A year with my sister, a lesson in survival, sanity and/or stupidity: Beautiful West Virginia and a Pitt-stop in Pennsylvania

John Denver was right when he said West Virginia was almost heaven. This state has some beautiful scenery. Several times the last couple of days I could swear we’re driving the Napier-Taupo road.

New River Gorge Bridge, Fayetteville

Stopped off at Fayetteville to check out, at the time, the World’s Largest Single Arch Steel Span bridge. Approximately 876 feet down to the water. Yeah, it was large but not a bungee jumper in sight. The walk down to the overlook was pleasant, the walk back up not so much. Ah well, got to be good for us.

From Fayetteville we made our way to the ghost town of Thurmond. I

Former railway station now
National Parks Office

don’t think it truly deserves the moniker of ghost town as there are still a handful of residents, the National Park Service has a visitors centre and museum of sorts in the old railway station and Amtrak still stop there. No matter. There are 3 of the old commercial buildings still standing along with the coaling station, post office and a handful of private residences. The town itself was squished between

The three remaining commercial
buildings in Thurmond

a hill and the river. The train track ran through the main street and the verandah of the hotel reached the track. There was also a huge steam train maintenance yard and turntable all built in that narrow area. The town started to die when they converted from steam to diesel. An interesting bit of history in that one small town.

On our way to the mountains we passed through and interestingly named town of Sam Black Church. Stopped outside a marker that reported on the trial of a man who was convicted by a ghost, the only known conviction of its type in the world. Not sure how the official who conducted the original autopsy missed that the woman had been strangled but justice prevailed in the end.

Conviction by ghost

Then it was into the mountains. Not as high as in Colorado but, oh so beautiful. Many steep grades and switchbacks galore. Love driving these kinds of roads. Not sure the people behind the RV enjoyed it as much but we did pull over whenever possible to let them pass. We stayed in an RV

We're gonna climb up to the
top of those rocks

park at a farm that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. In reality it was just a few miles from the town of Elkins. Once we had our camp organised we headed into the mountains for a bit of exercise climbing Seneca Rocks. Was quite knackered by the time we climbed the mile and a half to get to the scenic overlook. We then did a bit of scrambling over the rocks to get a better view

Lily white faces and big smiles
at the beginning

from the top of the rocks. They do recommend that you don’t do that last bit without climbing gear. Hey, we’ve got arms and legs. It’s okay Mum, we were careful. Focussed on having a cold beer once we hit the bottom even if it meant we had to drink it surreptitiously from a brown paper bag given there wasn’t meant to be any drinking in public here.

Great views from the top

Rosy red faces and if we're smiling it's only because we're having a beer out of brown paper bags

More scenic driving the next day, same steep grades and switchbacks but this time with the added pleasure of a thunderstorm. Just lovely. Stayed at an RV park just outside Pittsburgh. We were planning to head into Pittsburgh and see a few sights but decided to do some laundry instead. Truth be told, we got settled and couldn’t be bothered braving rush hour traffic plus we really did need to do some laundry. Walmart carparks are great but they don’t come equipped with washing machines.

Beautiful Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park

Spent a few hours the next day north of Pittsburgh in both Moraine State Park and McConnells Mill State Park. Did a drive through first on the south side of Lake Arthur (we’d heard a rumour there was a sword in a stone a la King Arthur here but it wasn’t to be) then went for a hike on the Sunken Garden Trail. It is well named. A lovely hike, some beautiful flowers but very boggy in places. Needless to say, our white running shoes became a lovely shade of brown. McConnells Mill State Park is just up the road from Moraine and boasts a mill, a waterfall and a covered bridge. More exercise (yay) walking down a lovely old shaded track to the mill and bridge. Took the obligatory dozens of photos then walked back up the track to the pick up. Not too onerous but, combined with our earlier hike, enough to make us forget about the waterfall in this park. My story and I’m sticking to it.

Covered bridge (yep, another one)

McConnells Mill

Road out of the park - glad we didn't bring the RV

We then headed into Pittsburgh proper where the highlight of our visit was a stop at Randyland. Randy Gilson is a waiter-cum-artist who adores

Could be one of our
mottoes for this trip

bright colours. His yard is like a kaleidoscope – everywhere you turn there is a new image and more colour. He likes to receive donations of paint but throws away all the dull colours. Probably a good thing I have polarised lenses on my sunglasses.

Randyland in Pittsburgh

It just screams "come on in"

Another brightly painted wall with a chairway to heaven

Leaving Pittsburgh and this corner of Pennsylvania we headed back into West Virginia where our first stop was the Hare Krishna Temple and Palace of Gold in New Vrindaban.

Palace of Gold, New Vrindaban

The palace was originally to be built as a workplace for Prabhupada,

One of the many beautiful
stained glass windows

the man who introduced Americans to the Krishna way of life. He died before the building was complete, however the devotees carried on with the construction and turned it into an elaborate memorial to Prabhupada. A word of warning if you’re planning a visit – the last 4 miles to the palace is on a narrow, windy road with lots of potholes. If you’re towing an RV, find somewhere to stash it for a few hours.

Outside the Krishna Palace of Gold

We had originally planned to visit another penitentiary – this one the old West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville. As this was hot on the heels of Ohio State Reformatory (see the last blog) we thought “how could this compare” and decided to pass. Since we were driving through Moundsville on our way south we decided to do a drive by anyway.