We’re Back! Wow, seven weeks on the road.  Jeanne and I are worn out.  On the Spidy tour we visited fourteen schools in four states and read to 3335 students.  The principals, teachers, and students were wonderful.  One little story about out trip I would like to share.  We went to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest just southwest of the Smokey Mountains and on the few remnants of eastern forest that wasn’t logged.   The forest is dedicated to Joyce Kilmer, the poet who wrote the poem “Trees” and was killed in action during World War I.  I was eager to see towering tulip trees, also known as yellow-poplars, stretch over a hundred feet into the canopy and some of the trees are four-hundred years old.  We started up the cove, leaving the Little Santeetlah Creek with native trout and lined with flowing rhododendrons (see pictures).

I was excited like a child on Christmas Eve.  We only got about a half-a-mile when we heard thunder.  It was at that point I looked to my right and saw a tree with a frightful lighting strike (see picture). I looked at Jeanne and we turned back, disappointed, but doing the right thing.  We came across some other people on their way up and exchanged greetings.  Back at the trail-head there were three women sitting on the wall of a stone bridge crossing the creek.  Another lady was sitting in her wheelchair.  They asked Jeanne to take their picture.  I asked them where they were from.  They got my attention when two of the ladies said they lived in Cherokee.  We exchanged names and I asked one on the ladies, Francine, if the Qualla area had their own schools or did the children go to public schools.  She said they had their own schools.  I told Francine I would be an honor to read my stories in her elementary school because stories are important to Native Peoples.  I hope this works out and I read Grandmother Sloth to the Cherokee children next May.  What do you think?  Was it coincidence thunder caused us to turn back or was I suppose to meet the Cherokee women?

A sidebar.  Remember the people we met on the trail, we saw them in the parking lot and they were excited.  “Did you see it?” one of the men asked.

“See what?” I asked.

“The rattlesnake.  It was only a few yards up the trail where we saw you.”

“I didn’t see him or hear him rattle.”

The gentleman had a look of amazement on his face.

Jeanne almost had her first encounter with a big ole timber rattler.  But, why didn’t we have an encounter?  Another mystery.     Thomas Sandusky  7.5.10

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