Pineville is a coal mining town.. I'd never seen one until this week. It's a very depressed, poor and uneducated area. A flood destroyed the town in the early part of the century, and of course textile mills were shut down and offshored (funny there was a wal-mart in town doing lots of business - walmart buys all of thier clothing from china now.. if only everyone realized how powerful their dollar is). Coal mining is all there is to do here. I saw ambulances all over the place. That was kinda creepy in itself.

During my guided tour we got to ride through one of the coal mining operations.. there were big trucks and equipment everywhere.. conveyor belts spat out piles of black coal, and the roads were covered in black mud. It was interesting, but nothing I'd want to be around very often.

( pictures & more below the cut )


So - now that's out of my system, I am already looking forward to a weekend whitewater rafting trip in June, somewhere in Tennessee.

Will someone please buy me two nights room & board here?  Formal wear is required for evening meals at Greyfield, so I would not be offended if you also picked up something from here, or there. 

Really, this wouldn't be a problem.