I've learned some more about the Greenbriar Valley, such as why there is spotty cell service. Near Hillsboro, in Green Bank, is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Apparently it is the world's largets fully steerable radio telescope. Now I don't know what that even means, but I do know that because of it, cell towers are not allowed to be installed within a certain amount of miles. It's a radio dead zone or something and that is why there is no service. Rumor has it that if you live next to this Observatory, you can't have as much as a microwave because of the waves it sends out. Also, if you tour it (its free, so I might go in the future) you can't use a digital camera because of the "radio pollution that can ruin astronomers' data." Ridiculous. Another thing I learned about this wonderfully modern area is that jets from the base at Virginia Beach like to buzz Hillsboro and the surrounding communities. Monday alone, they buzzed the area 7 times. The first time I heard it, last Saturday when I was alone at the PSB Birthplace, I thought the sky was falling, like Chicken Little style. A large storm was supposed to be coming through about that time and I flipped out. I ran to the window and frantically searched for an signs of movement from the outside in case the rapture had actually come. Then I realized I was being a total moron. But the jets do fly around the area about twice a day, during the week.
Last night I went to an open house at the Briar Patch Farm next to the PSB Birthplace. Sue and Jay invited me and as soon as I got their, Ginger, the super nice hippie librarian, introduced me to a bunch of people. I met a really nice girl named Cynthia that I seemed to entertain with my excitement at the happenings around me. There were five guys playing guitars and a guy with a fiddle and another with a harmonica. They weren't a band, just a bunch of dudes that all like jamming together. I got overly excited when a guy showed up with a standing base. Cynthia must have thought I was some kind of city folk that had never seen one before, but really I was just excited that such an extensive jam session was happening in the middle of some farm land. I then made a remark that I was excited so many hippies were there (because there were, in fact, a lot of hippies at this open house). And again the girl thought I was semi-crazy. But seriously there were a lot of hippies. The guys who started the farm had previously been VISTAs and started the farm to be able to provide organic produce to the community. Super cool idea.
From Cynthia, I learned that there is a drive-in movie theater just outside of town. Tonight they'll be playing Inception, next week The Princess Bride, then Tangled. Also, there's a new bar in Marlinton that has trivia during the week. The Cranberry Wilderness has some pretty sweet waterfalls and different vistas to see the Little Levels valley. So there is definitely a lot to do here, which was very unexpected. Thus, I encourage people to come visit me! I promise we won't just sit around my trailer and look at each other: there are actually things to do!
I've started working on one of the displays that I plan to put up next week. We have in our possession lots of things that Pearl and her family brought back from China: clothes, shoes, banners, musical instruments. So I'll be creating a display of the artifacts we have from China. Each one has it's own little story to tell, so I'm pretty excited about it. After that I'm gonna focus on Pearl's parents, Carie and Absalom, and I've started a family tree. I'll definitely be taking pictures and documenting my displays for future use.
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| How I spend my days off: with coffee, Pearl, and my gnomes. |
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| These classy gentlemen came to town on their tractor and one of them did not feel the need to be fully clothed. |
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| My pet snake, and his gift to me: his skin, which is now hanging on my back porch. |
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