Took a Trip Through the Appalachians This Weekend

[_Some Schmo]

Schmo should try to get back there in fall or better yet up in New England. The colors are beyond breathtaking!

Actually, I was in Dover, NH one fall a few years ago, and I agree - New England is gorgeous. I also drove out to York and Ogunquit, Maine that trip just to see the ocean. Maine is as pretty as it gets. I was in Dover on business, and my biggest regret was that my wife wasn't there to see Maine with me. All the little seaside lighthouses there seem to be the ones you always see in the pretty coastal pictures.

[_Some Schmo]

I also hiked in Appalachian NC (near Boone and Asheville) quite a bit when I was stationed at Ft. Bragg. So I'm just going off my exposure to the half-dead small towns and endless trailers I would see. So it's not so much prejudicial but rather experiential.

We actually stopped in Boone and hit a brewery called Appalachian Mountain Brewery. The Long Leaf IPA was awesome (I probably had too many of those - 3 dollar craft beers on Sundays... what could be better?)

Anyway, the place was hopping. It was not like that Kentucky town at all. The main drag was packed with people walking up and down, visiting all the little shops. Might have been a holiday weekend thing, but according to the locals, it's a busy little college town. Even the brewery was packed - it had several tables inside and out, and we still had to wait for one.

Granted, there were dead little towns in TN leading up to Boone.

[_Chap]

It's the weirdest contrast to see this poor, dilapidated little town set in the most beautiful scenery this country has to offer. We passed by this huge coal site which looked new and modern, but the majority of the surrounding homes (mostly trailers and rundown shacks, with the occasional beautiful house up on a mountainside) looked like they hadn't been maintained in years. Even American flags (not to mention Confederate flags) hanging from electricity poles looked dingy and old.

So, for brevity's sake, you went to a small town that was "highly depressed" due to Obama's policies against coal

Yup, only ten years ago, this little town was full of happy men who all worked down the mines hewing coal with pick-axes like men should, earning big salaries with great health benefits and pensions. Then they went home to houses with white picket fences where their wives served them apple pie.

Then Obama was elected, and in his first mandate he took it all away. Nothing to do with that huge coal site that looked new and modern, and produced coal with a fraction of the human labor it needed previously. Nothing to do with other sources of energy getting steadily cheaper.

Nope. That communist muslim did it all. But Trump will bring it back - miners, apple pie - everything! He's a guy you can rely on.

[_Quasimodo]

I've driven once through the Sierra Nevada Mountains but it was at night.

I guess I'm just used to seeing cows grazing on flat pastures. When I saw them, I was stunned, and afterward, I tried to envision how they maintained balance given that they'd have to shift their big fat bodies to stay level. I still can't imagine it. I was driving, so I didn't get to take a closer look.

In the Sierra foothills and in the coastal ranges you see a lot of tilted pastures. Often, the hills look terraced by the cattle trails going horizontally across the hills at various levels. Old oak trees often grow in these pastures. What looked odd to me when I first saw it was that the foliage on the trees was perfectly level across the bottom. I didn't seem logical that someone would be trimming the bottoms of these wild trees. Then I saw cows munching on tree leaves. The trees were all trimmed at cow level.

[_Some Schmo]

So, for brevity's sake, you went to a small town that was "highly depressed" due to Obama's policies against coal

Yup, only ten years ago, this little town was full of happy men who all worked down the mines hewing coal with pick-axes like men should, earning big salaries with great health benefits and pensions. Then they went home to houses with white picket fences where their wives served them apple pie.

Then Obama was elected, and in his first mandate he took it all away. Nothing to do with that huge coal site that looked new and modern, and produced coal with a fraction of the human labor it needed previously. Nothing to do with other sources of energy getting steadily cheaper.

Nope. That communist muslim did it all. But Trump will bring it back - miners, apple pie - everything! He's a guy you can rely on.

You know, I only ever seeing sub's idiotic posts when someone quotes him, and every time, I'm reminded why I have him on ignore (which is apropos, given how ignorant he is).

Yeah, it's all Obama's fault that workers have been replaced by automation. The CEO's of these company's lost the fight against liberals to keep workers on rather than investing in modern technology.

[_The CCC]

Happy California Cows.
SEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERrjAoY3BSM

[_Some Schmo]

In the Sierra foothills and in the coastal ranges you see a lot of tilted pastures. Often, the hills look terraced by the cattle trails going horizontally across the hills at various levels. Old oak trees often grow in these pastures. What looked odd to me when I first saw it was that the foliage on the trees was perfectly level across the bottom. I didn't seem logical that someone would be trimming the bottoms of these wild trees. Then I saw cows munching on tree leaves. The trees were all trimmed at cow level.

That's awesome (the trimmed trees).

But that picture isn't what I'm referring to - I'm talking really steep slopes. You could see all the cows dotting the mountain side, because it was too steep for one to block another. They were all in plain view (unless they were behind tree tops).

[_subgenius]

Ouch, that was uncalled for - and a bit prejudicial

Well, I did walk 736 miles and canoed another 150 through the Appalachia region and it's not exactly booming. I also hiked in Appalachian NC (near Boone and Asheville) quite a bit when I was stationed at Ft. Bragg. So I'm just going off my exposure to the half-dead small towns and endless trailers I would see. So it's not so much prejudicial but rather experiential.

In fact, my wife and I almost moved to the area because we fell in love with it. I really liked the people and culture there. Alas, I'm in Utah...

eta: I also went to WV a few times to run the Gulley. https://www.raftinginfo.com/adventures/ ... ley-river/

- Doc

Nah, it is still you being prejudicial
- because you assume a certain cursory opinion about what "prosperity" means to Southern Appalachian people....which is why you only speak about "seeing" trailers as a definite sign of "not-prosperity" because people that live in trailers are suited more for the butt of your 6 figure income jokes and not much for anything else. Your obvious understanding of Southern Appalachian culture is something you consider valid because you have simply (and only) "walked by it".

So, yeah you had an experience but it was far from a knowledgeable experience. I have flown over many parts of this country and hardly hold such an experience as a qualification to "know" about the people and places that I pass by...but i am happy to learn that such an intellectual osmosis rests with you.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Well, I did walk 736 miles and canoed another 150 through the Appalachia region and it's not exactly booming. I also hiked in Appalachian North Carolina (near Boone and Asheville) quite a bit when I was stationed at Ft. Bragg. So I'm just going off my exposure to the half-dead small towns and endless trailers I would see. So it's not so much prejudicial but rather experiential.

In fact, my wife and I almost moved to the area because we fell in love with it. I really liked the people and culture there. Alas, I'm in Utah...

eta: I also went to WV a few times to run the Gulley. https://www.raftinginfo.com/adventures/ ... ley-river/

- Doc

Nah, it is still you being prejudicial
- because you assume a certain cursory opinion about what "prosperity" means to Southern Appalachian people....which is why you only speak about "seeing" trailers as a definite sign of "not-prosperity" because people that live in trailers are suited more for the butt of your 6 figure income jokes and not much for anything else. Your obvious understanding of Southern Appalachian culture is something you consider valid because you have simply (and only) "walked by it".

So, yeah you had an experience but it was far from a knowledgeable experience. I have flown over many parts of this country and hardly hold such an experience as a qualification to "know" about the people and places that I pass by...but i am happy to learn that such an intellectual osmosis rests with you.

Well, I lived in Northern Georgia, NC, and Northern Alabama for ~13 or 14 years. I have a pretty good take on the region.

- Doc

[_The CCC]

Appalachia one of the poorest regions of the Country.
SEE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... rest-towns
SEE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... icity.html
SEE https://www.communitycommons.org/2016/0 ... an-region/