Tag Archives: West Virginia

Elkins to Birmingham

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It’s been a while since my last update, about 2’000 miles and 24 days. I’ll try to catch up on the trip since leaving Elkins, West Virginia.

Elkins, WV – Lexintgon, KY – St Louis, MO

My next stop was Lexington, Kentucky which was a halfway stop towards St Louis, Missouri. I discovered ready made, ready rolled pizza bases in Lexintgon. We made pizza by opening a can, spreading the base on a tray, and adding toppings. It was pretty darn tasty. Leaving Lexington I passed through 4 states on my way to St Louis. I woke up in Kentucky, had lunch in Indiana, stopped for gas in Illinois and arrived in Missouri.

I was headed to St Louis to see Liz, a friend I met in Guadalajara, Mexico. Liz was back home in St Louis, the home of Budweiser beer I discovered. I had a great time staying with Liz and her parents, Brian and Lynn McKenna. Lynn’s cooking is the stuff of legend. Brian is a retired police officer and now trains policemen to prepare for violent encounters. Made for some really interesting conversations.

St Louis is the home of Anheuser Busch, the brewers of Budweiser. The brewery tour was really interesting. An hour long tour of the facility including 2 free drinks at the end of it. I was impressed by the little details. Anheuser Busch give wood chips used in the brewing process to local parks. They run a stable of Clydesdale horses and Budweiser wagons that tour the country for parades and so on. The tour itself employs close to 40 people in the down season, and a ton of technology. Without bragging about it, Anheuser Busch seemed like reasonably responsible corporate citizens. Of course, maybe that’s the whole point of the tour, to create that appearance!

St Louis, MO – Springfield, MO – Pettigrew, AR

My next destination was Caitlin’s farm in rural Arkansas. I broke the ride with a stop in Springfield, Missouri. I stayed with Braden and Micah who were excellent hosts. We ate some of the saltiest, most stomach pain inducing bar food I’ve ever consumed at the local Wing Shack. A truly mid-western experience! Then Micah took me to a Springfield college party. Good times. Thanks guys.

Rural north-west Arkansas is really something to behold. There’s a very special kind of freedom enjoyed by the people in this part of the world. Life is so remote out there that enforcement of the law is sporradic at best. With an Arkansas state ID one can walk into a gun shop, pass a NICS background check, and purchase a rifle or handgun immediately, without permit or registration. Sale of firearms between individuals is largely uncontrolled and unrecorded.

The culture I experienced in rural Arkansas reminded me of my travels through rural, upstate New York. There’s a real survivalist mentality in a lot of rural America. The landscape is often harsh, with cold, snow covered winters. The “state” doesn’t provide much to the really rural households. Keeping roads cleared of snow, fallen trees, and so on often falls to the locals themselves. It’s simply not practical to maintain such an extensive infrastructure in places so remote.

Often descended from Scots and Irish, these people are from hardy stock. The people who choose to remain in these parts of the world survive under conditions that most other people choose to leave. Winter life is physically hard, cold and dark. Electricity, telephone and roads are about the only national infrastructure that reaches all the way out into the deepest forest. There’s no water mains, sewage, gas or rubbish collection. Houses are responsible for their own water supply, hauling their own trash and any gas is from bottles.

If the apocalypse comes, the folks who live in the woods in north-west Arkansas are well prepared for it. People out here pride themselves on hunting, persevering and surviving.

For a long time I assumed that rural was synonymous with hillbilly and redneck. In truth, I met some very liberal, open minded, well travelled, globally aware, almost hippies in rural parts. I think many people are attracted to the practical, daily freedoms enjoyed in these parts. When you live 10 or 15 miles off the nearest tar road, government bureaucracy has a slightly different flavour to it. Building regulations, planning laws, production and posession of contraband, they’re considerably more theoretical out in the depth of the Arkansas woods.

Personally, I had a great time on the farm with Caitlin, Matt, Jeff and Megan. I fired a handgun for the first time, a silver 38 special revolver. I also fired Matt’s 1943 M1 rifle. The rifle saw action in World War 2, Korea and Vietnam. Matt has a bayonettte, weapons belt and harness to match, mostly original issue.

After 5 days on the farm, trying to find a break in the weather, I said my goodbyes and set sail for Memphis, Tennesse.

Memphis, TN

In Memphis I stayed with the folks who live at De Cleyre. The house itself has a really interesting history and the folks I met there were, without exception, fascinating human beings. The house is cooperatively owned by the people who lived there. It was purchased in 1998 with a mortgage from another cooperative. The current residents pay rent towards the mortgage and upkeep. I was amazed to learn that of the current residents, Allyson is the longest standing and has only lived there for less than 3 years. So everyone who lived in the house over the years has paid a contribution towards the mortgage, then moved on. Amazing.

Terance calls the house “the experiment”. In many ways, De Cleyre is a fascinating experiment. A fairly unstructured model of cooperative living. There are a couple of fundamental house rules, any resident can ask any guest to leave for example. Otherwise, things generally seemd to “just work”. I enjoyed most of my meals in Memphis at the house, they were prepared by various people and shared. Before leaving I left a huge bag of brown rice to contribute to communal supplies. Not all meals were communal, nor did all the residents eat all the meals. In a wonderful example of the magic of chaos, those who were hungry ate, it all came together naturally, without planning.

I drank a local beer, danced on Beale Street while listening to Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis, smoked a Marlboro red and didn’t go to Graceland. I had a great time in Memphis on all fronts. :-)

Nashville, TN

After 2 nights, I left Memphis on the final leg of my pilgrimage to the capital of country music, Nashville, Tennessee. My first night in Nashville I stayed with Yvonne aka The Travelling Vegetarian. We ate some amazing Ethiopian food. The centre piece of the meal for me was the bread, called Injera. Thin, bubbly like a pancake, soft and pliable, like a pancake only a little more stretchy. The meal was a collection of vegetable dishes served on a large piece of Injera with a side basket of Injera. The bread is the plate, the eating utensil and a large part of the meal.

The next couple of nights I stayed with Irina. On Saturday afternoon we took off into downtown Nashvile to tour the city. On the Shelby Street Bridge we happened upon what appeared to be the filming of a country music video. Music would blast while a fella walked down the bridge carrying his guitar case. The camera was on a little set of rails, it all looked very professional to me. Turns out it was Shane Yellowbird, a Canadian country singer, filming something for his break into the US.

Saturday night Irina and I took to the streets of downtown Nashville in search of country music and line dancing. Both were found at the Wild Horse Salloon. We paid the $5 cover just in time for the last line dancing lesson of the night at 8:45pm. Now I feel like I know how those poor Japanese tourists must have felt at their first ceilidh. I found line dancing to be a lot harder than it looked. We put in a valiant effort all the same!

Birmingham, AL

From Nashville I rode 200 miles straight south down I65 to Birmingham, Alabama. I’m staying with Richey, Julio and Pari in Birmingham, this update comes to you from their couch. :-)

Apparently 1 in 7 people in Alabama has a connection to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. There are almost 20’000 staff and another 20’000 students at UAB in Birmingham. I feel like Birmingham is a college town and perhaps not truly indicative of the state of Alabama as a whole.

I arrived in Birmingham just a few days before thanksgiving, a huge holiday in the US. Everyone on my list for Atlanta had said they would be away over thanksgiving. I was conscious that I might have trouble finding somewhere to stay. Richey said I was welcome to stay in Birmingham for thanksgiving. They were having a party and were expecting 10 to 15 people. Perfect.

Thanksgiving was a great day. I was on turkey duty. It worked out well. I pumped it full of seasoning with a giant syringe then roasted it in a browning bag. Came out juciy and flavourful, result. I took inspiration from my mother’s masterful roasting of chickens over the years. :-)

Today I say goodbye to new friends in Birmingham. I’m heading for Jackson, Mississippi tonight and then New Orleans, Louisiana on Sunday.

I have taken some photos on this leg of the trip but I’ve yet to sort and upload them. I’ll try to put them on the map once they’re ready.

Philadelphia to Alexandria to Elkins

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I arrived in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. Phillip had kindly offered me a place to stay. I was in for a treat. Phillip’s Jamaican hospitality was quite spectacular. He cooked, cooked and cooked some more. I was treated to great food, an education on baseball, and hearty conversation.

Sunday afternoon I had assembled a motorcycle gang. I’d invited a few locals to ride. Vicky took my passenger spot and Vasily brought Danni on his bike. Our gang of two motorcycles and four people was born!

We drove around the art gallery that Rocky famously runs up the steps to reach. We parked our bikes at the top of the steps soaked up the view. All the while the words to Bruce Springsteen’s Streets of Philadelphia were running through my head. Glorious! :-)

From Philadelphia I cruised southwards to Alexandria to visit Margaret. Alexandria is a suburb of Washington DC. The District of Columbia itself is quite small, so the surrounding towns in Baltimore and Virginia are effectively suburbs of DC, albeit across state borders.

Margaret invited me to Alexandria about a year ago. I made a point to stop through on my trip south. I’m really glad I did. Margaret and Brett were wonderful hosts, I’m very grateful to them and their family, I had a wonderful time. Margaret is an incredible cook, I ate more homemade cookies and chocolate cake than I can remember. I perpetually stuffed myself with great food while I was visiting.

On Friday night I had my first Bhangra experience in Washington DC. Wow. I don’t think my words could possibly do justice to this traditional north Indian dance. Instead I’ll share this video I found on YouTube. Picture the upstairs room of a bar packed with maybe 100 people dancing something like this, with a little less somersaulting.

After 4 nights of creature comfort, family home cooking and general relaxation, I left Alexandria and began the 900 mile ride west to St Louis, Missouri. My friend Andrew Chant said I simply had to visit West Virginia. He’d looked at Google Earth and was blown away by extent of the forest. So off into West Virginia I went.

Just before I closed my laptop in Alexandria, I got an message from Kristina inviting me to stay in Elkins. I had sent a few messages asking for places to stay in Elkins and Charleston. Kristina was the first person to accept and she got back to me in perfect time. I set off with Elkins in mind.

Just before leaving New York, I had ordered a few things for the bike. My chain was making some seriously painful sounds, so one of the things I ordered was a new chain and sprockets. JD recommended I replace the chain as soon as possible. He didn’t think the chain would make it the 1’100 miles to St Louis. I was optimistic. He was right! :-)

The chain was delivered to Alexandria so I set off with a replacement chain and sprockets in my luggage. Some 120 miles into the day I turned off the main highway onto the old road. The old road had looked smaller, more winding and potentially more interesting on the map. A mile or two off the highway, there was a loud grinding noise. I dumped the clutch, braked hard and pulled over. I looked down to see the chain dragging on the ground.

The chain was intact, but no longer riding on the rear sprocket. Ok, I thought, I can fix this. I have all the tools to tighten the chain, no big deal. After a bit of wrestling to get the bike on the side stand, then the centre stand, I got the tools out and tightened the chain. It was super loose, so I figured that had caused the derailment. After 20 minutes or so, I was back on the road, we were off.

Not so fast. About 2 miles further, I heard a much louder, much gnarlier grinding noise. I dropped the clutch, but the noise kept up. I slammed the brakes hard and stopped on a gentle hill. This time the chain was caught between the sprocket and the wheel. Not good. After some wrestling I worked the chain free.

Then I got the chain back on and tightened it even more. I started off slowly. I’d heard some unhealthy noises from the chain in New York. Now with the chain so tight the same noise was back. I was about 80 miles from my target for the night, it was almost 3pm, and I had no more than 3 hours of daylight left. The bike sounded really bad above 30 mph, so I spent the best part of 3 hours enjoying the scenery at a very leisurely pace.

I was riding through pretty hilly country. I took it easy on the uphills so as not to stress the chain. On the downhills I put the bike into neutral, turned the engine off, and let gravity do the work. There were points where I reached nearly 50 mph on the downhills.

Just a little after dark, around 6pm, I rolled into Elkins. We had made it. The chain was intact, still attached, and the bike kept moving forwards, albeit slowly. Happy days.

My t-mobile cell phone has no service in Elkins. I’d asked Kristina for her phone number so I could call when I got into town. I wasn’t sure when or if I’d be stopping. Expecting my cell phone to work was a flaw in my plan. No worries, I found a payphone and the $1 for a 3 minute call wasn’t too extortionate. A few minutes later I arrived the house, just in time to meet the housemates, most of whom were in the kitchen cooking dinner. Score. :-)

West Virginia and Elkins have been interesting. Fairly typical of rural USA I think. I’m reminded of visits to Saranac Lake in upstate New York, or Cherryfield, Maine, the blueberry capital of the USA.

There seems to be a mix of people born here and people moved here. The incomers have chosen to come to this place for a reason. Usually people move to places like this for the natural setting, the rural country life and in some measure, I think, to change the world. It takes a special type of person to choose to live in a redneck rural town like this.

I haven’t delved very deeply into the culture here, but I expect I’d find the same uneducated ignorance I’ve seen in other rural north American settings. Those words sound harsher than I mean them to be. I mean uneducated and ignorant in the factual sense, limited access to education and lacking in knowledge.

As I write this, my fives hosts in Elkins are sitting in their living room playing traditional, local Appalachian music. I’m certainly not sure of this, but my guess is that this type of music is kept alive by a mixture of incomers and fairly small group of “intellectual” locals. It seems like a first-world-wide phenomenon. Local culture is given up by the majority of locals while a group of well meaning incomers struggles to keep it alive.

Personally, I feel grateful to be sitting in a house of five musicians listening to them play in their living room. There’s something I like about folk music. Particularly when it’s played live.

Tomorrow I’ll continue eastwards saying farewell to Elkins and passing from West Virginia into Kentucky. I’ve put a few requests out for places to stay in Lexington, I’m waiting to hear. Either way, I have camping gear. It’s pretty damn cold to be camping, but I’m confident I’ll survive. :-)

I’ll sign off with a few pictures from this leg of the trip.

Note: I’m working on the gallery. I’m hoping to launch some improvements soon and make it easier for me to upload images. In the meantime, apologies for any hassles browsing the photos.