Sarah and I have decided to quit going around West Virginia, and go through it. Thus, on two recent trips lately to see our grandchildren in Pennsylvania, we gave up returning by the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia for the unknown experiences of West Virginia. We had visited West Virginia once before when we took the children to Snow Shoe Ski Resort, some twenty years ago. Other than that, we have avoided West Virginia just like we have a tendency to drive around New York City.
This Columbus Day weekend, we met our grandchildren and their dad at Gettysburg. The Cyclorama has been finished since we were there last, and neither the grandchildren nor their dad had very been to the battlefield. We had a great day on Saturday and then we hopped into the car and headed for West Virginia to see the colors.
My dear departed mom always said that West Virginia would be the biggest state in the union if they would iron it out. It is hard to argue with that. But, we hit it, especially the higher elevations, say above 2000 feet, on the perfect weekend. The picture on the right above was taken on the slopes of West Virginia's highest peak. Believe it or not, that is the only mountain in the state that gets above the decidious tree line, so the whole state is a hardwood forest, and I will place bets on which, W. Va. or Vermont is the most beautiful in the leaf changing season. I will put my money on W. Va. any day.
For those of you who go to W. Va. to see the "Wild and Beautiful", as its slogan goes, I doubt that you are ever let down. There is simply nothing like it in the eastern part of this country. But, W. Va. also has another legacy and it can be seen in the old rotting out building in the first picture. It is hick central on the eastern side of the Mississippi, including Mississippi. Encircled by the snobby northeast, the highly industrilized midwest, and the progressive southern states of Virginia and Tennessee, it sits as the place where it is still safe to be unpolished, uncooth, and uncaring what other people think about you.
Sarah and I stopped at an old store that shares the parking lot with the building above. We went in to find a little grill in the back and figured that it would be a good place to get a sandwich before going on. Sarah wanted a grilled cheese and I wanted a hamburger. The young girl behind the counter in the grill had no idea what a grilled cheese was, so we explained it to her. She said that she could do that, so she took our order. There was one other customer there, but the girl seemed to be too busy talking to people to make up our order. Sitting at the booth with the other customers, she pulled off her flip flop and was showing them something about her toes, putting her fingers between them and on the bottom of her feet.
Then she got up, went behind the counter and picked up Sarah's bread and put it in a toaster oven with the same fingers that she had between her toes a few seconds earlier. She fixed that sandwich and my hamburger without ever washing her hands. Sarah saw none of this, and I was raised in a barn, so I figured that I had enough built up resistance to live through whatever was on her toes. I know the obvious question to follow that, but I just do not want to go there.
Enough said. West Virginia did not let us down. It reminded me of Mississippi and our first trip through it. A stop in Jackson at a buffet place to eat brought out the manager and a couple of others asking us questions like where we were from and how long we would be there. I looked at Sarah and asked her if my skin had darkened or something. I had made sure to use my best southern draw. But, then I realized that I brought in a map and maybe they wanted to take a look to find out how to get out of that place. I left it on the table.
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