I’m making peace in my mind that there may only be two more full days in West Virigina before heading back to New York. I’ll just keep watching the forecast but be happy I got four full days to poke around West Virginia. Hiking Dolly Sods and now Seneca Rocks hit the spot, timo it’s out to Elkins and Parsons, exploring that twisty WV 73 and the Chet River. It’s not that I’m cutting my vacation short, it’s thst I’m heading back to New York early due to the weather. Snow forecasts have declined somewhat but I’m at a pretty high elevation, 500 miles from home, and I’m paranoid about Friday the 13th.

Had hoped to potentially do Spruce Knob Mountain or Canaan Wildlife Trail but it will be getting dark soon and I need to head back to camp. I forgot how steep and narrow that Dolly Sods Road is on the north side – and no guard rail to boot. Fortunately no traffic and the hill descent control and tow haul mode worked with no issues. Still I went slow as that kind of driving, especially with my big new F-350 scares me a bit, though when I think about the days of yore with Big Red’s shit brakes that is outright scary. People drive that road with snow on it but I certainly wouldn’t.

Truth is that I kind of enjoy seeing the often rundown farms, trailers and cabins deep in the hollows. Poor maybe in a monetary sense even if I do dream of that lifestyle with the goats, hogs and cattle. Not many burn barrels for trash in West Virigina, I guess that law is kind of strictly enforced at least in these counties. Saw one burn barrel with cardboard on a farm but it’s not like Pennsylvania where it’s not uncommon to smell some hillbilly incense from all that burnt plastic. Truth is that you see fewer of them in Pennsylvania nowadays, most trash cans and dumpsters on farms. Even I who lives in small apartment, lives simply and doesn’t buy a lot has to admit I still end up burning way too much plastic and I’m not a farmer or have a growing families discards that send up in smoke.

Maybe my ultimate measure of freedom in my mind is going to the dump once a year or less mostly to get rid of cans and glass recycling. But it’s also tied up with the idea of producing my own energy and food, eating mostly what I once petted or grew. People talk about how unhealthy burning plastic garbage or smoking cigarettes are but then you look at all that food that comes packaged in plastic. I ate so much of that junk food and restaurant meals when I worked at the campaign committee this past autumn. Tasty but I can see the impact on my body – my weight is up, my face somewhat rounder. I’m done with that crap now that I’m making my own food once again. I’m sure homegrown in my own hog shit is even better. I mean I really do like seeing all those West Virginia homesteads in the hills and hollars.