Lake Tillery has always been known to me as just "the river," as I have grown up and spent all my life just a few miles away in the small town of Mount Gilead. Except for some school years spent in Winston-Salem, NC; Athens, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; and, Des Moines, Iowa, this wonderful spot in the center of the state known as the Piedmont has been my home turf. The spectacular vistas of the western part of North Carolina have called me many times, as have the drama of the Carolina coastlines, but the area immediately around Lake Tillery holds its own share of beautiful hills, water, forests and, yes, even dramas of color and light. Living in a subdivision directly by the lake now, I've found many pre-dawn hours by the lake to generate just as much anticipation of color and light as a Blue Ridge Parkway dawn.