As we drove east through Kentucky, the landscape changed. The rolling hills and pastures of horse country gave way to forests and taller hills. The roadways were hemmed in more by hills and we started to see the hollows ("hollers") for which Appalachia is famous. One of the hollers we went past was Butcher Holler, birthplace of Loretta Lynn, the coal miner's daughter. We were driving into the Appalachian Mountains that extend 1,500 miles from Main to Georgia. These mountains were formed when the land mass that is now the eastern 2/3 of North America bumped into what is now Africa, back when all of the land masses on earth were loosely connected as Pangea. When they were young, the Appalachian Mountains were taller than the Rocky Mountains we saw last summer, or the Alps in Europe, Now they are old and worn down, with Mount Mitchell in North Carolina the tallest at 6,684 feet, compared with 14,433 feet for Mount Elbert in Colorado. While lacking in height, the Appalachians have the blessing of being almost entirely covered by dense forest.
The limestone of horse country also gave way to sandstone, shale, and ... Coal. This was reflected in bumper stickers:
"Friends of Coal"
"Coal keeps the lights on"
"If you don't like coal, stop using electricity"
We saw huge piles of coal, long trains filled with coal, trucks being hosed down before driving out of coal yards, coal-fired electrical generating plants, and commercial carbon-extraction plants. It's called "King Coal" in West Virginia, just a few miles from here. There are lots of arguments for and against coal: environmental, economic, social. And it's not just in Appalachia. The same arguments are happening out west where we were last summer, including just a few miles from Zion National Park in Utah.
Well, that's enough for a Tigger to think about today. On a lighter note, we saw lots of flea markets today. Some we small, in front yards. Some were big, in parking lots. Some were just by the side of the road wherever a few cars could pull off. We must have seen fifty in an hour. Do they do this all the time, or just on Memorial Day weekend? What are they selling? The clothes they outgrew over the winter? Presents they got for Christmas but didn't like? Is it a social thing or economic?
Poppa was sitting at a gas station a couple days ago when a man tapped on the window and showed him a plumber's snake. He said "It's almost new and I can let you have it for a dollar." Poppa thinks he was trying to get money for gas.
Today we stopped at Jenny Wiley State Park. Jenny Wiley was a pioneer woman who was kidnapped by Indians in 1789 and held captive for 11 months. She escaped and became something of a folk hero in the area. As we were driving out of the park, we passed a golf course with a big sign that said "Jenny Wiley Executive Golf Course". Honest. I'm sure that made her pioneer spirit so happy. Sigh.
Tomorrow we head into West Virginia and on home to Pittsburgh. I think I'll post one more time after we get home to compare traveling in the trailer with traveling in the motorhome.
- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa
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