More from the West Virginia trip journal.

Day 6
We made a trip to Beartown State Park, which is located on the eastern side of Droop Mountain. The park is named Beartown because the local residents claimed that many black bears used the cave like openings in the rocks as dens to sleep in during the winter. In the park, a path takes you along these massive boulders with deep crevasses. During the winter I was told when it snows, the boulders are buried in snow.

One sad note. When we got there, a car had been broken into by thief. The locals tell us this type of incident is rare. Perhaps the realities of our strange economic times are creeping into our vacation. West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the Union. The only state poorer is Mississippi.

Next, we headed off to Watoga Park for lunch. You can rent these cute cabins and stay in what looks like magnificent woods there. The lunch place is typical road stop fare, greasy and cheap.

On the way back through a town called Hillsboro, we stopped at a couple of shops. My friend's mom used to work in a clinic in town so she knows everybody. We even ended up going to some garage sale at the back of a general store in Hillsboro. That general store surprisingly is well stocked and carried some great tourist knickknacks, stuff that I ignored thinking I would see or buy them later on in the trip. Wrong! It's one of those vacation rules. If you see something you like, buy it, because chances are you'll either never find the place or again or never have the time to be at that particular shop again.

Day 7
Our hostess's boyfriend invited us all to lunch at his house along with my friend's mom and aunt. His mom, dad and daughter will also be there. The house used to belong to someone on his mother's side and is located in Renick. Another typical West Virginia feast. Think I already wrote about it earlier. The main attraction was a sugar cured ham that was so damned salty and good. There was also some great corn pone and beans and another fabulous cake made by our by baking hostess.

On the way home, we decided to stop at a couple of grocery stores, Foodland and Kroger's. I love going to grocery stores in the towns I visit on vacation. In the grocery store, you get a good feel for how people really live and how they eat. No big revelations here except I did see some turkey deep fryers for sales, that I was tempted to buy but didn't want the hassle of lugging the thing back to California. I wanted mineral water and I was hoping they had some. I was wrong. I guess West Virginians haven't discovered the joys of mineral water yet.

There was one thing in the grocery store that I was dying to take a picture but didn't want to be rude. They had the most awesome display of jello mix like nothing I've ever seen in California, or anywhere else for that matter. The display had all the different flavors and it took up alot of space on the shelf; from the top to the bottom. People must love their jello there and god forbid they ever run out of the stuff.

Day 8
We decided to make a shopping trip into Lewisburg. It's a small town and we thought we needed only two hours, but after two hours, we only covered half the town. We became enchanted with all the antique stores and probably spent way too much time in them. In one of the stores, I bought a 30's print of a mammy giving a little boy dressed up as an indian, a spanking. It seemed amusing somehow and I thought it would look great somewhere in my apartment. The tag said the print was from the 30's but who knows what period it originated from.

At 4 pm, we headed over to our hostess' friends house, which is located right next to The General Lewis Inn. This woman's grandfather started the West Virginia State Fair so the family is very well known. We drank fuzzy navels in the hot West Virginia afternoon sitting on her porch and staring at her squirrel. The animal is a pet of sorts and has adopted her and the house. Poor squirrel. Something happened to its tail and it was gone. We watched the squirrel take apart pistachios.

Then it was off to Monday night at the movies in Lewisburg. Like any small town, an event like the movie is just an excuse to see who's sleeping with who, who's not talking to who, etc. Not that any of it interests me, but my friend was genuinely interested in all the small town machinations. Besides, there was nothing else to do in town that night. We saw The Cat's Meow, Peter Bogdonavich's retellng about what happened on some yacht where someone was killed. I think the famous people portrayed were Marion Davies who was dating William Randolph Hearst at the time and Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin was divinely inspired casting.

Day 9
We decided to go the local flea market to look for cheaper priced antiques. I was not disappointed. I found a cast iron mammy. The guy even sold it to me for a dollar cheaper than it was listed. I also bought a book for one dollar, some Oprah Book Club selection, a catcher's glove the seller said was from the 50's. I'm not sure if the baseball mitt was that old, but I liked the look of it and it kept haunting me to buy it. The seller was also very nice to me so I felt obligated to buy the mitt.

The only creepy thing I did notice was the amount of swastika inspired stuff being sold. Everything from pins to hats and engraved knives. Very, very creepy. Well I guess I know where to find those skinhead types now.

Next, we headed to a restaurant for lunch called Harvest. There I had my first crab cake sandwich. I'm not a big crab cake eater but I was persuaded to try the sandwich. It was so delicious and I briefly wondered how many calories I was actually taking in.

Next stop was the Greenbriar Resort, America's Resort, in White Sulfur Springs. I'd never heard of the place before but it's supposed to be famous. Before the Civil War, the Greenbriar was where the southern aristocracy came to avoid the southern heat. The Greenbriar museum proudly displays the only picture in existence of Robert E Lee and all of his generals.

The resort is self-contained with tennis courts, a golf course, activities for children and it's own fitness/spa center. The Greenbriar even has it own set of shops on the grounds. The hotel lobby and dining room have high ceilings and beautiful carpets and furniture are everywhere.

The place must have been quite a place at one time because you can take a train from Washington DC to The Greenbriar. How convenient!

I loved the place and would love to stay there. If I ever have to go through West Virginia again, I'm definitely staying at the Greenbriar. I love the idea of a self-contained resort. It reminds me of Club Med and I always had fun at Club Med.

The Greenbriar serves free tea and cakes at 4 pm and we were there for the free munchies. My friend wanted to play backgammon and we found a table but an 11-12 year old boy is there. My friend manages to get rid of him and then we started vainly searching for backgammon pieces. The little boy comes back and says he has the dice. He seemed so eager to play, that I gave him my spot. I don't know how to play backgammon and I wasn't sure if I wanted to learn anything on my vacation. The game looks so boring to me somehow. I'm sure it's fun and I remember watching guys in college sitting around playing backgammon late at night, betting money and drinking gin and tonics.

The boy's mom and sister came over to talk to me as my friend and the little boy were so engrossed in the game. I found out that the little boy had 7 surgeries on the back on his brain to remove some growth. The kid did have some horseshoe type scar on the back of his head, but years of experience had taught me never ask about such things, unless you are prepared for the answers you will not want to hear. It was the little boy's wish to come to Greenbrir as a reward. I hope we made that poor little boy's day. The mom told me they weren't even sure at times that the kid was going to make it and he never cried or said he was afraid. The kid definitely had his act together.

When the boy's mom and I were talking, somehow the subject of 9/11 came up. It was interesting to hear her take on 9/11 since she was from Indiana. 9/11 affected so many people's lives, all the across the country I think, except of course here, in the hipper than the hippest city in the country, in the world maybe.

Day 10
My friend's aunt's birthday is on Sunday, so it was my friend and her sister decided to have a dinner party for her . Dinner was this exqusite tasting trout, which our hostess had been keeping in the freezer. We also had fresh white and yellow corn on the cob and a delicious three bean salad. And homemade wine too which was quite delicious once it was allowed to breathe or 20 minutes.

After dinner we watched Gone with the Wind since my hostess knew I 'd never seen the movie before. I was quite surprised how quickly the scenes ran and how fast paced the movie was considering it was written in the late 1930's. The visuals in the movie were stunning and it told quite a tale without a lot of dialogue and lots of action and images.

We drank moonshine that our hostess got from some local bootlegger guy who is now dead. Moonshine is weird because it’s clear like vodka and tastes like bourbon whiskey. Really bad whiskey too because the moonshine burnt my throat, my insides and my stomach. I never had a liquor do that before. I had moonshine in college but I don't ever remember it burning like that. Our hostess gave us moonshine shots the first night we were there, but maybe I was too tired to notice how the booze burnt my stomach.

I decide Ashley was a villain because he should have told Scarlett from the get go that he didn't love her and loved Melanie. But then Rhett was just as bad suggesting anything but marriage to a proper girl like Scarlett. Clark Gable was supposed to be a lot shorter than what he looks like in the movie, but you couldn't tell. And Gable had the best line of the movie when he said that the south would lose the war because it was arrogant to think that an aggrarian rural society like the south could take on the industrialized north, which was better supplied and better armed. 1 out of 4 southerners died in the Civil War and for what? For arrogance? To defend a way of life that was already changing anyway? I'm really still not sure. I think we will always live with the effects of the civil war, whether anybody understands it or not.