Just about every time I talk to a friend or client in Washington or somewhere other than Floyd County, they ask the usual question: "What's life like up there in the hills."

Just like anyplace else. Get up in the morning, go to work, go home. People are normal.

Just like this fellow here. OK, so he's wearing a funny hat. But it's the 4th of July and people get a little strange.

But if you want strange, venture further down south to Savannah, Georgia, where people walk imaginary dogs, a transvestite is a local tourist attraction and all the members of the ladies' garden club carry guns, which they show off after an afternoon of martinis.

Or over to West Virginia where it is legal to cook and eat your road kill (yes, there's a law that makes it legal) or down to a little town in South Carolina where they hold an annual festival to honor peach pits.

Keep heading south and you can wind up in Dothan, Alabama, where the local tourist attraction is a big statue of a Boll Weevil right in the middle of town. Now, that's strange.