The escapees were found asleep in a small cave and quietly surrendered. It was the West Virginia State Police that remarked that 'those boys were lucky we found them.' There was no telling what would have happened had they been located by the good citizens of War instead.

      

In the aftermath of the roadblock, escape, and capture, the town was still abuzz with high energy and armed to the teeth. Being assured that we were not in danger, and with the presense of so many guns satisfactorily explained, we were invited home to Rocky's for dinner and a place to sleep. He was a miner like his father - a short, wide man with an enormous bushy black beard like a dwarf king from one of the Hobbit movies.

      

Rocky's family was building a seven story ‘skyscraper’ house next door to their current one, but seven years into the project they had only a steel I-beam skeleton 2½ stories high. I didn’t see that they would ever complete that project. Rocky taught us how to rapidly descend a steep slope to outrun a bear. He shared his West Virginia hospitality and sent us on our way the next day. We got on our bikes and headed west, and ironically, the next town we encountered on our route was Justice, West Virginia. Justice had been served only 24 hours earlier and 30 miles down the road.

 

 

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