleep in our new home, a two person yellow tent. Its nice and cozy.

More to come later about the following days, I'm watching a lightning storm over Lake Colorado City and then off to bed.