June 2

Captain’s Blog Day Two:

Before coming here my perception or knowledge of Appalachia was very limited.  I knew that it was a remote location, but I had no prior knowledge of anything else.  I did find out that Appalachia is a cultural region that stretches from southern New York to northern Alabama and Georgia.  There is also an Appalachian Trail, used for hiking, that stretches from Georgia to Maine.  The Appalachian History Museum was an awesome experience and I would definitely go again.  I loved that the peacocks and other wildlife were very friendly and that you could hear them chattering the whole time we were there.  I also found that the Doc Randall’s Old Medicine Show wagon caught my interest and all of the war memorabilia from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and World War I were interesting to me.  What also caught my attention was that there was a Dr. Andy Osborne’s Medicine House and the story behind Dr. Andy Osborne is that he spent the majority of his life taking care of the sick and dying people of the Appalachia.  However, when Dr. Andy was dead, the Priest had to provide a suit for him to buried in.  I think that this example speaks a lot about the people in this region because they are selfless, kind, and would give you the clothes off their backs if you needed it.  I think that a highlight of this experience was seeing the surgical and pharmaceutical items from the civil war and knowing that these surgical items were probably used to perform amputations on wounded soldiers to try to save their life.