TT2 - Number 12, Anawalt, WV

For today's mission we enlisted the help of my uncle Phil and aunt Kay (hint: Phil is the tall one). We began with an easy trip to Monte Vista Memorial Park in Bluefield, WV where my mother's parents are buried. Finding them was easy and uneventful, but on our way out of the park I thought I spotted a memorial in the shape of a deer. As we drove closer, one turned into two and then five. They may have been standing as still as statues, but they were very much alive and dining on flowers left on the graves.

The next stop was Woodlawn Cemetery in Bluewell, WV. Aunt Kay had stopped there the day before and gotten a map from the office. The map was a little hard to follow and it wasn't long before we were lost. After turning around in a dead end road where they store the burial vaults I took over the map. We found the first two plots with no difficulty, the headstones were right where the map said they'd be, but then we went looking for my aunt Donnalee.

My mother's older sister was so smart she was advanced three grades in elementary school. She was bright and pretty and I've always wished I could have known her. Sadly she died at twenty-one when she was given penicillin for an infection. Our whole family is allergic to the blue mold antibiotic and Donnalee was the first to succumb to this lifesaver turned killer.

When we looked for her where the map said she would be, we couldn't find her. We tried the sections to either side. Uncle Phil remembered parking near a tree when he'd been there as a boy, so we searched around nearby trees. We looked for more than half an hour and found no sign of my aunt. Then just as we were about to give up, I noticed a marker in the shadow of a large black headstone. The sun had risen just enough to shed a little light on it and there she was.


After a quick lunch at a Tudor Biscuit World we left graveyards behind and went looking for my mother's birthplace. In West Virginia coal was king for a hundred years. Even though my grandfather worked for the railroad, the first house he could afford was in a coal mine company town called Number Twelve. Yes, there was a Number Eleven and a Number Thirteen, but Number Twelve was the one just up the road from Anawalt, WV. When the mine closed sometime after WWII the town literally disappeared from the map.

To get to Anawalt from Bluewell is perhaps ten miles as the crow flies, but if you're diving be prepared for twenty-five miles of twisty narrow road with a wall of rock on one side and a long drop on the other. I should mention here that the weather today was perfect, both sunny and warm. Also the fall colors were out in force, so the drive over Peeled Chestnut Mountain was beautiful and amazingly fun.

There isn't much left of Number Twelve. The name lingers on as 12 Bottom Road (that's how it showed up on my GPS). The old company store my mother remembers roller skating around is now an apartment building. There are some old company houses still in use among the trailer homes, but all of the houses on the hill where Mom was born have long since disappeared. Using landmarks and my Mom's memories we located what was probably the front porch of her house.

We let the Prius direct us back to Princeton and it took us over Elk Horn Mountain this time. Not quite as twisty, but the road was much steeper. The views were also more spectacular and left me wanting more. On the way out this morning we passed by Pinnacle Rock State Park. I'd never seen this place before and my mother hasn't been there since she was a teenager. After some whining, that wasn't really necessary since I was driving, we stopped to check it out.

The highlight of the park is Pinnacle Rock itself. A huge outcropping of bedrock at the top of a mountain, it is one impressive sight. There's a large picnic ground in its shadow and a half a dozen hiking trails begin and end at its base. One of the trails leads up the side of the rock itself to a magnificent outlook. The climb is long and steep and it helps to stop from time to time to pose on a handy boulder.

The climb was worth every huff and puff because the view from the top was spectacular! A fitting end to a gorgeous day in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.

TT2 - Woodlawn Cem., Bluewell, WV

I want a sense of humor when I die.

TT2 - Grassy Creek, NC

Day two of the great Tombstone Tour II has come to a close. Our mission today was to return to Grassy Creek, NC and find my great-grandmother Spencer's grave site. It was the one place we were not able to locate last year. The big unanswered question was whether or not anyone had ever put up a grave marker for her.

This time out we enlisted the help of my mother's 2nd cousin, Evelyn "Maw" Barker, who still lives in the area. We got to meet her daughter Debby and (unfortunately for my feline fearing mother) Buster the cat. Once Buster was safely asleep in my lap, the conversation turned to family. We looked through Evelyn's photo albums, ate a sandwich in her kitchen and hit the road.

Evelyn had tracked the graveyard down to a Christmas tree farm in Grassy Creek. The hills in this part of North Carolina are covered by some of the most sought after fir trees on the east coast. Last year we passed by this one several times without realizing the graveyard we were looking for was right in the middle at the top of a hill.

After clearing it with the people we thought were the owners (they'd sold the land several years ago) we set out across the fields and a stream. The graveyard was at the top of a very steep, very long hill. We took it slow and stopped often, but everyone made it to the top in good shape.

The plot has not been tended in a very long time and is totally overgrown with blackberry and thorn bushes. A large tree once dominated the hilltop, but it fell over and buried many of the headstones several years ago. I decided to try a quick recon inside the fence and quickly determined Mom and Evelyn shouldn't try to come in. I found a path someone else had trampled through the underbrush and followed it as far as I could.

It was slow going, but eventually I began finding Spencer headstones. I snapped pictures as I went, calling out the names and dates as I found then. I was just about to give up finding my great-grandparents when I spotted two stones on the ground near the rotting old tree stump. I crawled carefully under a few brambles and found grandpa Troy.

After clearing away more thorny vines I found grandma Tish leaning precariously over her husband's fallen tombstone. I snapped a few pictures, confirmed that the year of her death was a year later than Mom thought and then began working my way back out. We headed carefully back down the hill to the car feeling pretty good.

We stopped at Evelyn's sister's house because she had a copy of my great-grandmother's obituary. That confirmed the date she died on and completed all the data Mom needed for the Spencer side of the family. We dropped Evelyn off at her house and headed back to base camp. We had diner with my uncle Phil and his wife Kay. Lots of great veggies and to top it all off, some of my uncle Phil's great chocolate cream pie. It was a good day!

The 3-2-1 Rule, Doesn't

Going over my journal for the Japan trip while I was in bed sick this weekend, I noticed that, totally without meaning to, I’d fallen into a 3-2-1 schedule just a few days into the trip. While a well accepted mode of existence for a weekend conference or convention, the 3-2-1 rule probably shouldn’t be followed for two weeks straight. It most likely had a lot to do with my catching a nasty head cold on the way home and still being illness prone a month later.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, the 3-2-1 rule goes like this: “In any 24-hour period get 3 hours of sleep, eat 2 meals and take 1 shower.” Due to circumstances seemingly beyond my control at the time I’d started sleeping only three hours or so very early in the trip. When your time on a vacation is limited and you have an enormous number of things you want to see or do, you can quickly fall into this trap. Try to get, at the very least, six hours of good sound sleep each day. Take naps if you must, but try and remember vacations are meant to be relaxing.

What with the difficulties in finding good vegetarian food and the lack of a companion to go to restaurants with I wasn’t eating regularly. Basically I’d eat the free breakfast that came with the tour package each morning. Then I’d pick up a couple of onigiri at a local convenience store and eat them late in the afternoon. By the time I’d drag myself back to the room at night it was too late to eat a meal and snack machines were few and far between.

Onigiri, if you are unfamiliar with them, are flattened balls of rice with various fillings in the center that are then wrapped in toasted seaweed. Looking like big sushi rolls, onigiri fill the same lunchtime role in Japan that sandwiches do in America. And like Americans, most Japanese now buy their onigiri at the combini. They come with all sorts of fillings, but the ones I was limited to were seasoned kombu (another seaweed) and pickled plums called ume.

Onigiri are quite filling, very nutritious, low in fat and convenient as hell. But they can’t replace the missing third meal. Be sure to set aside time to have dinner. It’s a great way to wind down from a hectic day and get yourself ready for all that sleep I’ve just told you to get.

With the exception of the night I spent on the train coming back from Nagoya, I did mange to get in a least one shower each day and more than a few nights I was able to follow that up with a nice soaking bath, but I could have done that more often. The point is a bath is more than just washing off the dust and sweat from the day’s adventures. It’s also a great way to deal with the stress as well.

Traveling is stressful! Don’t let your enjoyment fool you, missed trains, crowded buses, closed attractions and tired achy muscles all add up to a boat load of stress you don’t need on your vacation. Take the time to enjoy all that hot water the hotel heated up just for you. Let it loosen up those muscles and wash away the tension along with the grime.

What this is all leading to is this little bit of advice. It’s your vacation, slow down and enjoy it. Make sure you have more than enough time to do everything you want to do and still take good care of yourself. Or scale back your plans and figure on going again sometime in the future. Otherwise you’ll end up editing your travel journal from your sickbed, like me.