Ricky and I recently attended the Mountain Homecoming hosted by Jeff Tolbert and Primitive Road. If there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know who Jeff Tolbert is, he sang with the Primitive Quartet for about 27 or 28 years before they retired. After the Primitive Quartet retired, Jeff went on to form his own group to continue the work that the Primitive Quartet did for 50 years.
The Primitive Quartet originally started the Mountain Homecoming, so when they retired, Jeff picked it up and kept that going as well. Mountain Homecoming is a four-day series of singing and church-type services that include preaching, shouting, testifying, and singing. Anyway, I wanted to tell you a little bit about our trip.
Day one: We left home on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. and headed to see our chiropractor for a last-minute adjustment. Then we stopped for breakfast with the plan to hit the interstate immediately afterward. However, there’s an old adage that begins, “The best-laid plans of mice and men…” which came into play that morning. While at breakfast, I began to ponder all the things we hadn’t thought about, and since we were planning to be out of town for four days, we probably needed to take care of them. So that’s what we did. We finally got on I-59 at about 10:30 a.m. and headed for Fontana Dam, North Carolina, a supposed three-and-a-half-hour drive. We made good time with only a little delay in traffic and one stop for gas, a bathroom break, and lunch.
When we reached North Carolina, we soon came to a little town called Dragon. Since we’re both directionally challenged, we had no choice except to follow the directions our GPS gave us. Unfortunately, the GPS directed us up the famed “Tail of the Dragon,” an 11-mile stretch of highway that has one sharp curve after another the entire way, right on the edge of the mountain. The view from my car window was a big bad drop-off that I couldn’t see the bottom of, even if I had tried, which I did NOT. The speed limit was 15 MPH (less in places), and you definitely didn’t want to be going faster than that.
We had heard different people talk about the Tail of the Dragon but had never experienced it for ourselves. Now we’ve been there, done that, don’t want the T-shirt, and don’t want to repeat it! But we finally arrived at our destination about 3:15 p.m. After a short rest, it was time that we decided we’d hike up to the place where our meals were being served. It was not the best idea, as it turned out, because the place was at least a half mile away, and more than half of the way was up a very steep hill.
After dinner, it was getting close to time for the doors to open for the first worship session. We knew it would be after dark when it was over, and we would all be tired, so a quick hike back to the cabin to get a vehicle was in order. Thank heaven for the one who actually hiked back and go the vehicle. The service was good. It was over at about 10:30 (Eastern Time), and we were glad to ride back to our cabin rather than having to walk.
Bonita Wilborn is Managing Editor, Features Writer, and Advertising Manager at Mountain Valley News and North Jackson Press and can be reached via email at [email protected].
