One week in the mountains is a must for every serious Domainer

After spending a week in the Carolinas and Virginia, without as much as a blip of Internet access, I’m now purged of any negative thoughts about domaining.

The first day, I thought my left and right brain hemispheres would shrivel. I found myself tapping away on a smart phone that was as smart as a board of chestnut wood.

I wanted to scream but instead, I discovered the wild life species, from deer to bears to hawks. A woodpecker woke me up every morning instead of my alarm clock.

Technology mattered very little, and as long as my boots to cross the stream with were sealed dry, I was fine.

After the third day had passed, I had no more thoughts of Rick Schwartz passionately promoting HallOfshame.com, day in, day out. I could not be bothered to care about the government shutdown, and when the forest park posted a “Closed” note, I simply kept going onto that supposedly closed path. I made my own decisions on the edge of a 300ft tall rock cut by coal miners, then left in the hands of nature to grow its flora back.

At night, I was able to stare through nature’s planetarium – an array of trees hasty to change colors after a rainy spring and summer. The stars were brighter than ever, and the Galaxy spread its path with splendor across the horizon, in a manner that I’ve only seen once before in my life. That one alone, was worth the trip.

I could care less about gTLDs and Donuts winning this or the other contract. I did miss Frank Schilling though, because he’s a man who appreciates nature and actually built houses in past times. He’d do just fine in the Appalachian mountains.

And yet, by distancing myself from technology, I was able to appreciate its roots and how far we’ve come in the past one hundred years. Virtual domains mean nothing without the soil, the water and the air; computers would never exist if it weren’t for the coal mines of Virginia. My only dot com was a cabin in the woods, my daily guide was the sun’s expected path along the mountain tops.

On day seven, I was convinced that in order to be a better domainer, I have to go back to nature at some point in the future. And I suggest that you do too.

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