Today we elected to go investigate a place called Griffithsville. Since our name is Griffith, we figured it might be wonderful, just like some of my relatives. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Some of the relatives are okee-dokee but Griffithsville is a terrible butthole.
This part of West Virginia has beautiful, rugged geography, nice creeks and streams, fabulous vegetation and foliage and diverse wildlife but, everywhere the people have decided to build houses or anything else, it looks like hell. There are a few really nice places but the preponderance of structures are either abandoned or look like they should be. People are living, along with all their valuable stuff, in terrible little hovels that would not be considered as viable occupancies in any other state. None of the houses looked plumb, level or square. About a third of the windows and doors are pieces of plywood nailed over openings in the walls. Many dead cars are strewn about their yards and pastures. Some of the cars have been overwhelmed by kudzu so they now look like green lumps with a bit of contrasting paint visible amidst the vegetation. No wonder these folks voted for Trump and his promises to bring back the coal industry despite nobody using coal for fuel anymore. These folks look desperate.
There is an abundant population staying in these structures or former structures that perch on their front porch all day, most of them smoking cigarettes. We saw very few with a full complement of teeth. They look very sullen and surly. All the former businesses, except gas stations and small stores, are shuttered. The economy and life has been hard on these people and they appear a little worse for wear. The roads are terrible; today it took us 6 hours to drive less than 80 miles and we kept moving about as fast as was safe.
However, the state has some really pretty parks. This evening we had some cedar waxwings fooling around near our fifth wheel. They are very handsome birds.
We even got a picture of one. Click the asterisk *