Vanishing Point

In my blog post dated July 25, I mentioned the song "Country Roads" and how it inspired me to drive through West Virginia on this trip. I also mentioned that I learned that the song was actually inspired by a drive on Clopper Road near Gaithersburg, Maryland. That's not very far from where I was staying in Rockville, so I went for a drive to see what it's like these days. There is quite a bit of suburban sprawl in the area, but there's also a state park and quite a bit of mature forest along the road, so I find it easy to imagine that in the 1960's, it could inspire the song. When I hit the road for my trip back home, I fled from the freeways leading out of the Washington D.C. area as soon as I could. Even driving in the slow lane it was hard to relax because the people in the lane next to me were all aggressively and relentlessly tailgating each other. Once I got off the freeway, the roads of Southern Virginia are wonderful. Everyone else is still on the

On the first day of my trip, I got excited when I saw a well-reviewed folk art gallery in Morehead, KY. I got to town too late to visit it that day but there would be plenty of time the next morning to check it out. I took a lot of pictures there, and the stories of the artists' lives are often at least as interesting as their artistic creations. I'm including just a taste of what I saw there. If you're ever in Morehead, KY, check it out! This was one of my favorite paintings from the museum, by Hugo Sperger. It's called "The Big Wind": The biography of Edgar Tolson was my favorite bio from the museum. Until I read this, I wasn't sure whether the characters depicted in the TV series "Justified" were exaggerations. Apparently not! There were many beautiful carvings on display by LaVon Williams. I really like both his work and his story: I especially enjoy folk art because it's generally made by regular people expressi