Day 11 - Good, hardworking people

Three days passed since I left Carl's trailer in Atkins, Virginia in a cold Saturday morning at 6:30 AM after a not very restful sleep thanks to a small animal that made creepy noises all night, apparently coming from under the floor.

These days have all been about climbing and traversing the Appalachian mountain range. The rolling terrain so far is replaced with long steady climbs. At 700 m the landscape looks almost alpine: short grass, rocks, cows grazing, and a chilly wind despite the powerful sun. Towns like Lebanon (I also passed near one called Damascus :)) are small, people almost non-existent, but you can still find the usual fast food stores.

Network coverage becomes scarce, and so do my location updates, making some dear people a little nervous back home :)

Saturday is a very long and productive day. In the mountains the wind is less of a problem and legs feel good. After a lot of climbing and a spectacular and long descent I approach the small town of Haysi (pronounced Heysa) where I plan to spend the night at the only motel in a 50km radius, Hilltop Motel, located above the town, not surprisingly, on top of a hill.
A big one for which I muster all my remaining energy thinking that motel or not, I am sleeping up here.

The entrance has a big "Support our troops" sign on it and I find myself in a bar where people at two tables play poker. They look like they see an alien. I ask if I am in the right place to get a room. Two ladies whisper something between themselves while giving me pityful and not very encouraging looks. "okay we have one but you need to wait one hour so we get it ready" (in other words, this is poker night and no way in hell we interrupt it for you). One of them invites me to get a beer which I gladly accept while studying the place decorated with photos of military people all over the walls.

After the game is over, a skinny older man in a jeans jacket with all kind of inscriptions indicating he's a war veteran invites me at his table where he is joined by a blonde woman with a jovial face.
I really hit it off with Joe and his girlfriend Connie, beers help in a way I suspect.
Joe is a Vietnam war veteran, had a Japanese wife, was a truck driver for 30 years, then worked in a coal mine and is now retired. Gay, the bartender, and Wrenda join the fun and I buy a round of beers, then they buy one, then Thompsie comes in and buys us one.  Thompsie was a Green Beret in Vietnam, and Joe talks of him like he is Rambo :)

The whole place is run by a veterans club of which they are members and volunteer to do bartending and housekeeping. They tell me the story behind the most prominent picture on the walls, of a young soldier who was 17 when he jumped on a grenade to save his buddies.

I get hungry and they send me down the road at Martha's, another bar where I get a burger and sign a 1 dollar bill to be placed on the walls where hundreds of them are glued because "all people who pass by here do this".

I'm not sure at what time and after how many Buds I leave the motel bar but meeting these fun, intelligent and open folks was a tremendously enjoyable experience.

It was particularly impressive the way Joe described the community which lives around the now declining coal industry saying "I may be simple, a hillbilly, but we here are good, hardworking people!".