Howdy folks!
My name is Smokie Dawg
and this here web page is my everlastin dog house.
Now some folks say I ain't around anymore. Some even say I 'passed over'. Say what? Passed over to what? The great bone yard in the sky? I can tell you I didn't do nuthin like that a'tall. Heck some city slicker called a Vet shot me up with something and it killed me! The bastard! Put me to sleep my ass, I'm DEAD!
Well thanks to my great boss and the modern miracle known as the world wide web, I am virtually alive. And will be virtually forever (assumin the boss keeps payin the bills!)
So my way of saying thanks, I'm donatin all of my dawg bytes to tellin a bit of the boss's story...
Now while this is being written by my clumsy paws, here's what's happenin' today, June 6th, 2006....
Today Celebrates Charlie’s 30th D.Day
~ June 6, 1976 Bi-Centennial Year to June 6, 2006 ~
This day, June Sixth, 2006, I celebrate the dual Anniversary of the 30th year of my journey from the City to the Mountains, and the 25th Anniversary of actually living in the Mountains. You could say it is my 50 year Equinox because the first 25 years of my life were spent in major metropolitan cities, whereas the second 25 years of my life (and many more quarters to come!) were spent in the incredible peace, beauty, and clean natural surroundings of a Cascade Mountain Valley known as Rocky Point. It is a quiet valley surrounded by 4 quiet volcano's. The Mountain Lakes Complex to the south with the highest peak Aspen Butte being 8200', Pelican Butte to the North at 8000', The stunning, craggy, miniature Mount Shasta known as Mt. McLoughlin at 9500' (named after the key explorer of Canada's Hudson Bay Company, John McLoughlin), and Brown Mountain (the youngest in the area) to the Southwest - just west of Lake of the Woods (Lac du Bois in French) at 7300'.
Today I shall meditate on my blessings, my satisfactions, my victories, and my rewards, for keeping a precision focus on attaining my lifelong goals. I am on pace to attain them fully! Clear Concise Mental Picture!! Relentless effort & sheer determination!!! Never give an inch on your goals!!!!
Through all of my fifty years of life’s stretches to reach my childhood dreams, the numerous victories and accomplishments along the way, as well as my battles to defend my goals (from the few enemies that have caused temporary obstacles), today I celebrate my victories!
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This 30th Anniversary of my personal Trek (10,950 days plus 7 Leap Days ago) - began with a 4 month backpack adventure in my Land Cruiser with Rick & Jeff, throughout the mountains & National Parks of the Rockies, the Northwest, Canada's British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies, the West Coast and Pacific Ocean.
Today's party re-lives elements of my birthplace of Saint Louis, Missouri (actually West St. Louis County in the town of Creve Coeur [French for ‘Broken Heart’]), with memories and flavors of the following: the City known as the ‘Gateway to the West’, the Ozark Mountains that played a role in the generation of my personal life dream (and its famous BBQ and moonshine), and the journey westward (‘go west young man’) along the Oregon Trail that ended Phase 1 of my 1976 trip in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Therefore, my flavors also include ‘West Coast Fare’ that range from the Napa Valley to the Pacific Ocean to my beloved Cascade Mountains in the USA's Great Northwest.
1976 Klamath Falls
Although Phase 2 took me to beautiful parts of the Canada – including my favorite Canadian Rockies area of Banff & Jasper National Parks (Remember the Jasper poster & the brother in the elevator in downtown St. Louis?? Remember the Banff Springs Hotel poster at the travel agent in West County on Manchester Blvd.??), and Phase 3 took me south along the California Coast and resulted in a detour for a few years in Los Angeles' Manhattan Beach, Orange County's Newport Beach, and later in the San Francisco East Bay town of Pleasanton; I found that Southern Oregon Cascade's Rocky Point Resort area offered what I was looking for more than any other place I traveled in my search for a mountain home, away from city sprawls and pollution, a very livable place of peace with 4 seasons & pine trees, where I could live in harmony with my God and His Creation.
Thankfully I made my initial one acre investment in 1979 as a backpacking hippie to secure the first step of my fervent dream. I soon moved to Klamath Falls in ‘80 with L (deserted in '96), and moved into our first home on my land in Rocky Point in fall of '81.
1980 Rocky Point
Too many things happened in between to write here, but I am currently alone living my dream albeit modestly. Surprisingly, during the darkest period of my life, great opportunity (blessings) presented themselves in the last few years. And my life's lesson has been to seize the opportunity to reach your dream - regardless of what the circumstances look like in the moment! So I grabbed hold of the blessing and today I live in my personally designed, 2800', two story mountain home with dormers, with lumber from my own trees, that I am actually getting to finish myself (albeit slowly due to disability); along with my horse herd, in my environment of choice, on 7 acres in a beautiful valley at the base of Mt. McLoughlin in the Oregon Cascade Mountains. The craggy view from my Loft of 'Old Mac' is superb!! It is a key part of the dream I have chased for over 30 years!!
50th Birthday at Klamath Blues Society