On South Carolina

Warning: Non-politics content

For those of you who didn't know, I went down to South Carolina to visit Holly this past week. I drove through Appalachia and along the western fringes of North Carolina and South Carolina. It was an amazing time... and it feels to be good to be as happy as I am for the first time in many moons.

I met some very interesting and very intelligent people: Surge, Shelly, Amber, Jon, Heather, Dave, Phil, and Becca... Dr. Dunn I "re-"met... didn't really remember me. To be honest, I'm pretty intimidated by him just because I know Holly holds him in such high esteem. He's a nice guy, though. Just scary when he's your girlfriend's "dad".

She's coming up in two weeks or so, hopefully I'll be working less. I've been so busy with work lately, thus updating the blog has fallen on the list of priorities. Worry you not, Fountie lives on.

Week before, dad and I visited New York for Lisa's graduation. That was fun.

Drive back from SC was hell in Virginia on I-77 northbound.

Visited a mining town in WVa... not many pictures because I never actually got out of the car, I just drove around the main street. It was depressing because the town seemed to be on the tipping point of destitution or just getting by. Oddly enough, I kinda wanted to live there just so that I could possibly work to get a flow of capital inward and create new places of employment apart from coal, chemicals, and church. (In this small town there were at least 6 churches - one The Church of Christ, one [apparently regular] Church of Christ, two competing Baptist churches across the street from each other, a non-denominational hall of worship, and a Methodist church, plus a plethora of small steeples that I could see dotting the "skyline".) The town lies between a river and I-77 just 20 miles or so outside of Charleston.

Depressing a bit.

Oh well.

Holly in two weeks!

-rl