OVer the weekend, I was able to catchup and clear out the Tivo...little did I know, that there was an amazing survival story located halfway down the recorded roster of last week's television shows.
Bear Gryll's of "Man vs. Wild" fame goes to extraordinary places all of the time, where he and his crew film staged and unstaged survival situations where Bear is always victorious. Places like the Australia Outback, the Arctic Circle, and Alabama....ALABAMA!
Yep...I couldn't believe it...International television star goes to Alabama, films a show, and then returns safely. I couldn't believe my eyes when I realized that he was actually jumping out of a chopper in the Little River Canyon near Fort Payne, Alabama (the former sock capitol of the world and home to country music band "Alabama"). The general reaction from my friends is that the most dangerous things in the Alabama wilderness are moonshine runners and circular family trees...Ahhh but they were and will always be wrong. The beauty about Alabama is that it isn't marked with tourists...yet. Alabama is famous for a couple of things...the Iron Bowl, Golf, and , well that's it. But things like the Little River Canyon, Civil Rights Monuments, Beautiful Gulf of Mexico Beaches, and more acreage of navigable water than any other state in the union make it a spectacular place. Birmingham is actually a very modern city...not just old steel mills anymore.
Alabama, is a lot like Eastern North Carolina...people forget to notice the progress in both places. Not far from Roanoke Rapids, there is a space age automobile test facility! Unspoilt, and possibly unvisited barrier islands mark our extreme Eastern North Carolina Border. Top-notch golf courses abound along our beaches. Television shows film in Wilmington regularly...Wilmington was also the first city to go "all digital" in the television world. Eastern North Carolinians look forward to looking forward...but a tradition that is worth remembering is still present. There are very few places that cook a whole pig and call it a party. Most places that cook whole pigs are called factories...
As proud of my home state as I am, I'm just as proud of my new territory. Eastern NC has a chip on it's shoulder...we are the underdog, and nobody, especially us, even knows it.
Enjoy the day...
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