West 'By Gosh' Virginia

It seems the Queen and I are constantly on the go. She goes her way and I go mine. She likes knitting, flowers and all that jazz. I like sports. She doesn't. We've always allowed each other to do what makes us happy unless it interferes with her plans. Therefore, our nearly fifty years of wedded bliss has been the second Great Compromise.

This past week we, together, met up with long time friends from our hometown of Boone, Iowa, met up in Lewisburg West Virginia(pop. 3,000). Actually, the real purpose of the trip was to visit the oldest resort in this country called The Greenbrier. It's located in White Sulpher Springs, WV near the the Virginia border on the southeast corner of the Mountaineer state.

From Dublin, Ohio to White Sulpher Springs it's a drive of 5 hours. It seems loner because I-64 meanders through hill and dale, valleys and hollers with the mountains seemingly caving in on us. I always become claustrophobic when driving through West Virginia. I always figure it's because I grew up in Iowa.

I've been fortunate enough to visit the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Canyon, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Palace of Versailles in France and a myriad of other unforgettable venues.  Folks, and I kid you not, the Greenbrier ranks among the very best. With the prices for hotel rooms beginning at $300 per night and working their way up to God knows what you will not see many Walmart folks on the grounds.

First and foremost the government, at taxpayer expense, built an underground bunker to house members of our congress beginning in 1962. It stayed open until 1992. What a waste of money. Anyway, we toured that bunker and found out a number of interesting tales and stories. It was worth the $39 fee.

I don't know the complete story of the founding and history of the Greenbrier. That's okay. I bought a nice book for $40 and it'll fill me in. I do know that Robert E. Lee enjoyed visiting.

I'm sort of a people person in that I'll walk up to folks and ask questions. When we arrived at the front door of the 700 room hotel we were greeted by a gentleman wearing a red top coat and sporting a black stove pipe hat. His name was Frank Mosely. He has personally greeted every guest for the last sixty-two years. This would include kings and queens, politicians, sports legends along with slugs like us.

Later in the day, after having lunch at the Sam Snead restaurant, I went into the men's rest room and locker area and looked at the those lockers with the names of pro's emblazoned on the fronts. I was tempted to take a magic marker, cross out the name of Justin Thomas, and write in mine---but I didn't.

The man who shined shoes had been in his position for thirty-five years. I mentioned that after he retires he should write a book about the conversations he's been privy to all these years. He told me I wasn't the first one to make this suggestion.

Finally, I walked to the first tee box of the main course. The starter was there, a local guy, who had held this position for 42 years. I mentioned that he must have seen a lot since he's been there. He said, "I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. And then there are the politicians". I would have golfed but I wasn't up to shelling out the $300 fee. Such is life.

All in all West Virginia is a nice change of pace. It's half Yankee and half Y'all. People now wear shoes. I've been in worse places, New York City and Los Angeles come to mind and rather quickly.