What’s in the name

“Almost Heaven … West Virginia … Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River …”

Keep singing. You know the words.

“Country Roads take me home to the place I belong. West Virginia …”

Get it?

I have mixed feelings about my heritage. I have never lived outside West Virginia, never been that far from it. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong. I want to see more of the world, and it’s my greatest embarrassment that I’m approaching 35 years old and I’ve never flown anywhere on an airplane. On beach trips as a kid I’d kinda dread leaving for the hills when the week was over. But I hear a hillbilly or a redneck joke? I’ll jump to the defense of my people.

I am in and of West Virginia, for better or worse. I might end up someplace else someday. I hope eventually I will travel the world. But like it or not this place is part of what makes me who I am — and there is, after all, actually a LOT to love.

For now, maybe forever, I do belong here, and many of our adventures take place on the Shenandoah or in the Blue Ridge. There is so much I failed to see as a little girl who longed to get away. I will make the most of it. I love to shop local, explore local, run local, explore my backyard, and that’s much of what I plan to share with this site.