Day 2

For the record....I did do a little Truffle Shuffle once I got to the Great Smokey Mountain National Forest. Who knew that doing a jig in the forest (despite the origin of said jig) actually constitutes a raindance?! Had I known such, I would have abstained until my tent was ready for occupancy. Rather, I pitched a tent in record time only to throw myself into it half drenched to find that it was not waterproof in the least and I had no real reason to move so quickly. Luckily (thank you Rick) I had a tarp that was said to be "the perfect size to fit". It might have been wise to ask exactly what it was the perfect size for because it was not a perfect fit for anything I had, let alone the tent I had in my possession. I lay in my moist tent pondering the reasoning behind having such an invention that provides absolutely no protection from the elements. I lay there, moistly and steamily, eating my dinner from a Dorito's bag. My crunching matched the fierceness of the thunder above my head as I read a snatch of To Kill a Mockingbird and waited for the downpour to let up. I only made it half a chapter before I was let out of my newly inflated and waterlogged casa.

There's no way to describe how amazing the Smokies are so I'll just say they're just tremendously impressive beyond any measure of any scale I've used to describe anything to date. I was shocked that humans were actually allowed to walk around in and breathe all over such a beautiful place. To put their obscene plastic Reeboks on the living earth and let their loud obtuse children crush the blades of heavenly grass and fern with bicycle tires. It seemed wrong that people could drag their artificial living spaces on wheels all the way up here and leave them sitting out in the open to block my view of a pretty rock or a broken limb. It was so beautiful I was selfish and greedy with the awe of it. I took a walk and soaked in as much wonder and mist as I could in the short few hours I would be there.

The old couple in the camp next to mine informed me of a natural phenomenon taking place in the very campsite I was staying in that night. Only by slim chance had I gotten a reservation at any campsite, let alone this very one. Luck, fate, mojo was on my side for unbeknownst to me, that campsite of all the campsites of America is best known for its firefly gathering. Every year in the first weeks of June a particular lightning bug population crowds into the forest around this site and go buckwild. Similar instances of lighted bug orgies of this magnitude are only known in maybe one other place in the world. I'd never even heard of such a thing and wondered if it was anything to get excited about. Only one way to find out! That night when it was still light enough to see my hand two inches from my face I walked up a trail into the deep dark (bear and coyote infested) woods. I was told not to use my flashlight because it confused the bugs.

I didn't notice anything remarkable.............until I did. Suddenly, in midstep, like I'd just stepped into another world. Maybe a world turned upside down, where the stars were at my feet and nothing but blackness above my head. Before I could even put my foot down thousands of fireflies twinkled like Christmas lights in every direction for as far as I could see. They all twinkle as hard as can be four or five times and then all go out at once. It feels like your mind is playing tricks on you. They all stop glowing at once, every single one, for one two three four five long seconds and then their symphony of illumination begins all over again. I don't know how long I stood there watching the repeated glitter and dazzle. Long enough for it to make me dizzy. Long enough for me to wonder how much yearly plane tickets to Tennessee might cost. Long enough to want to cry. Long enough to forget how long I had been standing there.

It was a long walk back to the tent in the middle of the night. I had a feeling those damn bugs had just gotten started. It was cool.