And so we learn today. It felt much like a great big scavenger hunt, this elusive "Keeper of the Mountain" Music Festival nestled in Stanley Heirs Park in Kayford Mountain. A "celebration of Appalachian life", the concert's goal is also to bring to attention the issue of mountain top removal of coal. And so we learn that the issue of coal is much more complex than "Friends of Coal" -- it's a story of "the big guy and the little guy" and the perception of big corporate businesses, who many miners see as destroying their mountains and destroying jobs through the use of automated extraction.
We take our car off-roading, as we follow our trusty Google GPS, which brings us straight to a mountain road that locals call "rougher than cob" - whatever that means. Huge trees lie on our path, forcing us to turn around.
Thwarted but undeterred, we find another set of directions that read like directions in India. My favorite: "Bear right at the white rock with an American flag." We pass a telephone pole dangling in the middle of the road; a man driving his lawn mower on the side of the road, drinking a beer; and lots of four wheelers driven by shirtless men. No doubt about it, we're in back-country.
We get to our "destination" and soon decide to head back and find some food and drink in Charleston, as we listen to the mayor declare a "state of emergency" on the radio. Residents are urged to stay inside and are advised of cool shelters at night. Charleston is a ghost town, with gas stations the only place where people seem to congregate.
We get to Outback as it starts to fill up for dinner. A blue moon never tasted so good.
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