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.
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| 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
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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
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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.
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| 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
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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
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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.
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| Great views from the top |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Covered bridge (yep, another one) |
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| McConnells Mill |
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| 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
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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.
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| Randyland in Pittsburgh |
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| It just screams "come on in" |
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| 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.
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| Palace of Gold, New Vrindaban |
The palace was originally to
be built as a workplace for Prabhupada,
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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.
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| 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.
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| West Virginia State Penitentiary |
2½ hours later we found out how it
compared. Pretty darn well. Thanks Chuck, you were an awesome guide.
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| Original entrance - it's also where they used to hang condemned prisoners |
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| The cells are 5' x 7' - Tom here is 6'3" so they're not very high either |
.JPG) |
| Sue protesting her innocence, Jean looking horrified (only because a stranger has her camera) |
