Feeling a bit better

Well hopefully things are looking up.

I made my reservations for my camping trip to the River's Edge today. It will be good to see Al and Mike and Brian again. Brian is supposed to be bringing his new husband this year. This started years ago. I met them down there, and pretty much spent the weekend with them. We liked each other so much I've been meeting them down there every summer since. It did me good just to talk to the reservations guy today. When I started giving him my card number to hold my cabin, I realized that it expired this month. He said "No problem Steve, we know who you are. It's not like you're not going to show up or something." A small thing, but it made me feel good.

Sometimes it does me good just to know that the Edge is out there, even if I can't be there. Who would have thought that a swampy little patch of mud and pines in nowhere Georgia could inspire so much happiness? Makes me feel good just thinking about getting down there again: seeing the regulars, playing some volleyball, having dinner at the Berryman House, and best of all - knowing when I drive through those gates, I can leave the world outside. Whenever I'm out partying on the campground, I make sure to walk back to my cabin by the poolhouse. The road goes over a hilltop, the trees are cleared out, and with the lights off, you just never knew there were so many stars. They go all the way down until they get caught in the tops of yellow pines that look like a fringe of black lace in the darkness. The singing of the crickets and the frogs makes the quiet sound louder.

I like walking around and looking at the mobile mansions the queens have set up down there. You can rent a space year round, and some of the guys bring in beautiful RV's, parking them under custom made shelters, with front porches, lavish elephant ears, comfortable outdoor furniture, fountains, follys, bawdy lawn ornaments, and frequently, perfect little postage-stamp lawns of bright green grass, all lit up with strings of fairy lights. Late at night when the parties are over, it just seems enchanted; so welcoming and delightful that it can't possibly be real. And of course it isn't. You have to go back to the real world at some point. But it sure is nice to pretend you don't have to for a while.