We just finished putting together our “Mountain” show for you. It’s on this Saturday night at 7:30 in living color and (shouting now) IN HIGH DEFINITION!

(Okay back to my normal soothing, hypnotic voice…) I admit I’m more of beach bum than a mountain man. But my favorite sport/hobby is rock climbing and the coast doesn’t offer that. So, over the last couple years, the mountains have become my recreational choice on free weekends.

I used to surf a fair bit. You can call it surfing. Or maybe you could call it "Mike repeatedly falling off a surfboard." But, a couple of concussions later, I needed a different activity where I didn’t bonk my head so much. I tried mountain biking. Same results. Doctor Parker said, “Mike, perhaps you should consider avoiding blunt force trauma to your head.” Now in my mid 40s that started to make sense to me.

So I tried rock climbing. It works because when I fall (and I fall often… a theme in my life) my buddy catches me with a rope tied to my harness. When you wipe out while surfing, you have to hope the ocean will spit you out. When you eat it mountain biking you have to hope that tree will move.

Anyway, back on topic, I’d like to thank the geography gods that I get to live here. Check that. Maybe it’s the topography gods. Maybe both. Whichever. I’m grateful. I have the mountains to my west and the ocean to my east and I get to live smack dab in the middle of one of the prettiest parts of the country.

What do people in boring states do for fun? Kansas? Oklahoma? Nebraska? Iowa? The biggest objects in those states are manmade and they’re belt buckles. I mean those states are pretty in their own way but they have zero variety. No mountains. No ocean. Just a whole lot of flatness. And corn. I guess you’d get used to it. Someone obviously has.

You and I should wake up every morning and thank our lucky stars we get to scratch out a life in the Carolinas.

A whole bunch of you took trips to Charleston, SC., and the North Carolina Outer Banks after we took you there on the Carolina Traveler shows in May. The responses I’m getting prove that you all agree with me. You don’t have to leave the Carolinas to have the best vacation on earth.

So Saturday night I’m taking you to the mountains to show you a few things you shouldn’t miss there. Honestly there are 30 things you shouldn’t miss but I could only fit four in this show. And it will take you at least two weekend trips (or a week-long trip) to the high country to accomplish the four things we hit on. But they are so worth it.

Plus the amazing pictures Andy captured will make your head spin. Seriously. It’ll look great even if you don’t have hi-def. Andy and I both bought hi-def TVs just to watch our show. It was purely coincidental that the NFL broadcasts in high definition. Honest.

So, tune in Saturday night and you’ll meet four sisters named, Faith, Hope, Joy and Toni. Not kidding.

You’ll also meet the grandson of the true to life “old man on the mountain.” He’s a descendent of one of the greatest men ever to live in the Carolinas. Their family owns the most beautiful mountain this side of the Mississippi.

Sorry for the cheesy “this side of the Mississippi” ending there. I figured I would bookend it for you.

OK, I’ve got to get writing the next show.

Mike Redding