Day Two - June 2nd

Day two of our Rural Health course has been quiet the adventure. We started the day with breakfast at our hotel, and then we snuck our way to Starbucks for an early morning pick-me-up, without Lisa’s group noticing.

It was a quick drive over to the Museum of Appalachia. While we were there, we toured multiple cabins and buildings filled with memorabilia. My favorite part of the museum (besides the amazing food) was the section that showed different medical equipment and had information about doctors and midwives. Did you know that garlic was used to treat sore throat, ulcers, intestinal infections, and tuberculosis? Also, tea made from the leaves of strawberry plants was used to treat diarrhea and anemia. Oh, and I found the most handsome man at the museum and my heart was crushed because I couldn’t take him home with me. 

  

After we left the Museum of Appalachia, we made our way to the cabin. Along the way we stopped at Soco Craft & Tower Inc. There was a small building which sold souvenirs and attached to the building was a 9 story look out tower. I was so excited to see the mountain view I forgot about my fear of heights, that is until I saw the ratchet straps holding pieces of metal together. I got great pictures, a post card for scrapbooking, and a sticker for my computer.

  

After leaving the giftshop / look out tower it was a nice relaxing ride to the cabin. Sike. We were lost, but only for about 10 minutes. It’s nerve wracking getting lost on the side of a mountain with only a one lane road to get us where we needed to go. It would’ve helped to if we had better signal to use our GPS.  Props to Amy while she was driving because if I had 9 screaming adults in the backseat of my car while I was trying to concentrate and drive, I would’ve kicked them out.  When we finally arrived at our cabin we had to call everyone and their mother to try to figure out how to get inside our cabin. I finally ended up calling the emergency number for the cabin company and the nice lady over the phone sent me the codes. 😊

When thinking about the Appalachian communities it seems that what they find most important is family, friends, their community, and their land. I never really thought about how good we have it these days and how back then people really had to work hard to eat and have things that we consider necessities. Health care has drastically changed compared to what I saw at the Appalachia Museum and now.