Sleeping not far from a cemetery is definitely quiet, and we didn't have any train noise near us either! Rather, the din in the morning was from city worker's gardening around us, using a whipper snipper (they're called weed whackers in America?) to hack at the grass next to us.
Greensboro, North Carolina
We'd planned to visit Greensboro in North Carolina, but soon realized that as it was a Monday, not everything would be open, including the Greensboro History Museum (makes sense, it's a Monday). RED Cinemas was also closed--it bills itself as a luxury movie theater, although admittedly the area didn't look particularly fancy around it, with some unkempt grass and a fair amount of rubbish lying around. However, what was impressive was that on all outside walls of the cinemas, were murals of various movie characters, which were really well done--including Wonder Woman, The Terminator, and even a small one of Winnie the Pooh looking sheepish next to a police officer holding a pot of (contraband?) hemp-flavored honey.
Quirky Mansion and the Last Clam Shell
About 19 miles (30 kilometers) away in the town of Kernersville is Körner's Folly, a quirky name for an apparently eccentric home built in 1880 by artists and designer Jule Gilmer Körner. It's a 6,000 square foot, 3 1⁄2-story, eccentric brick dwelling with a shingled, cross-gable roof. But we couldn't go inside because... it was Monday, and they were closed! We did get to see some of the intricate work outside, including the mosaic flooring that spelled out "Körners Folly" and "Witches Corner" (not sure what the story is behind the latter).
In the next town over, Winston-Salem, is another unique building: the Last Shell Oil Clamshell Station. Who knew that Shell Oil petrol stations were once shaped like scallop shells? Apparently this last station remained open until the 1950s, and while it's no longer operational, it has two very, very tall gas pumps at the front (is this also the height they used to be?) and a red door leading into the bright yellow scallop shell building. We peaked inside and could see a (kinda creepy) statue of a Shell man inside, as well as other Shell Oil relics. Pretty cool that this is being preserved!
We had a long, long drive ahead of us to get to West Virginia, and to break it up we stopped at Scoops Ice Cream and Such in Mount Airy, North Carolina. It's a small local business, a homely building that sells ice cream with a sculpture garden outside. But guess what, we got there and... you guessed it, it was closed because it was a Monday! Oh well, at least we had a stop for a brief lunch break.
The drive to West Virginia along the highway was fairly uneventful--lots of trucks zooming alongside us, with the scenery what we now know is what to expect of the Appalachian Mountains--as one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world, we had miles of dense forests, rolling hills, and valleys, with autumn/fall continuing to show itself as the leaves fell onto the road, and changed color.
Exploring an Old Coal Mine
We crossed the border into state #36, West Virginia (we actually passed through Virginia to get here, so we're going to count it as state #35, although we'll be exploring it later). We soon arrived at Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, which was an active coal mine from 1890-1910, and is now a place where people can go into the mine and learn about the history of coal mining, the typical day of a coal miner, what equipment was used, and how mining evolved over the years. The tour costs $22 per person and lasts about 45 minutes. Before we started the tour we walked Sheila around the premises briefly, and a man driving a pick-up truck with the license plate "I ♡ COAL" pulled up next to us and gave Sheila a dog bone! He thought she was a good-looking dog (like so many people have commented on this trip!), and recommended that we give her a fried egg cooked in bacon fat every other week or so to get her coat to be nice and shiny. Specifically bacon fat. We're sure Sheila would love that!
Our guide, Curt, was outstanding: he was entertaining, funny, and had a delightful West Virginian accent. He was a coal miner for over 40 years, and comes from a family of coal miners, as his father and grandfather both worked in the mines in West Virginia too. We got into a carriage along with another couple, and Curt drove us down into the mine, stopping at various points to show us different tools and ways of working.
Mining conditions were extremely tough! Men could die from inadvertent methane gas poisoning so they'd need to bring canaries into the mine--hence the saying--and if it ended up dying in its cage it meant that the men needed to leave immediately. Open-flamed lamps historically could be exposed to high concentrations of methane that could trigger an explosion. Petrified tree stumps called "kettle bottoms" that looked like a compact mass of rock could simply dislodge unexpectedly, injuring or killing miners. Breathing in coal dust over many years could lead to "black lung," which was a slow death for many before dust control and respirators. Over 21,000 miners have tragically lost their lives over the years, given all these hurdles they had to watch out for.
As if this wasn't enough, the hours were long, the work was grueling, and because the mines were far away from urban civilization, they could only purchase goods from the company store, with "scrip", a form of company currency, used to pay for items--and because there weren't other options for groceries, items were so expensive that miners could often owe the company money instead. The miners were also expected to purchase their own tools for work.
We were so fascinated during the tour that it ran long, because we were asking so many questions! We could have chatted to Curt all day, as he definitely would have had a ton of stories up his sleeve. Our interest also helped Michael to forget his claustrophobia for the majority of our tour: bonus!
After we were deposited back to ground level, we could walk around the mine, but as it was getting late we headed back to the visitor center before it closed, where there was a museum upstairs showing more mining artifacts, including photos of men who worked here over the years, the few women who more recently started working in the mines, as well as various mining equipment.
Cracker Barrel to the Rescue Again!
We drove towards Charleston (the capital of West Virginia, not the more well-known city in South Carolina where the dance originated). Despite heading towards the capital, the areas surrounding and leading up to it seemed very rural! We were on highways with forests surrounding us and lush autumn trees. There were old homes with rocking chairs, spread out sparsely from each other. There aren't any department stores, luxury hotels, flashy cars, or hipster bars here--it's salt of the earth living, mixed in with mom-and-pop corner shops, discount stores, and fast food restaurants.
Perhaps befittingly, we stayed at another Cracker Barrel parking lot (we're now becoming regular overnighters, this is our third on this trip!), next to a Pizza Hut restaurant. There was already a big 5th wheel near us, and the couple had even pulled their camping chairs out, and were sitting next to their motorhome, having drinks! As the night progressed, more folks started pulling up to stay overnight alongside us. We wonder how many more Cracker Barrel restaurants we'll stay at before our trip is over?