My name is Andrea Palumbo. I call myself the “Traveling Mountain Boy”, because I travel, I was raised at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and spent most of my life deep in the Appalachian mountains, and now currently reside in western Washington State with the magnificent Cascades always present in the background, and finally “boy” because… well… I’m a boy (well a 45 year old man actually, but you get the point). I spent pretty much all of my youth in and around Bedford Virginia and the greater Roanoke/Lynchburg region. When I was 22 years old, I moved to the town of Pulaski Virginia where I lived until October 2013 when I moved to Damascus Virginia, then three years later I spent about nine months in Marion Virginia, then in 2017 moving to Lebanon Virginia, and finally 2023 when we relocated to northern Snohomish County Washington.

I’ve been told I have a lot to say, and many people seem to enjoy the stories I tell. Indeed, as an old boy from the hills of Appalachia, story telling is something that you could say is in my blood. In my life I have had a great many experiences, I’ve owned homes, rented, drove all kinds of different vehicles, loaded trucks, worked on cook lines, ran my own business, a shop, a store, traveled across the country, and generally seen a great many things, too many to list in this statement.

I tend to be a little nostalgic. Being born in late 1980 (very late December to be exact), I’m what you might call an “old Millennial”, some even would consider me an “Xennial” (people born in the late 1970s – early 1980s. I was born in a world of record albums, 8 track tapes, big gas guzzling cars, only 11 years after the Apollo moon landings, in what many call the height of the cold war before the U.S.S.R. collapsed. Jimmy Carter was technically the president when I was born, but he had already yielded defeat to incoming Ronald Reagan who would remain the president through most of my early childhood. When I graduated, the internet was in almost all homes, though most people still used dial up service. Facebook didn’t exist yet, and Google was just some small little search engine most hadn’t heard of.

My childhood was somewhat average for those who were born into families that while weren’t extremely wealthy, always managed to find a way to keep us housed and fed. My mother and father always did their best to take care of me. I was my mother’s first child and my father’s only child. They remained together until when I was around four years old. They would divorce and I would remain with my mother until I was eleven, seeing my father every other weekend and a couple weeks out of the summer. This situation reversed when I was eleven and I would live with my father up until I graduated high school and started my life (save for a couple of months in my senior year of high school where I stayed with my mom in Pulaski County… but more on that later).

When I lived with my mother, we lived in a house with her husband whom she had a daughter with, my half sister. Mom and her husband divorced around the time I moved in with my father. I lost touch with my mom for a couple of years but we eventually came back together again.

When I moved in with my father, he lived with his mother at the time in a small house in northern Bedford County Virginia. Most of my life’s memory starts to kick in around this time, I was around 11 years old. For a couple of years I didn’t have a bedroom and slept on Grandma’s love seat in the living room. I did however have a tote full of my toys I could bring out now and then to play, but it didn’t compare to having my own room, or even just a “kids room” for that matter. Nevertheless, I was happy and excited all the same.

Dad and I eventually moved into an old trailer in Thaxton Virginia. There will be more writings on the Thaxton years later, but suffice to say for now that it was an older model, run down trailer that was near impossible to heat, and yet, despite that it was home and those years cultivated some of the finest childhood memories I have, and I’m proud to say I had these experiences.

I attended Bedford Middle School (the former high school in downtown Bedford), and Liberty High School just outside of Bedford, graduating in June of 2000 (I was held back in the fourth grade one year). My junior high and high school years were okay. I learned what I could. I had a few friends, I had a few bullies, but most people just left me alone for the most part.

After I graduated I got my first full time job at Sam Moore Furniture in Bedford. I also married the girl I was seeing while I was in school, however that marriage turned out to be short lived and we split up in November 2001. On December 12th 2001 I sent my first message to another girl who would eventually become my forever wife, who played a major part in shaping my character and the person I am today. Her name is Elizabeth, but she often goes by “Liz”, or simply “Bean”. As of today (September 2026 she is still by my side. Really the rest of my life will be well documented on this site.

Here are some quick items about me that people always seem to want to know (even if they are too afraid to ask):

On Religion:

I was born in the Christian faith (Protestant Baptist, Wesleyan, and Presbyterian), however rumor has it there is some Heathen (witch) blood in my family tree (mom’s side), and just a little Cherokee Indian on my father side. Thus while I was always raised in a general Christian rearing, there were occasional references to alternative religious practices that I was exposed to from time to time.

When I was around 30 years old I dove deep into the Wiccan religion. This would last for about 10 years, slowly waning as I entered my 40’s. Today while I keep much of my Wiccan and Christian literature from years gone by, I have leaned more towards what I have called a “Mystical Christ centered lifestyle”, leaning heavily into the teachings of Manly Palmer Hall, with a peppering of mystical Judaism, and a little bit of the “old religion” thrown in for good measure.

Technically I don’t have a religion, but I’m not really what you’d consider agnostic either. I believe there is likely some “God like” entity that governs the universe and the laws of physics. I also believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ and accept his salvation for my sins. But I believe there is more to the overall message and spirit of Christ than what’s written about in the King James Bible, and I believe that one of the many purposes of life is to explore the matters of our soul to better ourselves and the other children of God. Jesus is my teacher in this matter.

I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I don’t claim to know what happens after we die. I believe that “God” is a part of everything, and everything is a part of God. Thus, when we perform acts of kindness, we are being kind to God, when we perform acts of malice, we are hurting God. These thoughts and notions will be explored deeper on this site (you can count of it).

On Politics:

Politics are tricky. There are so many issues to dissect, and it seems very few can be boiled down to simple “go or no go” type of answers. Generally I consider myself somewhat of a Libertarian, though only in some regards. My political leanings on various matters will likely be explored later on this site.

I generally loathe politicians. I’m not a fan of Democrats nor Republicans. There are a few politicians that I have some level of respect for for different reasons, a few of them include (in no particular order), Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Pence, Glenn Younkin, Rand Paul, Ron Paul, and Jimmy Carter. An unlikely mix of people I know… But again, my reasons for this will likely be explored in later writings. Each one has impressed me at least once in my life, and while I’m not claiming that I approve of nor endorse every single thing they do, these are people that, at the very least, I believe have their heart in the right place and are genuinely working for the betterment of our Republic.

I consider myself an independent. Over these last few years I have began to regard voting as generally a waste of time. With each passing election, those we choose to positions of high office seem to have no regard for the ordinary people they supposedly serve. At one time we considered this choosing the “lesser of two evils”. I no longer want to choose evil at all. When someone is on the ballot that isn’t evil, then to that person I can say, my vote is in play. Until then, I abstain. Again, not out of apathy, or laziness, but rather simply, that I am not impressed with the choices presented to me.

I’m generally not all in for unions. I don’t have a problem with them existing and understand their important place in the fabric of American history, however at this point in time, my leanings tend to be more on the side of private capital (you might consider me an “old school Republican”), NOT to be confused with MAGA. I believe the American economy works best with a base capitalist system along with strong social safety nets in place. I am NOT a socialist, nor a communist. I generally support the creation of a universal healthcare system for the U.S., however I am also in full support of a capitalist (private) solution if one can be found. We just need to do something to fix the healthcare mess. You may also discover in my writings that a few of my suggested solutions to various issues might involve a government centered approach.

I don’t do culture wars. I couldn’t care less what others do with their lives provided they are doing so among consenting adults. However, just because I don’t engage in culture wars doesn’t mean I fully support all alternative ideologies. I simply understand that in a free society, one must be free to choose their own paths in life, even if I don’t agree or fully understand it. I am not for theocracy and support a strong separation of Church and State.

Other various facts:

• My wedding anniversary to my soul mate (Elizabeth Palumbo) is May 16th 2003.
• Andrea Palumbo is not my birth name. I legally changed it in 2022.
• Andrea is consider a female name in the U.S., however many men overseas go by Andrea, especially in Italy.
• Some of my favorite foods are lasagna, beef pot roast with potatoes and carrots, chicken broccoli casserole, eggs over-easy, sausage links, cheese burgers, steaks, broccoli and cauliflower, granny smith apples dipped in creamy peanut butter, Little Debbie Nutty Buddy bars and Marshmallow Supremes (no longer available), Malt-o-Meal Coco Roos.
• Some of my favorite beverages are home brewed sweat tea mixed with 50/50 Kirkland Organic lemonade, Mexican Coke, regular Coca-Cola, Pepsi, the root beer Jersey Mikes sells, Root beer in general, Dr. Pepper (sometimes), Mountain Dew, chocolate milk (even though it tears my stomach up).
• I have found gainful employment in on site service repair work.
• I have lived in central and southwestern Virginia all of my life up until I was 43 years old, afterwards in October of 2023 myself, my wife, and our pup moved to western Washington State where we currently reside.
• We have no specific plans for the future regarding where we live. My wife and I are likely not finished exploring. Oregon, Texas, Arizona, and South Dakota are all areas we have discussed moving to in the somewhat distant future, however current plans are to stay around where we are at.
• My all time favorite state to visit is West Virginia.
• I currently don’t have a least favorite state. Each one I have visited has its own charms. However there are a few states I have no desire to live in, among them, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, most of the New England states. The first two are too flat with too much of a hurricane risk, the last ones just never really appealed to me for a place to live.
• My favorite founding fathers are Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
• I like collecting fairy figurines.
• I like tools and office supplies.
• I like the sound of an LP record over a CD.
• I’m not a fan of A.I. and believe it’s eventually going to be something humanity wishes we could uninvent. I also believe A.I. might be more dangerous to human survival than an all out nuclear war or pandemic.