The Aftermath

At 7:00am this morning I awoke to the longing cries of the North Carolina sky.  The valve in charge of holding the water from falling had been bent wide open.  Raindrops crashed into the canvas of my shelter like angry hornets fighting for their queen. The crash of thunder echoed throughout the pine forest rattling my insides.  It wasn’t the intensity of the deafening initial boom that I was concerned with, it was the lingering, almost endless, rumbling of the clatter.  It was like the storm had a stadium reverb effect twisted to the max position.  The best way for me to describe the lightning would be to say that it was strobe-like.  If you can picture a thousand paparazzi surrounding you, firing flash photography, you can get a good idea of what I am talking about.

After watching the edges of my tent lift from the ground I decided to put my shoes on and take care of a few things outside, like re-staking the tent and unplugging the extension cord from the site’s circuit box.  As soon as I unzipped my tent, I realized that either it had been raining longer or harder than I expected.  There was a river of rain water, at least six inches deep, running off of a nearby hill and straight under my tent. When I stepped on the floor of my tent it felt like I was walking on a waterbed.  I thought for sure that the river of rain water would eventually rise and begin to penetrate my living area.  Luckily, at around 8:30am the storm began to reside.

I walked in the rain down the trail and had a cup of coffee with Amy and Robert, the campground owners.  They are great people with amazing coffee.  We sat and talked about bluegrass music for a couple of hours until I headed back to check on my site.  As soon I returned and realized that everything was dry and stable, I picked my guitar from its case and started to write.

The only thing better than talking about music is playing it.  The only thing that wakes me up, better than coffee, is a severe thunderstorm. But when I wake up in a severe thunderstorm, have a cup of coffee, talk about bluegrass, and write a song….well, now that’s rapture.