When I’m writing I’m usually lost in my own head, my ears covered in headphones and the noises of the outside world shut off. As I wrote in my About Me section, it’s me and the blank sheet of paper, game on.

Tonight is a little different – it seems wrong to close myself off. This afternoon I arrived in Damascus, greeted by the rolling hills and changing elevation, and now I’m sitting on a screened-in porch. I can’t see it now that the sun has gone down, but I can hear the water flowing in the river about twenty yards from my cabin (Damascus Cabins).

This afternoon I saw a deer emerge from the woods and take a drink from it – the first time in my life I’ve seen that happen – and now when I look up I can see the blinking bodies of the lightening bugs, the large number of them creating a truly magnificent show against the silhouettes of the tall trees. To my left I can see the orange glow of a campfire started by the other guests. They have since gone to bed and it’s beginning to dwindle, but each time I finish a sentence I look over and see the lit ash flying off the top – its best impersonation of the bugs above, I suppose.

Cape May and Beaufort have flown by in a good way, tornadoes of fun sweeping me up and down the shoreline. I have a feeling that these two days in Damascus are going to slow down the pace a little bit. Tomorrow I’m going to hike and bike the mountains, get in some excercise and let nature do its work. There doesn’t seem to be much nightlife here, a get outside and do things sort of town.

The stories from Beaufort will begin to roll out shortly, and coverage of this small town of 1,000 people that sits along the Appalachian Trail will follow.

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