Less Alone
On the day I arrived in West Virginia, district ranger Yvonne Rice took me on a driving tour. A longtime employee of the U.S. Forest Service, Yvonne was relaxed and chatty as she whipped the truck around the mountain curves, and the combination of her driving and the hot breath behind my face mask meant my only focus was on not throwing up. I caught snippets of the orientation she provided from the driver’s seat — rattlesnakes would be lethargic, but more aggressive as the weather got colder; at one convenience store we passed, I should never eat the barbecue, at another, the hot dogs....…On the day I arrived in West Virginia, district ranger Yvonne Rice took me on a driving tour. A longtime employee of the U.S. Forest Service, Yvonne was relaxed and chatty as she whipped the truck around the mountain curves, and the combination of her driving and the hot breath behind my face mask meant my only focus was on not throwing up. I caught snippets of the orientation she provided from the driver’s seat — rattlesnakes would be lethargic, but more aggressive as the weather got colder; at one convenience store we passed, I should never eat the barbecue, at another, the hot dogs....WW…