After sunset tonight the campground, where we stopped, had an enormous bonfire. The fire was inside an iron pot…probably 5 foot in diameter and 4 feet high…the wood was piled higher then my head. It gave off the most incredible heat…the flames towering up into the sky and the outside of the iron was glowing red hot.
Next to the fire was a Pavilion with a floor for dancing and a D J played wonderful music with that deep beat that just draws you in and won’t let you sit still. I’d guess there were a couple of hundred people dancing or clapping and hoot’n and holler’n…including us.
In the mist of all the ‘partying’ something happened that will always be imprinted in my mind. He played “America the Beautiful” and everyone…even those that had just been sitting in chairs around the campfire talking… one by one…spontaneously rose to their feet and sang along…young and old. I’ll always remember the look on their faces in the firelight. We weren’t a group of strangers anymore…we were fellow Americans.