Pendleton County, Where the maple sap starts running around the tenth of January. Where Covid was something the city slickers made up. Where a good spring is worth more than a good well. Where the hardware store, the bank and the courthouse are all on the same street. Where maple syrup runs faster than the handyman, and more reliably too. Where the fire department is volunteers who left their own supper to come. Where the fog sits in the valley until nine, and then it does not. Where one town is incorporated and the rest simply are. Where your phone loses signal somewhere along the way, and you stop minding. Where a filling station has a bakery, and the pepperoni rolls are the reason you stopped. Where the ground rises and falls further than in any other county in the state. Where the store at the Rocks has been trading in the same building since 1902.