Rain all evening.
The kind of rain that turns the Blue Ridge into a dark smudge beyond the window. I’ve been listening to Old Gods of Appalachia while watching the ridgeline disappear and reappear through the weather, and it got me thinking about how closely the fictional world of the podcast sometimes seems to echo the history and geography of Roanoke, Virginia, my current stomping grounds.
There is an uncomfortable familiarity to the show’s treatment of Appalachian industry. Its stories of railroads, coal, corporate power, family fortunes, and ancient things lurking beneath the mountains take the real history of Appalachia and push it into the realm of cosmic horror. The fictional Locke family and the tragic Benji Rigg inhabit an alternate Appalachia, but the landscape underneath their stories feels remarkably familiar.
Roanoke doesn’t need much embellishment to serve as a backdrop for that kind of story. The city was built around the railroad, grew rapidly during the industrial boom, and accumulated the kind of wealth and architecture associated with the Gilded Age. Its history is literally embedded in the landscape.
So I decided to see what would happen if I stopped treating the similarities as an impression and put them on an actual map.
I wasn’t looking for exact one-to-one equivalents. Penderyn isn’t secretly sitting somewhere outside Roanoke, and there isn’t a real Furnace beneath Mill Mountain. Instead, I wanted to identify places where the fictional geography and the real geography seem to jibe.
The first point on the map was the historic Virginian Railway Station on South Jefferson Street.
That is an obvious place to begin with Benji Rigg. His story is intertwined with railroad tracks, stations, yards, and the sprawling machinery of the Locke Railroad Company. Roanoke’s own history is inseparable from the railroad. Norfolk and Western transformed the city from a small settlement into an important industrial and transportation center, and for generations the railroad influenced virtually every aspect of life here.
The old station provides an especially evocative physical reminder of that history. On a rainy evening, surrounded by brick, steel, wet pavement, and the dark outline of the mountains, it is easy to understand why railroads work so well as the setting for Appalachian horror. The whistle of a distant train doesn’t require much imagination to become something more ominous.
From there, the map moves downtown to the old Norfolk and Western General Office Buildings.
These buildings provide a useful real-world counterpart to the administrative power represented by the fictional Locke empire. Their imposing brick facades convey the scale of an organization that could influence an entire city and reach far beyond it. A railroad empire was not simply trains and tracks. It was land, labor, money, housing, commerce, and an enormous bureaucratic structure capable of turning individual lives into numbers on a ledger.
The old rail yard areas become another point on the map, connecting the physical machinery of the railroad with the offices where decisions were made.
From there, the map naturally leads to the places where the wealth generated by that industrial expansion became visible.
The Hotel Roanoke is one obvious stop. Built during the city’s railroad boom, it represents the other side of the industrial story: the hotels, meetings, social connections, and accumulated wealth that accompanied the growth of the railroad economy.
Old Southwest provides another useful piece of the puzzle. Its historic homes and Victorian architecture offer a glimpse of the prosperity that developed during Roanoke’s period of rapid expansion. It isn’t Penderyn, and there is no reason to pretend that it is. But if Penderyn represents the way great fortunes can conceal something darker beneath their polished surfaces, Old Southwest provides a real architectural reminder of what those fortunes looked like above ground.
Then the map turns toward Mill Mountain.
This is where the comparison becomes more geological than historical.
The Furnace beneath Penderyn is fictional, but the idea of a hidden world beneath the surface isn’t particularly difficult to imagine in the Roanoke Valley. The region’s geology includes karst limestone, with caves, fissures, underground drainage, and other features created by the slow movement of water through soluble rock.
The ground here is not always as solid or as simple as it appears.
Mill Mountain makes an especially effective landmark for this imagined geography. Sitting within the city itself, it provides a physical center around which much of Roanoke’s landscape can be understood. From Mill Mountain Park and the Roanoke Star, the relationship between the city, the railroad corridors, the surrounding neighborhoods, and the mountains becomes immediately visible.
On a clear day, it is simply a spectacular view.
On a rainy evening, when clouds settle into the valley and the lights of the city appear beneath them, the mountain can take on a different character. It becomes easy to imagine it as something old and patient, watching everything built around it.
The map doesn’t stop at the city limits.
Following the same progression that appears so often in Appalachian stories, it eventually moves away from the developed landscape and toward the woods. That means heading toward Salem, Dutch Oven Road, and the Hanging Rock area.
The Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail is particularly well suited to the atmosphere. The combination of rocky terrain, water, old stone, dense trees, and relative quiet creates a landscape that feels distinctly Appalachian. It is the sort of place where the transition between civilization and wilderness becomes noticeable.
That transition is important to the stories.
Cities have boundaries. Property has boundaries. Companies have boundaries. The woods don’t recognize any of them.
By the time the fictional world reaches those kinds of places, the authority of people and institutions begins to feel increasingly irrelevant. Money cannot buy the mountains. A railroad cannot impose a timetable on the forest. A deed cannot tell the things living beyond its boundary where they are allowed to go.
That is where the real geography and the fictional horror begin to overlap most effectively.
By the time I finished placing the points, the route on the map looked almost like a rough outline of the story:
Virginian Railway Station → Norfolk & Western General Offices → old rail yards → Hotel Roanoke → Old Southwest → Mill Mountain → Salem → Hanging Rock
It isn’t a map of Old Gods of Appalachia. It isn’t evidence that the fictional locations were based on Roanoke.
It’s a map of Roanoke itself, and that’s what makes it interesting to me.
The railroad is real. The industrial fortunes are real. The old corporate buildings are real. The houses built during the city’s boom are real. The mountain is real. The limestone is real. The woods are real.
The fictional stories simply rearrange those ingredients and ask what might happen if the darkness beneath them were literal.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Appalachian horror works so well. It doesn’t have to invent an entirely unfamiliar landscape. It can take places that already have complicated histories and simply change the way we look at them.
Tonight, the rain has swallowed most of the Blue Ridge. Mill Mountain is barely visible through the window, just a dark shape behind the lights of the city. Somewhere beyond it, the railroad is still running through the valley.
On the map, the locations are just pins.
In reality, they are streets, buildings, neighborhoods, mountains, trails, and woods.
All of them sitting on the same ground, and that leaves one unsettling thought behind.
Maybe the frightening part isn’t imagining that something ancient is hiding beneath Roanoke.
Maybe it’s realizing that if something were down there, we wouldn’t have built the city around it – we would have built the city directly on top of it.
Current Mood: Watching the mountains disappear in the rain.
Current Music: Old Gods of Appalachia
Mapping the Old Gods of Roanoke
Bits of DP #20
Doom Patrol No. 20 – Cautionary Tales
by Grant Morrison and Richard Case
Ham radio talk and translation
Most could probably work this put from context clues, but for clarity:
Original : “Hey y’all, check out the new and improved 147.27 on poor mountain. It’s S9+10 at my qth.
Great job guys”
Translation: “Hey everyone, check out the newly upgraded radio repeater on 147.27 MHz located up on Poor Mountain. The signal coming into my house is exceptionally strong and crystal clear. Great job to the crew who worked on it!”
Jargon Breakdown
147.27: This is the specific radio frequency (147.270 MHz) on the 2-meter VHF amateur radio band.
Poor Mountain: A prominent mountain ridge near Roanoke, Virginia. It is heavily used as a site for commercial, broadcast, and amateur radio communication towers. The message refers to a radio repeater located on that mountain. A repeater receives a weak signal from a handheld or mobile radio and retransmits it at higher power from the mountaintop to cover a massive geographic area.
S9+10: This is a signal strength report. On a radio’s “S-meter,” signal strength is rated from 1 to 9 (with 9 being a perfectly strong, crystal-clear signal). When a signal is incredibly powerful, it goes “over 9” and is measured in additional decibels.
“S9+10” means the signal is exceptionally strong and perfectly clear- 10 decibels louder than a standard “strong” signal.
QTH: This is an old telegraph “Q-code” that means “my location” or “my home station”.
Day 21,028 – 570628075000
I follow the same school of cable management.
Engineer Karen Leadlay working on the analog computers in the space division of General Dynamics, 1964
Testing yet another social media / federated thing
https://piefed.social/u/scottobear
Will I keep using it? Maybe? Local region has a group, but mostly unused for 3 years.
Backyard zoo update
Possum and skunk visited lately
Good morning, Skynet.
They’re already shoving AI into weapon systems and military targeting; health insurers are using algorithms to cut off care; employers are letting software decide who even gets seen by a person; and cops are arresting people after facial recognition spits out the wrong face. And in every case, they always pitch the same thing: that it’s faster, cheaper, more efficient, which really means the government or corporation gets to process more people with fewer workers and less oversight. Then, when the system gets it wrong, everyone suddenly becomes very careful about what the AI supposedly did. The company says it only built the tool, the agency says a human technically made the final decision, the insurer says it was only a recommendation, and the person whose life got wrecked has to fight the same institution that trusted the software over them.
Hopping Iguanadons, Batman!
An… interesting theory about Iguanodon in Animal Ghosts. Edited by Claudia Clow. Illustrated by Walt Disney Productions. 1971.
Via https://archive.org/details/animalghosts00walt/
#vintageillustration #iguanadon #1971
Support networks for immigrants & people affected by ICE in the Roanoke area (resources + links)
Cribbed from- https://www.reddit.com/r/roanoke/s/9QgPDVSq2u
**Title:** Support networks for immigrants & people affected by ICE in the Roanoke area (resources + links)
Looking for local help in the Roanoke / Southwest Virginia area for immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, or families dealing with ICE involvement (detention, court hearings, check-ins, legal fees, etc.)? Here’s a rundown of established community organizations that provide practical support.
**Roanoke Asylum-Seekers Support Network (RASN)**
All-volunteer 501(c)(3) that focuses on asylum seekers. Volunteers mentor families, provide transportation to immigration court hearings and appointments, connect people to medical/dental/educational resources, and help with rent, utilities, and legal fees. They support people navigating the asylum process, which often involves ICE interactions.
Website: https://www.rassn.org/
**Immigrant Connection Blue Ridge**
DOJ-accredited immigration legal services office offering affordable help with citizenship, family petitions, green cards, TPS, asylum, DACA, VAWA, U visas, and more. Good starting point for legal questions.
Website: https://icblueridge.org/
Phone: 540-581-2963
**Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC)**
Provides immigration legal services (citizenship, family petitions, asylum, etc.) and longer-term support for refugees and immigrants in the Roanoke area.
Website: https://www.cccofva.org/
Immigration services: https://www.cccofva.org/immigrationhelp
**Roanoke Refugee Partnership**
Volunteer network that builds support teams around refugee families — mentoring, tutoring, transportation, job help, emergency household/rent assistance, and help navigating systems.
Website: https://www.roanokerefugeepartnership.org/
**Friendship House Roanoke**
Temporary housing for refugee families (Good Neighbor Program), household goods, food, English classes, and practical support.
Website: https://friendshiphouseroanoke.org/
**Casa Latina (Roanoke Valley)**
Supports the Spanish-speaking community with food distribution, ESL, education programs, cultural activities, and know-your-rights information related to immigration enforcement. Works with the Mexican Consulate on visits.
Website: https://casalatinarv.org/
Phone/WhatsApp: 540-579-2776
**Blue Ridge Literacy**
English classes (multiple levels, in-person and online) and citizenship preparation classes.
Website: https://www.blueridgeliteracy.org/
Many of these organizations run on donations and volunteers. Check their sites for current needs or ways to help. If you know of other solid local resources, drop them in the comments so people can find them.
Statewide / regional groups that serve Virginia detainees (including Farmville and local jails)
Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition / Amica Center for Immigrants’ Rights
Primary source of free or low-cost legal assistance for detained immigrants and asylum seekers in Virginia facilities. Offers group legal orientations, individual consultations, and matches people with pro bono attorneys.
Detainees can call the toll-free Detention Line: (202) 331-3329
Family/friends: (202) 331-3320
Website: https://www.caircoalition.org (or search Amica Center)
Legal Aid Justice Center
Fights immigration detention through individual representation (limited cases), impact litigation, and advocacy. Offers a rapid-response toolkit and hotline for ICE activity reports and connections to legal help.
Hotline: 1-844-253-7882
Website: https://www.justice4all.org/ (Immigration / Detention sections)
ACLU of Virginia
Litigates against unlawful ICE detention practices, provides know-your-rights resources, and has handled cases involving Roanoke and statewide facilities. Not a direct case-by-case service provider but important for systemic issues and rights information.
Website: https://www.acluva.org/issues/immigrants-rights/
Other useful resources
ICE Online Detainee Locator – First step to find where someone is being held: https://locator.ice.gov/
CASA raid tip hotline (for reporting ICE activity and getting connected to resources): 1-888-214-6016
Practical tip: If someone has just been picked up, locate them quickly with the ICE Detainee Locator, then contact a legal service provider (CAIR/Amica, Immigrant Connection Blue Ridge, or CCC) as soon as possible. Community groups like RASN can sometimes help with secondary needs such as legal fees or family support.
Capacity and services can change, so call or check websites for current availability. These organizations rely on donations and volunteers.
Printable handout version-
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12JC90TmF2845 -ik-cKUuqdJCJG9XL8ZQ/view?usp=sharing
Quoin
I finally learned what this is, instead of calling it “that corner brace thing with the thicker bricks”
R.I.P. Dolly.
Ironic that you passed on BHK’s birthday, and that your first hit single was Happy Birthday, Baby.
You did so much for us all. Thank you.
Gane recap – bhk bday 2026
amy won the number game
allison won number game 2
fairy
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/408545/fairy
i won x2 both time
Next up
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232405/western-legends
Animal visitors
Games vs bhk and almsvats
https://games.jackbox.tv/artifact/TriviaDeathResults/70055d028c8dcc69cb53f5776e516e71/
https://games.jackbox.tv/artifact/TriviaDeathResults/790de67a5a19e3ac15d815855e8cd2f0/
https://games.jackbox.tv/artifact/TriviaDeathResults/df4de6269e2b756f16b15a9cc267313f/
https://games.jackbox.tv/artifact/TriviaDeathResults/c77c65252c5f0bb5250af6584931c102/
https://games.jackbox.tv/artifact/TriviaDeathResults/a5d17e1ed89e156973336f3710834af1/
https://games.jackbox.tv/artifact/TriviaDeathResults/974e7f445ade48884baaaea58966ffab/
The ranked players and their statistics are:
Rank 1: Scotto — High Score: $13,000; Average Score: $8,465; Times Kidnapped: 7; Times Escaped: 4; Killing Floors Survived: 6; Questions Correct: 23; Charisma: 0.
Rank 2: Poopheed — High Score: $12,667; Average Score: $8,603; Times Kidnapped: 7; Times Escaped: 1; Killing Floors Survived: 11; Questions Correct: 21; Charisma: 0.
Rank 3: Amy — High Score: $11,617; Average Score: $7,505; Times Kidnapped: 7; Times Escaped: 0; Killing Floors Survived: 4; Questions Correct: 18; Charisma: 0.
Oh, deer.
deer flyby
more deer
whoopie pie skunk
Day 21,020
Amy is coming to visit today and will be here for a week. We will likely spend time doing the usual tooling about, working on arts and crafts, watching movies, and playing games, both digital and analog. It is going to be a great time having her around with BHK and me.
Pearl has been having a really good time lately, too. We have been seeing quite a few deer and skunks outside on the cameras, and she is getting more interested in being a sweet lap cat when she is not actively exploring and being a sweet little goofus.
I have not been doing much doodling lately, but I have been reading a bit more. Some recent additions to the future queue include *So Far Gone* by Jess Walter for book club, *The Winter Folk* by Jen Julian, *Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life*, *James* by Percival Everett, and the rest of the Murderbot novellas after number two.
On a different note, I am getting a little tired of some of the nonsense going on in the Roanoke region’s social media lately. I am really glad Facebook and Twitter are not on the menu these days, but looking at Instagram and Reddit is bad enough. I went through and weeded out some of the extreme nonsense because I do not need the mess of character assassination aimed at folks who are just trying to do good.
I will still keep an eye on Flock cameras, city council, and budget updates. It looks like some folks have to be reminded that single-issue voting is a bad idea. We can all agree that Flock cameras and a surveillance state are rotten, but I sure as heck do not want conservative or Republican policies spreading more evil by hurting taxes, education, housing, and mass transit just because we agree on one specific topic.
Dipthong is a great word.
Does anyone else remember hearing that “w” is also sometimes a vowel?
When I was a little kid, they used to do the whole “A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y” thing with an added “and sometimes W” on the end.
In diphthongs, “w” acts as a vowel component by gliding off another vowel sound, such as in “how” or “cow.”
“W” acts as a vowel when present in a diphthong like “low” or “cow.”