Not sure what it's like because it's night time, West Virginia

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I'm now in the early stages of an overnight bus to Nashville from which I'll change to a bus to Evansville, Indiana before the mad journey to Oregon which starts on Thursday and concludes 48 hours later. Everybody, including, to some extent me, thinks I'm mad to have not flown across the country but I am enjoying it so far.

When we last spoke, I was approaching Richmond, the capital of the South I've been advised by my hosts for the night due in a large way to its central role the town played in the American Civil War (although apparently only Europeans call it that - American name depends who you're talking to; northern whites call it the war of the states, southern whites call it the war of northern aggression).

I was staying with kind-of-cousins of which I have an awful lot but I'm not on inviting-myself-to-stay basis with most of them. I met Roderick and Susan for the first time (as far as I'm aware) at a wedding in Greece last year of my totally-cousin Malachi. It was a great meeting of totally-cousins and kind-of-cousins and a lot of fun was had by all over the four days spent together on the Greek island. At the end, they made the mistake of inviting us all to come and stay with them in Virginia. Not one to refuse such an offer, I made a point to include it in my itinerary. I also noted that the Organ Historical Society was based in the town and I also heard that the town had the finest Georgian architecture in the united states. Also the applachian mountains nearby. Lots of reasons to visit then.

I was somewhat correct to worry about my pickup - I had forwarded a mobile number for emergency use but as I had arrived a little early, I was resolutely not worrying, at least until the bus was due in anyway. After he was a little later again, I continued to stay calm and about ten minutes on, I received a phone call from a rather lost Rod. I was some help to him when I told him that it was right next to a big "stadium" which turned out to be the baseball diamond. Turns out the bus station is right in the middle of the black side of town and Roderick had had no need to attend a baseball match or catch the bus so - naturally - he had no idea where it was. His satnav had been no help. Greyhound buses and baseball were off-limits or if not, then there hadn't been any reason for them to become on-limits.

As Rod & Susan live out in the country, it was proposed that we do a quick tour of the sights of the city during which he gave me a history lesson of American Civil War 101 which filled me in for what I needed to know should I meet any history professors while in the town. I'm not sure I would pass an exam 24 hours on but I do remember some of the bullet points like the fact that Thomas E. Lee was actually called Robert E. Lee ( I was the only one who thought otherwise but I stand corrected) and that somebody was either captured or died on the 4th tee of the local country club, the same country club that, until recently, had a sign that read "No blacks, No Jews" - when they were forced to take down the sign, their membership changed not at all because the blacks a) couldn't give a shit about joining (and didn't have enough money anyway) and b) the Jews had all gone off and set up their own much nicer clubs into which they were allowing nobody else. I also learnt that Thomas Jefferson, US president and celebrated Bible editor beloved of some Unitarians, was from Virginia. We went into the magnificent Jefferson Hotel after which Rod paid the porter a tip for holding his keys which i found extraordinary (but kept my mouth shut). In the hotel, i got a lesson on where all the different americans had come from and how the white Virginians were mostly Protestants who had mostly come from from Ulster, Scotland and England, and how they had simply replaced their hard-nosed bigotry towards Catholics with hard-nosed bigotry towards blacks. I learnt about White-Flight that came with integrated schooling and the different schools that were in the area - private and university. We went up to Church Hill which overlooks the city and overlooked the city for a few moments - Rod told me how the city had been named because some learned intrepid explorer had thought the bend in the river looked just like the Thames at Richmond (it doesn't, it just looks like a bend in a river) and then went downtown to Rod's office which is a converted store-building in the oldest part of town - it went from being a brothel to being an investment bankers so it was generally agreed that was all continuing in the downward spiral that the building has become accustomed to. The tramp outside the front door is always there - "because you're an investment bank ?" I ask. "no, he was there before we came and feels he has as much right to be there as us". Rod's colleagues in the office are amused to hear of my trek but suggest that the Midwest is the reason God invented planes.

We drove up Monument Avenue with lots of monuments erected in memory of important people and then out to Sabot Hill where they live with their three children when they're home from university which isn't often. Their house is built in a fantastic development set up by a farmer and his IDE who had 40,000 acres and started buying houses and transplanting them onto their farm, renting them out and out of this, they created their own little community, Sabot Hill. Since then, people including Roderick and Susie have bought land and built, some houses nicer than others but all landowners have access to all the land for horse-riding mostly but other leisure pursuits too. The various homeowners have parties together through the year and although each house is secluded and looks to the outside world like a separate development it does actually feel like a community albeit one where everyone is not living in each others' pockets. Their house overlooks one of the three private lakes and it is very picturesque indeed. They have five (I think) horses and enjoy riding and hunting and golf. All quite well-to-do but Rod has worked very hard for it so you certainly can't begrudge them it.

I learnt ALL of this before dinner and then learnt of their family over dinner so was glad to be able to shut the door of my room and settle in relatively early. I find it quite hard to believe I was even contemplating this but last night I was considering whether to set off early this morning for Nashville as Rod was sorry I wouldn't be seeing the Applachian Mountains on my bus journey this evening. Mountains or sleep ? Mountains or sleep ? I took sleep and was happy to lie In this morning.

Pretty lazy day today - some time to walk the dogs and survey the forthcoming Bend Seattle conundrum (the only real scheduling nightmare of this journey - still unresolved) and then off for dinner in town ahead of them going to a concert and me going to a bus. Unrivaled disaster - traffic gridlock, no parking spaces, wrong food brought (Rod certainly didn't order Bread Salad, only made worse by the fact that the bread was stale. I, on the other hand, didn't realize steak tartare was raw burger - still, you've got to laugh), and then my taxi never arrived. Generous to the end, Roderick jumped in his car and dropped me to the bus. It set off 40 minutes late but I am on the road.

On arriving, I asked Rod what the predominant ethnic makeup of the city was as the Georgian architecture story I'd heard didn't sit with the many black people I'd seen milling about the bus station. He told me about the blacks and whites but something I worked out over the couple of days is that the answer to the question really depends on who you're talking to. Neither community seems to interact with the other except maybe in the younger Church Hill area which is quite well integrated. I would never meet black people in the sort of places Rod and Susan would go in the same way that I had to guide him to the bus station yesterday when he was lost. The two communities seem to co-exist quite peacefully but not interact - two cities in the one.

Apparently we're in the process of going over the mountains now. I'm not even feeling any air-pressure sickness and I won't see them this time but when I wake up I'll be in a new "other world". I have a new city to add to my list of cities seen and liked and I could very happily live in. And all the cities I've been in have been completely different to each other. I can understand how so many Americans don't leave their country - there's so much variety to discover here. Tomorrow is another day. Must sleep. Goodnight !!