PRISONER EXPRESS

When I think of a favorite trip, a journey to a place I really enjoyed, there's several places that come to mind. My trip to California, my journey to Kentucky or even my visit to South Carolina.

But I would have to say my favorite trip of all would have to be my trip to Banner Elk, North Carolina. In November of 1990, the 3rd to be exact I left St. Stephens, South Carolina for Banner Elk, NC to work for Taylor Rees at T. Rees Fraiser Fir Farm.

Taylor's brother-in-law Mark had volunteered to pick Simon and myself up in South Carolina. The 6 or so hour drive for South Carolina to North Carolina was just breathtaking, so much greenery, beautiful trees and forests everywhere.

Simon was my roommate at the St. Stephens Hotel where I was staying; he's the one that knew Taylor as he had worked for him the previous year.

Once we arrived in Banner Elk, we met Taylor at his farm. He was a really nice guy, his wife Lisa had just had a baby girl named Tatum, so they were really happy. They had a tri-level log home, the first floor was their lil shop where they sold Christmas trinkets and they also made wreathes. They owned about 27 or so acres of nothing but beautiful pine trees, frasier firs, Douglas firs and several trees that were of different shades of green.

I learned so much working for Taylor. I learned how to ride a ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) Quad Runner and I also learned how to operate the electric chainsaw that Taylor used to cut down the trees. I had no idea that those beautiful trees that he had on his farm, which were all pines trees, take years of constant care year-round to grow 8-10 feet high. Some were so small that he had told me that he had just planted them 2 or 3 years before, but in other areas of his acreage there were trees that were of different heights.

Although the work was hard, there were no days off, we would work Sunday through Saturday, some days were 8 hour days and others were 18 hours a day. I would even assist Taylor with his early morning newspaper route. I went on to work from the 4th of November everyday till around the 24th of December.

What was really good about this job was we worked everywhere and some days we would have to go and cut 250 trees from one farm, then we would have to drag them to the flat land since the farm was on narrow ground, and then run the tree through the balen, which is a machine that wraps thick twine around the entire length of the tree.

Well after the trees are all baled and ready to be loaded, we would have to then load all these 250 trees into a tractor-trailer from the bottom to the top, and from the back to the front. These trees once they've been baled weigh anywhere from 85-95 pounds or more. So this is a lot of work and as soon as we were done we'd go to another farm and do the same thing till we filled up the tractor-trailer, as it had its destination and a deadline to meet.

Despite the hard work, the pay was really good, I really enjoyed the work and most of all the cold weather. Although my stay was short, I had a fantastic time meeting a lot of good friendly people.

On Taylor's farm I would help numerous families that would travel to his farm to pock the tree that they wanted to put on display in their home. I would cut their tree, and bale it then I would load it on their vehicle so they could take it back home.

After Christmas the work slows down, so we prepared for our trip back home to El Paso, we went back on the Greyhound Bus. Having gone through this experience in my life was something that I wish I could one day go through again. As many trips as I've taken in my life, I would have to say that this is my favorite trip of all.