I posted the last two entries from the Kinko's in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Harrisonburg is the home of James Madison University, and it looked like a nice small city. There was a pretty, young, be-ringed lady making copies, and two other pretty young ladies came in to use the computers. They had a young child, to whom they occasionally spoke short, quick snippets of some language or dialect that, surprisingly, Lonewacko couldn't figure out. But, they also appeared to be native English speakers. (Maybe he was adopted -- ed. Thanks, I think that's a possibility -- LW). The pretty young lady at the gas station was quite friendly as well. I even saw a guy on a unicycle.

Everything was going fine until I mistakenly stopped at a fast food restaurant outside Roanoke VA.

Now, Lonewacko has seen several Southerners and several hicks on his tour. The people in Indiana were mostly a-holes, but they weren't really Southern hicks. In Missouri and West Virginia there were many people speaking with a strange accent, but most of the people I ran into in my 24 hours in WV were quite nice, and those in MO weren't really hardcore hicks. One of the people I spoke with in WV was originally from Michigan; after hearing about my stereotypes of WVers, he told me "those people you're talking about are my neighbors. I live up in the hills, and they're the nicest people you'd want to meet." Another transplant to WV from New England had had the same stereotypes in mind as I did before he moved there; he told me that we were both wrong. And, to a certain extent and regarding the area I was in, I somewhat believe them.

And, there are plenty of hicks in Utah and the rest of the southwest, but they aren't southern hicks.

In any case, I haven't seen too many really hardcore, resolutely unelevated southern hicks until now. Sitting down next to me in the restaurant was a whole family of them. Now, I don't have a problem with red necks; I have one myself. And, it's not the logoed T-shirts I have a problem with; that's mostly what I wear. Mine are emblazoned with "Microsoft," (free) or "Visual Cafe for Java," (free) or "Green Mountain Club" (both were worth it). Theirs were emblazoned with Nascar and Megadeth; whatever, right?

No, what I object to were the other things. It was like an animatronic display intended to reinforce southern hick stereotypes: loud belching, jokes about what the restaurant would do if they ran out of mayonaise, etc. They let off a noisemaker for extra effect. I'm sure they're re-running HeeHaw somewhere right now, but I saw it live. I also got a few less than friendly looks from some of the other patrons; perhaps they don't like hiker-types in that area.

Maybe I'll just do one to four of the state highpoints near southwestern Virginia, and then head back west as fast as I can. I don't think I want to get too very much more Deeper.