I have lived and worked many places from cities to small towns, but I have never been in any place that affected me as much as Logan County.

For one thing, the people here are the friendliest people and the most caring and concerned I ever met anywhere in the country. But, there is something more with the town of Man that is hard to put into words.

Basically, even though I grew up someplace else, I get a feeling that the town of Man is my real home town. I get a similar feeling when I visit the Omar area. Ironically, I never get that feeling when I am back home in Warfield, Ky., which is where I’m from.

For years I have enjoyed eating meals in diners and restaurants in Man, visiting folks in businesses downtown and walking into town hall and talking with Mavis Toler, Dwayne Adkins and other city employees.

I have developed very good friendships with many people in the Man area. These are some of the best people walking the face of the earth today, I might add.

When I was in the hospital a few years ago following surgery, I woke up one evening to see my old pal Terry Fekete standing there in the ICU checking up on me. He even brought me a book to read as I recovered.

It was Terry who patiently explained to me the uphill battle I would be facing with diabetes just a few years before that. I had originally met Terry when doing stories about Man Hospital, where he worked for many years.

In fact, a LOT of people from Logan County came to see me in the hospital, most of who will never realize how much that meant to me. My youngest brother, who lived not far from here didn’t bother to come see me. But Terry, Larry Rogers, Martha Sparks, Richard Osborne, Keith Davis, Mike Browning, Jared Stone, Bill Armstrong, Chris Stratton, Jesse Adkins and a LOT of other Logan Countians did.

You will not find people like that in Lexington, Ky., I can assure you. We don’t just have the most beautiful scenery in the world here, we also have the best folks on the planet here, too.

Those friendships only strengthened my bond to the people of Man and Logan County. That’s why I care so much about the problems we face when traveling down Route 10 from Logan to Man.

It’s a treacherous road, that’s for sure. And many of the people who came to see me in the hospital made the trek from Man along the winding, twisting and narrow road to see me in the hospital.

I remember my first trip to Man on old Route 10.

Yeah, it was scary.

The thing is, Route 10 is not much worse than Route 292 from Lovely, Ky., to South Williamson across the Tug River in Kentucky. However, it is narrower. And only a crazy person would drive on Route 292 at high rates of speed.

I was riding to a meeting with Ben White, who was in economic development and the Rotary Club back then. He was flying down Route 10 at what seemed like 100 miles an hour. He was also talking to me and people on a cell phone that rang constantly. I looked out the window and over at what seemed like a yawning, bottomless chasm at one point. I had to gulp to keep my heart from jumping out of my chest and shooting out of my mouth.

We came to a screeching halt when there was an automobile accident in the road.

“This is crazy,” I thought to myself. “There are so many good roads in West Virginia and there is a back road to everywhere around Logan County so why are we on this old Transylvanian horror story-type road?”

Ben then got me even more frightened when he began telling me of the long list of the fatal accidents on the road in the past few years. Suddenly, my heart was no longer in my throat but I did feel a bottomless pit had opened in my stomach.

The trip back wasn’t as frightening. I didn’t worry so much about going over a chasm as I worried about going straight into the side of a rock cliff.

I do remember feeling slightly outraged that my friends in the Man area have to travel such a bad and dangerous road. Quite frankly, the people of Man and all Logan Countians deserve better.

Don’t get me wrong. On a slow, sunny day in the spring or summer, old Route 10 can be beautiful in spots.

But that beauty is deceptive.

You fully realize that when you meet a large truck or sport utility vehicle and especially when you come face-to-face with a coal truck traveling toward you halfway over the line because he’s got nowhere else to go.

That’s why I was at the Route 10 Committee meeting on Tuesday. I woke up late and had to rush to get there, looking somewhat disheveled (think Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now) but I did not want to miss the meeting and find out the latest on the New Route 10 Project. Hopefully, you have seen part of it in the paper by the time this column sees print. There will be more for our Sunday edition.

Following the meeting, I talked at length with my old friend Mike Pollard and Congressman Nick Rahall about the original cost estimate for the project — $230-$300 million — how much had been spent to date —$200 million — and how much it will cost to complete it — $200 million more. Congressman Rahall pointed out that technically at least half the project is completed, even though a lot of major work remains.

In September, paving for the section being worked on now should begin. An $88.6 million grant has been applied for that would fund construction on the next section. Even though it has taken many years, with community help, financial aid from our friends in Washington and some state support we could see the light at the end of the tunnel soon. And say goodbye to one of the ten most dangerous highways in the nation.