In my piece about rural homelessness in Scott County, Tennessee, I write about how Jerry Voiles took me driving down some remote washed out roads deep in the woods, looking for homeless families who have been camping out. What I didn’t mention was that I tried to check out some camping areas on my own first.
I was about 7-8 miles from the nearest house when the narrow road dead-ended. As I was trying to turn around, the Prius got stuck rear down a sandy embankment. Of course I had no cell service, and couldn’t call anyone for help. So I blocked the rear wheel with a big rock to keep myself from rolling down any further, took everything out of the back of the car, and kept putting rocks, sticks, and greenery under the front wheels for better traction. The Prius inched forward at a painfully slow pace, as I kept replacing stuff under the front wheel, trying to rock and push the car forward using the driver’s door frame, with one foot on the gas and one foot on the ground. It took about 45 minutes to get unstuck.
Annoyed, dripping wet from such exertion in 95-degree heat, and coated with dirt–all was made better when I saw this waterfall on my drive back to civilization. Five minutes in nature’s ice-cold shower washed away more than just dirt and sweat.
At 7 am, I was wishing I had a cup of JFG coffee.
Deb and Larry Shelton were hilariously nice people. I met Deb when I walked into her office at The Franklin Favorite newspaper and started asking question about the local impact of the recession. She took me home with her after work so I could talk to Larry directly about how it has felt for him to be out-of-work for the longest period of his working life. Read the full piece about them 
If you’re a lit fan, I highly recommend a visit to Pearl Buck’s birthplace in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Give 