McDowell County, WV!

[libby]

I was born there, and my daughter and I drove there and back on Saturday. I don't think there's a soul who writes here who could appreciate what I found except for Duke Jupiter. We drove on Route 52 to the intersection in Northfork where you could make a right turn onto the Northfork Hollow Road.  But the sign was gone and apparently so was the road ?? and there was little to see in Northfork, so we decided to go on to Welch. Well, there were a few people but the town had either shrunk or my memory was ?? We turned around and headed back, and at the place where the Ashland Hollow sign used to be, found a man who told us Ashland was "that way," pointing back the way we came in. So we  drove that way and came upon what looked like a spooky biker's camp in a movie, and drove on past. Finally came to a more civilized looking place where there was what looked like a curio shop. Closed. And it sat where I remembered my grandfather's house used to be. Nothing at all left where Ashland used to be. We kept going toward Cherokee Mountain, about a mile away from grandpa's house. We drove that way (no other place to go but back the way we came) and headed  up and it seemed like what I remembered except that the houses that used to be there were gone. And then, at what I guessed was near the top of the mountain, there was a new road to the right which continued up in a switchback fashion. There was nowhere to go but up or try to turn around and go back. So we (my daughter wad driving) continued. I was cringing, but she seemed ok. I kept wondering when we would see something I recognized. Did not. Not a sign of civilization anywhere. After a while (a long time to me) I expected to see McComas with the tipple. ?? Where were all those little houses by the side of the road I remembered? Then all at once, something up ahead looked familiar. We had left that new mountain road with its twists and turns and were in Montcalm. Most everything was gone except for a few buildings I recognized, and off we went, back to Princeton and the Hampton Inn.