the drive north

Hell of a ride.

By the time we got to northern Florida, even though it was still warm, the colors of autumn were apparent.  I love the mysterious low country of Georgia and SC - vast grasslands with rivers running through them to the ocean.  Turned the A/C off somewhere in SC.  Charlotte NC looked to be in prime autumn color: red, orange and yellow.  It rained most of the way.

At Exit 1 (not sure if I was at the northernmost last exit of NC or the southernmost first exit of southerwestern VA) all traffic was forced off of I77.   The interstate was closed!  I stopped at a McDonald’s and next to me was a man in a very old car (older than mine) who was talking on a cell phone and looking at a map.  He looked like he knew what was going on and told me that the highway was closed down because of an accident on “the mountain”, and there were 200 cars or more in a pile up.  The only thing to do was to take a small, windy road that ran parallel to the highway and over the mountain for about 30 miles until we could get back on the highway.  So that’s what I did - creeping along with every other truck that was taking the detour.  It was actually very pretty country, but a lot of fog.

It took at least 2 hours to go those 30 miles, and then I took a wrong turn in WV that took me about 50 miles out of my way, so that it got dark and I still had 200 miles to go.  Really dark.  Nothing around but dark, dark mountains.  I almost stayed in Charleston, but the exit I got off at looked so ratty I decided to move on.

It is not easy to drive those WV mountains in the daylight.  I found myself in the middle of nowhere - actually it's probably the best of WV mountain country - but raining and dark, it was impossible to find my way around.

Somehow I ended up in a little place called Summit.  One of those little towns in the holler of the mountains.  It felt like I had stepped off of the grid, out of my comfort zone of highway fast food and motels, and into unknown territory.  The twilight zone.

Jubilee and I stayed in Room #2 at the Elk Motel - $35 a night, very clean.  DOT (Dept. of Transportation) trucks were parked before the other 8 or 9 rooms.  I walked through the driving wind and rain to a "Family Restaurant" next door.  The people I met there seemed poor but friendly.  The waitress was studying a "Criminal Justice" book, hoping to get a better job at a prison.  The food was oversized, fatty and very salty.  (In my opinion, poverty in America is tied to the food problem, and freeing themselves from that trap is integral to the empowerment of the poor, but that's another discussion)

I had wanted to explore the town some more before I left.  There was a river running through it, and an "historic" section.  But it was still raining in the morning and I decided to make the final stretch into Cranberry TWP.  The DOT trucks all started their engines at about 4AM, and let them warm up for 20 minutes or so before leaving, so we got an early start as well.  But I have to say that I slept surprisingly well in that little place, with lots of good dreams.

I want to go back to Summit, though, on one of my return trips.

It is winter here in Cranberry TWP.  So many shades of brown, refreshingly cold.  John is glad to have us back and the little apartment is snug as a bug.

(The car ran like a new car the whole way.  I have an angel at my side - a cousin, "Doug"(my mother's sister's son), who died many years ago at an early age.  A couple of years ago I decided to bring him along on my road trips to watch out for my car.  He's been good.)