April, 18, 2021 Day 1: Blacksburg, Virginia -- Salt Lick, Kentucky

In a small town in West Virginia surrounded by shacks and a chain-linked fence, is an old man by the name of Tom who loves radios. We met him in the Museum of Radio and Technology, an impressive collection of radios from every era, televisions, cameras, and record players crammed inside the classrooms of the repurposed elementary school building.

When we trundled down the road, branches scraping the side of our RV, I sincerely doubted that there would be anything worthwhile at the back of this small town. My misgivings increased as I watched the shack-like one-storey houses go by, wind chimes rusting. This thought was cemented when we arrived at little brick building with the gravel parking lot, the chain-link gate barely big enough for our RV to fit through.

If I could have told myself what to expect with hindsight, I would have reminded myself that there is treasure in unlikely places and the concept of geodes, bright gems inside dirty rock.

The Museum of Radio and Technology surprised me. I didn’t know that there were places where you could touch history crammed into rooms by people who loved it. A mannequin stared at me from behind the reconstructed counter of a radio shop. The first row of record players we came to, Tom put the needle on the disk and Singin’ in the Rain started to fill the room. The music vibrated out of the hardwood box and onto the floor, into the walls; we stared at the record turning from a piece in history. A metal disk as large as a car tire functioned like a music box, turning with the Battle Hymn of the Republic. We tapped on a machine used to send morse code with sparks, and watched a scene from Star Wars on the TV with a disk that needed to be in a hard shell…

Tom had been one of the founding members of museum and started the hall of fame of West Virginian broadcasters, radio and television influencers.

At a chinese restaurant on the way there, two people asked my dad about the RV and details, they wanted one too. A random connection in a parking lot off the highway. Despite all the warnings about anti-Asian racism, we have experienced so much friendliness and connection.

When we finally reached the RV campground, I went to the shack and two very fat cats were squashed in their beds. The owner of the campground said that the one with the squashed face she called Sweet Home Alabama cat, after the cat in the movie, and it was avoiding the allergy shot. The other one was “Kat-with-a-K.” There was also a small black dog, blind in both eyes, scruffy and named Beasly.

Tom giving us a tour. He was one of the founding members of the museum.