Experience and experiences

The photo above was taken sometime during the weekend of October 8-9th in 2005 at Roan Mountain State Park in Northeast Tennessee. We had just cleaned up a large amount of trash from the side of a roadway in the park. I had never seen so many Dr. Enuf bottles.

The clean up project and the other activities during the weekend were to fulfill a requirement to get 30 hours of community service for a class. At the time, I was a junior in college. My friends Brad, Shaun, and James (Brown) are also pictures. The rest tagged along.

That weekend sticks out in my mind as one of the best and most interesting experiences during my time in college. That Sunday, the 9th, was my 21st birthday. The weekend had been cold and rainy until Sunday when the sun came out and dried everything and everyone.

The photo reminds me of a lot of things - the happenings of that fall, college, and the general type of excursions being in school led me on. There is a Scott Miller song that has the line, "I don't mind getting older, you get smarter when you do, and the burdens that you shoulder are what define you." Often I find myself missing the simplicityand freedom of college. It seems that there is no longer time for experiences like the Roan Mountain trip. My free time is consumed with the necessities of existing in an adult life.

Regardless, I often miss the mountains of East Tennessee and I miss my friends. Sometimes I look on the Google Maps street view of downtown Johnson City and remember the numerous strong memories that took place there and the various other locations in the Tri-Cities.

At least once a month I go to Ducktown, Tennessee for work. Its a long drive through a winding road, but I always enjoy the trip because the mountains remind me of Johnson City.