Greetings from the utterly unremarkable town of Chapmanville, West Virginia. It is a measure of the historical insignificance of this place that it was named after the local postmaster. That was in 1800 and it appears that very little of any note has happened in the vicinity since.The drive here from Summersville was pretty uninspiring - the landscape comprised coal mines, slag heaps, industrial wastelands and depressed, run-down towns. (The only exception was a brief stop in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, a beautiful little spot at the edge of a lake, with a backdrop of tree-covered hills). It rained all day, I lost the boys, had no mobile phone reception for the duration of the journey and managed to hose petrol over my shoes at the gas station. To make things worse, the wonderful Allegheny Mountain Radio was replaced on the airwaves by the religious Fundamental Broadcasting Network (Slogan: "Broadcasting Eternal Good News"). I hardly know how to describe the unique appeal of this station but you can listen to it online here. If you're lucky you might catch 'The Sword of the Lord' or the 'Fisherman's 5 Minute Look at the Book'.
In summary:
Weather today: torrential rain.
Driving time today: 3.5 hours (plus an extra hour searching for the boys between 6pm and 7pm when I became slightly alarmed at their failure to appear and started to imagine they had been severely injured/kidnapped/washed away).
Radio station of the day: Fundamental Broadcasting Network
Distinguishing features of town: None
Local places of interest: None
Fine dining experience: Pizza Hut (this was the best option on offer by quite some margin)
Luxury accommodation this evening: Best Western Logan Inn
Weather forecast for tomorrow: Rain
The good news is that the boys got here safely and in good spirits, despite cycling 120 miles in the rain, having been run off the road by a stream of bearded West Virginians who clearly lacked a certain appreciation for le cyclisme, and Simon skidding across the road on his side. Suddenly my day doesn't seem so bad after all.
Comments