I just got back from a trip to South Carolina. I've gone there many times at this time of the year. It is usually an easy trip to take, weather permitting and as a result I've seen countless sunrises at the Kentucky/Tennessee border. I'm typically on the interstate, but that part of the country is in the Appalachians, nearing the Smokies. The mountains seen from the interstate are pretty and I often think I should stop to take a picture, but always just try to snap a photo through the window. Taking pictures in the low light of a sunrise from a moving car doesn't work very well.
A few family vacations aside, we didn't travel much as a kid and when we did it was often just to close-by relatives. Growing up in Michigan, the South always had a mystique about it. I saw the South as a place where winter never happened. All those states were always warm and people wore shorts year round. Exploding fireworks were legal there and I could only imagine that they were available at nearly every store. Since few things were more fun than roman candles ore M-80s, I had to assume they fireworks must be a daily part of existence in the South.
Now that I've traveled more, the truth is more mundane. Kentucky is only a few miles away and it routinely gets snow in the winter. I've been in southern coastal South Carolina and seen snow on the ground, although it didn't last long. Fireworks availability is much more wide spread now, but 30 years ago many southern states restricted them while some northern states allowed them. I only recall one day when I was in the south where fireworks were lit off. This was at an acquaintance's house in Florida in early March a few years ago, and the fireworks were actually brought from Michigan. So much for the belief in Southern Romanticism.
For now, there is always the sunrise on the Kentucky/Tennessee border.
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