Advertisement
Nothing Complicated
My own cabin with cookies left for me....West Virginia is a place apart, mildly forgotten as it is lodged between more noticeable states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. West Virginia has already established its own unpolished identity, no longer interested in being just the western version of its eastern and more refined counterpart by the same name. Only a full day’s drive from New England, it is a state comfortable with itself, however injurious the stereotypes it has had to endure. It will take very little time to realize that West Virginia is far cry from a clan of self-described ignorant hillbillies that are all related to each other. Up and coming, it is of inaccessible valleys and rock face drenched in American history. West Virginia constantly struggles between preserving the charm of its slow-paced, rural lifestyle and prospering in an ever-changing 21st century. A visit to West Virginia will educate, enchant, and probably catch you off guard. In the end, there are few regions of the United States so geographically close to New England, yet so distant in terms of lifestyle and culture.
Interstate 79, though polluted by unsightly billboards, slices its way south through terraced hills on which trailers and undersized single-family homes are perched in a bucolic setting. The geography is so undulating that it would be impossible to build much of anything upon it; there is so little flat ground to be found. The highway is an impressive accomplishment in engineering. Much of the steep landscape has been blasted away to make way for roads and other pieces of infrastructure. It is no secret that the sources of these byways are no more than federal pork brought in from Washington. Robert Byrd’s prominent name is shamelessly signposted practically everywhere, as he is ostensibly given credit for everything in West Virginia from rest stops to The New River Gorge Visitors Center in Fayetteville. Apparently, West Virginians see no problem in constantly paying public homage to a former member of the Klu Klux Klan.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.243s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 23; qc: 117; dbt: 0.1842s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
