Well, it rained off and on all night long. We love the sound of rain on the RV roof, but this was unwelcome as the golf course was cartpath only. We again had unreliable phone service, but just a few miles down the road we found Verizon! So, I called Jill, and we made plans to visit them, arriving Saturday. My substitute golf plans for the day were to visit Fort Necessity where George Washington achieved his first military honor at the start of the French and Indian War to be followed by a visit to two of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses southeast of Pittsburgh. We decided that since we still had 500 miles to go to get to Jill and Gord's, we would just visit Wright's Falling Water and skip the other stops. Over hill and dale again on twisty steep roads landed us there around 10:30, but for some reason, their tours were not going to be available until 2:30. VERY Disappointed. Okay, so that gets added to the future To Do List, too!
We let Garmin choose the route and we eventually found the interstate after spending a ridiculous amount of time on what appeared to be one-lane roads. We drove northwest, skirting Pittsburgh and stopped at a nice campground just south of Erie, Pennsylvania with EVERYTHING! Electricity, phone service, internet and even cable TV. We are enjoying civilization again! And on top of that, the weather is dry, sunny and in the high 70's -- perfect!
This will probably be our last post for this trip as we will be visiting with family and friends in Canada, New York and New Jersey. Enjoy the rest of your summer.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016: West Virginia's Seneca Trail
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| The antique store outbuildings |
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| We saw three of these Mail Pouch Barns. |
At the end of the scenic area of the drive (Elkins, WV, for those following closely, ahem) we decided we could use a tourist time-out and checked out possible golfcourses. Our first choice, a Pete Dye course that was built upon reclaimed coal mining land was not open to the public, so we looked further north and found a nice course in Morgantown, near the border of Pennsylvanian, south of Pittsburgh.
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| Drizzly evening so we didn't get a chance to enjoy the an outdoor Happy Hour |
Tuesday, August 16, 2016: West Virginia's Midland Trail
We followed the West Virginian local's advice and let our GPS Garmin take us to Midland Trail (Route 60) and it was quite the ride from the forest campground over hill and dale up into Charleston, capital of West Virginia before getting us on our intended route.
We drove through Charleston along the river and it looked to be a beautiful city. Instead of all heavy industry along the river, there were beautiful new and old mansions. Charleston is on our todo list for a future trip. South of Charleston, we saw many poor trailer home communities, many of which were derelicts, among the massive coal processing areas that were accumulating and loading the coal onto trains. We counted five parallel train tracks through the area.
We headed southeast into the mountains and opened all our windows to enjoy the wonderful late summer smells. We stopped at Hawks Nest State Resort Park that overlooks the New River Canyon. When I think of canyons, I think of the West with lots of multi-hued rock walls with a narrow bottom. This is a wide, tree-lined 585 foot canyon. We took a ski-lift down to the water and were thinking of taking the short jetboat ride up the river a bit, but the next boat was not leaving for over an hour, so we skipped it.
We drove on to Lewisburg, a decent sized town, where we planned on getting an urban campground with internet, laundry and phone serivce. Alas and Woe Is Us, the West Virginia State Fair is here - Now! State fairs are huge events in the south and midwest, and we got caught in a traffic jam, so didn't even bother trying to get a campsite in town and quickly checked our apps and campground books for alternatives.
We headed north out of town on the Seneca Trail (route 219) through pretty farm country where we saw barns painted the traditional red, at least the ones that still had paint! The road would leave the valley and the farmlands and climb steeply around tight switchbacks and then back down into another valley. One downhill stretch was 8% for 7 1/2 miles!
We found a nice forested campsite in Watoga State Park - another massive acreage facility with lots of recreational activities, including fishing, hiking, trail bike riding and in winter, groomed cross country skiing trails. But, again, no internet or phone and we are beginning to have serious withdrawal symptoms. I am even writing this blog entry offline so that I can post if we ever get internet again!
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| We followed the New River south alternating between poor trailer park towns and beautiful scenery like this |
We headed southeast into the mountains and opened all our windows to enjoy the wonderful late summer smells. We stopped at Hawks Nest State Resort Park that overlooks the New River Canyon. When I think of canyons, I think of the West with lots of multi-hued rock walls with a narrow bottom. This is a wide, tree-lined 585 foot canyon. We took a ski-lift down to the water and were thinking of taking the short jetboat ride up the river a bit, but the next boat was not leaving for over an hour, so we skipped it.
We drove on to Lewisburg, a decent sized town, where we planned on getting an urban campground with internet, laundry and phone serivce. Alas and Woe Is Us, the West Virginia State Fair is here - Now! State fairs are huge events in the south and midwest, and we got caught in a traffic jam, so didn't even bother trying to get a campsite in town and quickly checked our apps and campground books for alternatives.We headed north out of town on the Seneca Trail (route 219) through pretty farm country where we saw barns painted the traditional red, at least the ones that still had paint! The road would leave the valley and the farmlands and climb steeply around tight switchbacks and then back down into another valley. One downhill stretch was 8% for 7 1/2 miles!
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| View from the top of one of the mountains |
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| Many barns have ornate siding |
We found a nice forested campsite in Watoga State Park - another massive acreage facility with lots of recreational activities, including fishing, hiking, trail bike riding and in winter, groomed cross country skiing trails. But, again, no internet or phone and we are beginning to have serious withdrawal symptoms. I am even writing this blog entry offline so that I can post if we ever get internet again!
Monday, August 15, 2016: KY to WV
Change of Plans - again! Originally, we were going to drive from Kentucky northeast to New Jersey and then into Canada, back into New York and home. Due to scheduling problems with family in New Jersey, we decided to go to Canada from Kentucky - so we would drive NNE through Ohio to go to Canada and after the Red River Gorge we were planning to meander through the remaining northern part of the Boone National Forest with a couple of big lakes. But, we changed our minds again and decided to drive east to the Kentucky West Virginia border to visit the Hatfield-McCoy museum and a couple of the tourist sites associated with the Hatfield/McCoy feud.
So, we left our nice creek-side campsite in Natural Bridge State Park and drove west on the scenic Mountain Parkway to Pikeville, Kentucky. I ran into the Visitor Center to pick up a driving tour map of the Hatfield/McCoy sites, but while I was there, I learned that the museum was closed! Duh, it is Monday, and I know that most museums are closed on Monday. The brochure gave us lots of info about the 6 year feud that the media built into an American Legend, but quite a few Hatfields and McCoys did die at each other's hands during the feud. They officially ended their feud in the 2000's during a Hatfield/McCoy families reunion when they signed a truce. The tour involved quite a lot of driving and by this time, the temps and humidity were high, many of the sites required some steep hillside walking that Jack cannot do, so instead we opted to find a local park for lunch. We followed signs for a city park atop a mountain with views of the city, countryside and "the cut-thru" where they blasted a new channel for the river that had previously repeatedly flooded the city.
We drove northeast across the Tug River that separates Kentucky (McCoys) and West Virginia (Hatfields) into western West Virginia and got another great creekside campsite in Chief Logan state forest. It was a great facility that was more like a park with many picnic areas, a pool, and many campsites - all unused. There were only four RVs and no tenters, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, but quieter than usual with no internet or phone service.
After dark, a volunteer came by the check us in and he explained that without volunteers, the state would have to close the entire place to visitors.
He suggested that instead of trying to find backroads going north, we should drive further east on the Midland Trail, a scenic highway that cuts across central West Virginia and then take scenic route 219 north. Evening brought a few showers, high humidity, and the usual chorus of crickets, cicadas and other unseen nightlife. The one big difference between our two creekside campgrounds is that this one had bull frogs that added some bass solos to the evening bug concert and the creek moved more rapidly adding some pretty background tinkling.
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| Saying good bye to one of our favorite campsites |
After dark, a volunteer came by the check us in and he explained that without volunteers, the state would have to close the entire place to visitors.
He suggested that instead of trying to find backroads going north, we should drive further east on the Midland Trail, a scenic highway that cuts across central West Virginia and then take scenic route 219 north. Evening brought a few showers, high humidity, and the usual chorus of crickets, cicadas and other unseen nightlife. The one big difference between our two creekside campgrounds is that this one had bull frogs that added some bass solos to the evening bug concert and the creek moved more rapidly adding some pretty background tinkling.
Sunday, August 14, 2016 Red River Gorge, Kentucky
The drive is beautiful through lush green forests and we detour about four miles up gravel Chimney Top Road to walk out to see Chimney Top Rock across the Gorge. The gorge is not like the southwestern gorges because the entire gorge is filled with trees, so there is not much to see when looking down into the gorge.
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| Add caption |
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| At the Viewpoint for Chimney Top Rock |
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| Chimney Top Rock |
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| Jack relaxing at the Viewpoint after a 1/4 mile walk with quite a few ups and downs plus excruciatingly high humidity |
We returned back to the Scenic Byway where our next stop was Whistling Arch.
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| Standing atop Sky Bridge with a storm approaching |
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| Storm getting closer |
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| Decision time -- return or continue |
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| Fabulous rock formations walking around Sky Bridge |
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| The Sky Bridge from below |
We tried to stop at the Gladie Center that had exhibits about the geology of the area, but they were experiencing a power failure and we had to abandon finding out more about the fantastic rock formations we were seeing. They are not dramatic Utah red sandstone, but are beautiful in a less dramatic way because they are surrounded by green trees and vegetation.
We returned late afternoon to our creekside campground. The weekend campers cleared out and we miss the kids yelling out "I got one" while catching minnows and crawdads and screeching as they jumped into the swimming hole. What great memories for those kids!
Remember one of our earlier posts about the barns painted black? Well, we have heard differing explanations about "why black" but the most common one is that they used creosote mixed with oil to protect the wood from termites and it was less expensive than paint. Apparently, the dark color was also helpful to build heat to dry the tobacco leaves that used to be the primary crop, but now the barns are painted black as tradition.
Saturday, August 13, 2016: Natural Bridge State Resort Park, Kentucky
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| Barns are painted black in this neck of the woods! |
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| Picturesque barns dot the countryside, many abandoned to nature |
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| This "house" was an interesting amalgam. The side was tin ceiling material..... |
We lucked out and got a fabulous campsite in the Park right next to a small stream that flows to a deep pond that the kids use as an old-fashioned swimming hole. It even has the giant rock that they enjoy jumping from into the water.
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| Happy hour by the creek. |
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| The return trip to the top of the Bridge involved these steps and this narrow walkway |
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| Path to Lookout Viewpoint |
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| View of the Bridge from Lookout Viewpoint |
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| Camera Digital Zoom brings it close |
Glad we got out early as the heat and humidity were increasing rapidly. Back to our creekside campsite for lunch, a nap, enjoying the sound of rain on the roof during a couple of small showers.
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| Catching minnows |
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| The little girl on the left had just jumped from the highest point on the rock into the water without hesitation! |
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