Thursday, October 18, 2012

Betty in the National Parks II: Part Three

the further adventures of Betty AnoninTX:

After we left Mammoth Cave NP, we had a really interesting day!  I am a history buff and geek to the max.  My minor in college was American history, and I am particularly interested in the Battle of Little Bighorn, westward expansion, and one room schools.  I also enjoy reading about the Hatfield & McCoy feud and loved the miniseries.  So we toured many of the feud sites!!  We saw the graves of Randall, Sally, and Roseanna McCoy, and we toured the feud sites around Pikeville.  While we were at their cabin site, National Geographic was excavating where the cabin stood and filming a special.  The well Randall dug is still there.  The special will be on tv in late January or February.  We crossed into West Virginia and went to Sarah Ann.  Devil Anse Hatfield and most of his family are buried in a cemetery up on a hillside.  After we tromped around there, we went to find Cap Hatfield’s grave.  An incredible man at the McCoy cabin site told us how to find Cap’s homesite and his grave.  For some family reason (an argument with a brother, I believe), Cap did not want to be buried with Devil Anse and the rest of his relatives.  We had to cross a bridge then park at the end of a trailer park.  A teenager told us where the path to the very small cemetery was.  We tromped up the hillside and through the woods.  There was Cap’s headstone, surrounded by trees and all kinds of plants, apparently including POISON IVY!  I bet you were wondering why I included this in my national park report.  This is where I managed to walk through poison ivy while wearing capris.  After we left there, we headed to Morgantown, WV.  As we drove through the dark night, I noticed my legs itched just a bit.  We stopped to get gas somewhere, and I looked at them in the light.  I had all these whitish circles with red dots in them, and I figured I had some minor allergic reaction to grass or a plant.  We stopped at a Kmart to get the first of many tubes of cortisone cream.  Within several days, I had lovely legs covered with the rash, along with mosquito bites.  But it was worth it!



More tomorrow…

3 comments:

  1. More gruesome stories to be told! So this is where your suffering started. Good thing you are an aficionado, er, aficionada. I am glad you had such a great time. Apart from the poison ivy, I mean. To actually see all those sites that have interested you for a long time.

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  2. I just read about the Hatfield-McCoy feud. My word, what a bloodthirsty lot. Two lots. The German Wikipedia was a little more detailed regarding Roseanna and Johnse's Brighton-ish behaviour. And Johnse, the fiend, left her pregnant. And I do mean he actually left her. To marry her cousin! The rat!
    What a lot of blood shed. Gruesome stories to be told...

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  3. Johnse was the ladies' man of the bunch. I think he ended up being married 4? times, not counting the relationship with Roseanna. He was with the cousin Nancy for years, and they had two kids. She, ironically, ended up marrying Bad Frank Phillips.

    Betty AnoninTX

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