Elkins, West Virginia

First Stop Elkins

Since we are on our way to a poetry reading tomorrow, maybe Wallace Stevens doesn't mind if I paraphrase his "Anecdote of the Jar":
I placed a chair in west VA
And green it was, upon a hill
Stevens' jar is in Tennessee, a state we are not passing through. Also, his meter does not allow "tavern green," the precise color of the chair. Which reminds me of the delicious green beans at dinner last night, tenderer than I cook them and with a hint of vinegar?

NOT the Cumberland Gap

though it is near Cumberland, MD.  Poet Rob Merritt, a West Virginian , assures us the Cumberland Gap is in Kentucky.
Just to add a point of interest and comment about our system of government; to get to Elkins from the big N-S Highway, one takes US 219 south, a two lane winding mountain road that passes by Deep Creek Lake,  the Schneider family's favorite vacation spot. At the point where you are starting to think that you need to pull over  from all the twists and turns, LO a 65 MPH four lane highway appears to whisk you the last five miles into the metropolis of Elkins, WV. We were both surprised and Marion commented, "Senator Byrd must have stuck this one into one bill or other" and at that moment The Robert C Byrd Highway sign flashed by!