As a self-proclaimed hermit, I am astonished at how much I miss people, but West Virginia took me home..."to the place I belong..." because I have a good friend there...
and made new ones.
One of my fears for this trip was that I would have difficulty living with people. I've been living on my own now for ten years...and liked it. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise, Gomer Pyle, I now yearn to sleep in the homes of others, to sit at their dinner tables, to wash their dishes--to become a part of a family, if only for a little while.
Georgina made it all possible. Lucky for me, this medical resident actually had the weekend off, a rarity for her ilk, and I was the beneficiary--living in her basement, sharing laughter, building a fire, and breaking bread together--like this spread of bison burgers, sweet potato fries, corn-on-the-cob, and homemade apple pie.
A trip to the Athens, Ohio farmer's market...
surprised me with lovely stringed entertainment:
And a visit to the local theater in Parkersburg totally destroyed the media stereotype of West Virginians.
Hillbillies? From the laughs I heard, I would have to say that the sold-out theater was filled with highly intelligent individuals, possibly even liberal ones.
Yes, my trip is proving the media wrong, as I suspected it would. America is not made up of individual states, wherein the population of each state is exactly the same. No, within each state is diversity--my job is to find it. I guess I need to get back to tripping...
julie
Thanks Georgina and Karen.
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