Day 3, Monday, June 29

Our first stop was the Beckley Coal Mining Museum in Beckley, VA. We saw how the workers and families lived in houses and shanties of the 1930s. Our various tour guides were women who were daughters or wives of coal miners who have all died of black lung disease or lung cancer. Being teachers, we of course spent a greater amount of time in the schoolhouse. We were shocked to learn that until the late 1930s all boys stayed in school until only 5th grade - then they joined their fathers in the coal mines, and in the coal mines they worked until they retired or they too succumbed to black lung disease. All the women enjoyed our questions and comments, and even our playing around in the schoolhouse. We later both said we felt like we were part of their dinner table conversations. Oh - and see who can guess what the final picture is down below. It was part of one of the places of business in the 1930s coal mining town. First one with the correct response wins a million dollars.

Then we experienced the issues of travelling on Monday - most museums and roadside attractions are closed on Mondays. So we rambled. We drove aimlessly through southern Ohio - stopping in burgs like Rio Grande (really) and Beaver (really again). We met people, drove on roads with no numbers and even some with no names, and stopped when we felt like it. One of our highlights was finding - after a few attempts - "Ohio's Most Perfect Tree." We got a little lost and pulled into a church where a man was cutting grass to ask for help. He and Barry had a great conversation even though the man's teeth were covered with freshly cut grass. He gave us directions and then went into a long story about how "some man drove to the Perfect Tree one day toting many pounds of dynamite and then he blowed hisself up."  This trip is great - you learn so much...

The tree actually was pretty darn spectacular - we took some pictures but I'm not sure if they will show up on the blog. We're probably heading to Dayton in the morning to experience the National Air Force Museum. At the moment we're hunkering down in a Days Inn in Hillsboro, Ohio, a few hours after a tornado was spotted in the area. I hope it didn't bother the Perfect Tree.