take me home, country roads, West Virginia


old mill, Babcock State Park, WV

So this was our first visit of any significance to West Virginia. We have driven through the tiny tip between MD and VA, but I'm not sure we even stopped. I just want to say, the parts we were in, which covered a pretty big chunk from East to West, were mountainous, mainly forested and the roads were steep and curvy.  I joked that while Boston's roads were based on cow paths, I believe the West Virginia roads were based on deer tracks; up, down, sideways, any which way but straight!  And this is, of course, noted by the motion sickness queen.  I own the banner and crown.🤢👑 

Permit me two other notes about road oddities, at least oddities to me, then I'll move on to other things I promise.  Oddity number one: There was a fairly strong storm with rain, wind, etc one night. The next morning we encountered a  large (town, county or state?) snowplow "plowing" the roads free of debris.  Weird or genius???   Oddity number two: it appeared, in the area we were in at least, that the paving budget was stretched by preparing the entire road, ie both lanes, to be paved, but only paving one strip right down the middle, so you drove down the middle unless you met someone, then you have one set of tires on the pavement and one set on the "shoulder".

 Now, I'm not commenting on the practice of either of these "oddities", only that I've never seen them before, therefore, to me, they were … unusual? 🤔


New River Gorge NP covers a wide swath of West Virginia lore and legend, geology and geography, flora and funga and fauna, boomtown miner's camps to an abandoned landscape and a socio-economically depressed people to a process of reinvention of themselves and the use of their landscape.

It was a fascinating journey.


The New River Gorge

Hard to believe this little river cut through so much rock.  As Russell, my brother-in-law commented on the last issue, the New River was so named because the surveyors called it that. They didn't have a name for it and just noted it as the "new river" in their notes. The name stuck.

The bridge to span the gorge was completed in 1977. Needless to say it changed life on both sides of the gorge. Now they really were neighbors.

It took us 45 minutes to drive from the top of the gorge down to the bottom on the same side. 

A feat of engineering prowess. It opened Oct 22, 1977 and each year they close the bridge on the anniversary and allow the people from each side to walk and cross the river and gorge on the bridge that so changed their lives.


Another spot in the park where you could walk up stairs and along boardwalks to get a view of the valley.  

The park is noted as being a climbers paradise!


Rhododendrons!  We went on one hike where we literally hiked through tunnels of rhododendrons.

So the following are some of the flora that caught my eye …

It was hot in West Virginia too. Record high temps. Notice the wilting of the flowers … and the bee having a little snack.

and the funga …

and the fauna …


We took a tour of a coal mine. The tour was led by a miner who had worked in the mine for forty years. He showed us advancements in mining over the years, but it was still hard for me to be too enthusiastic about a process that so pollutes our planet and endangers the lives of the workers.

Coal camps (towns).  The houses, the store, really everything is owned by the "company" and the workers "rent" them as long as they can work. 

A modern kitchen.




These next pics are of an abandoned mining area, Nuttleburg. The building below is a tipple. Its purpose was to receive the raw ore from up the hill, sort and deliver it down to the river where the railroad was. I was fascinated by its geometric form, lines and structure. (Martin was more interested in the function 😂).


These next pics are the "coke" ovens where the raw coal was cooked down into "coke", a product used by steel manufacturers. The process produced noxious gases, clouds of smoke and fumes.


All that remains of this once "booming" coal mine camp a few foundations, some stairs leading ??? metal corroding, breaking down … as nature reclaims her own…



Another abandoned town, Thurmond had five rail lines running through it.

It still has active rail lines ...                               but they don't stop anymore.


Abandoned tracks across the river from Thurmond …


"snapshots"

bridge supports 

banjo art at a brew pub

water falling from the mill wheel

Where is West Virginia going?  Combining old and new. Trying to respect the past, but forge a new way forward.  I think West Virginia is in a time of transition and has much to be proud of as they strive towards the future.






Next stop Pike's Ridge CG, on the Green River Reservoir, Kentucky

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

Image
Craters of the Moon national monument, Idaho  Finally we fill in the Idaho sticker on the map. ❤️ We've been traveling thru the desert and Rockies for what seems like ages. It has been dry and rocky with shades of brown and tan. I do find the desert lovely, but it was May and I was ready for some green. I thought surely Idaho would have green and it did, only not where we were going. We went to a “unique” volcanic landscape. Yup, volcanic. Not much green there.  Of course, it was really interesting and the campground and camp sites were right down in the lava flow. I mean, when do you get the opportunity to camp in a lava flow??? (But, truth be told, I was a bit grumpy about the whole thing, sorry  Martin.) Now, I don't want to be accused of exaggerating, there was a bit of green; an occasional tree, spots of grass and some lichen. As I've pointed out before, lichen can be used as a measure of the air quality of a park, so while there may not be many plants involved in re...
Read more

a new year of travel, a new adventure

Image
A new travel year with a renewed sense of purpose, “The Give-Back Year” We joined Habitat for Humanity, Care-a-Vanners, and the Methodist Church, NOMADS, and headed out to see what we could do. Even if it is but a drop in the ocean (considering our current political climate) I can only hope our drop will create some ripples and help provide some relief for someone in a time of need. Perhaps even an opportunity to break a cycle and truly create a better life. All I know is that I have received so much that is good in this life, the least I can do is try to pass some along.  And so, we venture forth… This was definitely going to be a new sort of adventure. Martin was pretty skilled for this type of work and ok.  I had worked on the local Habitat for Humanity houses a few times,  dropping in for a day when I could,  and we'd certainly done a lot of work on our house over the years. But, my ace-in-the-hole, was that my father and grandfather had both been car...
Read more

White Pass and Skagway

Image
White Pass and Skagway, Alaska! We made it! Our first stop in Alaska. My eyes were wide, my mind was open and I was ready to experience Alaska, whatever it held in store. But before I get into Skagway, I just have to talk about the drive from Whitehorse through the White pass.  It was so beautiful, so stunning, so unusual. As I said in my last post, I know we were still a long way from the Arctic circle, but it just felt like we were there, in the arctic. After leaving Whitehorse and making our way up through the mountains we came upon a most surprising site. A desert with sand dunes! Say, what? I'm not kidding, but I'll explain more with the pics. Continuing up over the mountains there is a section of highway where it is relatively flat, lots of water, lakes, rivers, few to no trees, (and the ones that are there are misshapen), shrubs, rocky, barren, much still covered with melting snow and ice surrounded by mountains off in the distance. White mountains. S...
Read more