Someone once said that Morgantown was the sort of place you could drive through without a second glance. Not true. The official Morgantown website tells us that “Morgantown, WV has been recognized as one of the best small cities in the Country. World-class healthcare, recreation, education, and art facilities complement our strong business community”. And the website wouldn’t lie to us, would it? Morgantown has much going for it. It has an arboretum (as if there weren’t enough trees in WV already). It has a well-recommended university with a transportation system reminiscient of the flights of fancy of Walt Disney. It is surely the Thrift Store capital of the USA if not the whole world. Emily was worried about what we might do in Morgantown for 2 weeks. Silly. Just visiting the Thrift Stores alone would take at least 14 days. We must have visited most of them. One was huge. Old clothes as far as the eye could see. We were overcome. Forget Macey’s or Harrods. For a really awful, sorry, awesome retail experience this Thrift Hyperstore was the one to go for. I jest not. Thrift Stores have an important place in the scheme of things (especially if you don’t have much money). Besides, once you have worn someone else’s pants a few times they become your own. The Salvation Army Store was my favourite. Small and compact. A Thrift Store of human proportions. It’s main attraction was dirt cheap bottles of Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper. Admittedly, the old Dr had lost his fizz (isn’t that true for us all), but the Mountain Dew still packed a punch. I loved those dinky little transportation pods. Straight from the Magic Kingdom. We had to try. The station was empty. We’d have a pod to ourselves. A swarm of students arrived with the first pod. Same with the next. It was no use but to play sardines or give up the attempt. It was dark by the time we arrived at the university (Academic Land in the Magic Kingdom). We saw the main attraction. Looking through the street window was the very chair that Drew had sat in that very morning in his Japanese class. Our holiday was complete. By the time we started back the station was closed. It said so at the entrance. We charged up the stairs. Pods were moving but not in our direction. It took us 20 minutes to realise we were standing in the wrong place. We ran around the corner. Deserted. It would be a long walk home. Keep the faith. After 15 minutes a pod cheekily darted around the corner. It was ours. We could have smothered it with kisses. Our other trip to the university was to see the movie United 93. This was topical as we had only just visited the actual site near Shanksville, PA. A truly moving experience. It was an ordinary field with ordinary grass and ordinary trees. It looked as though nothing much could have happened there. Yet, it had been a place of true, extraordinary heroism where ordinary people had fought with evil for the sake of the good. People had left tee shirts, badges, clothes, all fading in the light. The Stars and Stripes, fraying at the edges, flapped in the breeze. It had been a triumph of goodness over evil and had been achieved through the actions of ordinary men and women. They will not be forgotten.