This is my story, and I'm sticking to it! I'll try to be brief, but......:wink:
In early 1974, I was living in Houston when my girlfriend and I started planning a 2-week hiking trip in early October on the Appalachain Trail, mainly in North Carolina and Virginia. Being a map geek/nerd/lover all my life, I started poring over everything I could get my hands on at the time (no internet).
Simultaneously, I had become a huge fan of Doc Watson and listened to him/played along with him every chance I got. He was my inspiration to play guitar in the first place.
As I looked over the myriad of maps, it dawned on me that I would be within a
hoot and holler of Deep Gap, NC....Doc's home!
Trip planning shifted gears as I tried to balance a dream to hike on the Ap. Trail with a pilgrimage to see Doc. And in my heart, I just knew that he'd be glad to see me, too! While getting backpacking gear in order, I also worked feverishly on a few of Doc's songs, dubbing myself into a few tracks with him on my old reel-to-reel Sony tape deck.
We were traveling in my girlfriend's Toyota Corolla wagon and with all our camping gear, it took some effort to load my D-18 (sorry) in with everything else. But I did it and we left Houston early one morning and made it to Memphis the first night. We rolled into Deep Gap early the following evening and after the obligatory photos of me and my guitar in front of the Deep Gap sign on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we eased into the sleepy little town. Yes, I was as giddy as a schoolgirl.
I stopped at the general store to ask directions, which were handed out cordially by a smiling store keeper -- a smile that told me I wasn't the first one to ask where Doc lived. He almost broke my heart when he said that he didn't think Doc was home, that he was "on tour somewhere or other." But he said that I should go on up to the house anyway to make sure. So there was still a chance.
Cutting to the chase here, Doc was not home,
but I got to meet Rosa Lee, who told me to come back anytime I was in Deep Gap. She looked just like the photos in the book and was a sweet lady. And like the store keeper, she smiled a smile that told me that many had come before me.
Well, I stood on Doc's front porch and took a deep breath, and told my girlfriend that I hoped that at the least, the trail was still there!
We hiked for most of the week and I still had a return to Deep Gap on my mind. If we hadn't planned to return to Texas by way of Missouri to see her folks, we would have given Doc another chance to meet me! :wink:
*This was the condensed version. PM me for the full-length version. :lol:
Thanks for reading this far,
Joe