This Is The America You Never See (Rural Virginia)

I'm driving through one of the poorest places in America, where the average household income is less than thirty thousand dollars a year.

Religion, drugs, and coal. That's it. This is southwest Virginia, deep in the heart of Appalachia. It might also be the most stereotyped place in the country.

I'm talking hillbillies, trailer park homes, and banjos.

But almost nobody travels here to find out the real story. So I've come alone with one mission. To meet the people who live in these hills and find out what makes their culture so unique.

Get ready to see a side of the US that you never knew existed.

The only thing I see right here in the border town of Virginia and Tennessee are cigarette shops and lots of them.

There's like four of them on this corner. Okay. Our first stop is the town of Appalachia in Appalachia, Virginia.

So it doesn't get more Appalachian than that. Cue the bluegrass music now.

It's always really nerve-wracking to start these videos because... I'm totally relying on my people to guide me around and I don't know any people here, so, hopefully they're friendly.

A little, like, downtown area here. Church. Church. Barbecue shop. Like, cool brick buildings here.

Like, as if it was a nice place. Cool little downtown area. I think I've already left the town after two minutes.

All right, I'm gonna go turn back around and see what kind of characters I can find.