Day Four, My Trip Across the Mountains

For years now, I have traveled across the Allegheny Mountains to visit my parents. Whether it was flying in from the Gulf Coast and then crossing the hills or traveling from our home in Maryland, we've had a long, focused drive to get there. There was beautiful scenery and interesting things to see and do along the way, but because spending time with my parents was always more important than taking time out to see the sights we pressed forward without much stopping. But this year is different. With no more on our agenda than a family reunion on Saturday, Ward and I are going to traverse the state and see some of those things we have wanted to see for years now. And maybe find somethings to see that we didn't know about.

Day Four:

Telescopes, Towns, and Twisty-turny

Today we had rain showers on and off as we drove about 2 1/2 hours east to our first destination. Because of the different days of when things are open and closed, we are driving further some days than we originally planned.

We saw some breathtaking scenery today, especially at the higher elevations. However, we were only able to get a couple of pictures because there was no safe place to get off the twisty-turny mountain roads. It's hard to get perspective, but that mountain in the background is far away.

Our first stop was at the Green Bank Observatory. The observatory is home to several radio telescopes that can detect faint radio waves from far outer space. Because man made radio waves (think cell pones, gasoline powered vehicles*, etc.) cause interference, it is in the middle of a radio quiet zone. No chance of getting a cell phone signal for miles around.

This is the largest and newest telescope at the facility.  It is almost 500 ft. tall and weighs 17 million pounds. Recently it discovered the most massive neutron star ever found. We got this picture at the one spot we could get a photo before we had to turn everything off. The  Allegheny mountains that surround it help protect from man-made radio waves. That is one reason for its location.

I think this is one of the coolest places I've ever been. I was awed to be in a place that was detecting things from the "edge" of the universe.

Next we went to Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. As you might have guessed, they have regular steam engine train rides from here. However, the trains don't run on Monday, so we explored the town.

Cass was built in the early 1900's as company town for a pulp company. After about 50 years, the the business left and there was not much but a ghost town left. The state bought the town in the 1960's and made it into a park featuring the train rides up the mountain to where the logging was done. In the picture, you can see the company row houses that still exist. The whole town is now on the the national historical register.

Timbering is one of the oldest and largest industries in the state of West Virginia and still going on. We saw two log trucks go through town while we were there.

To take a break from the twisty-turny roads, we stopped at Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park. Droop Mountain was the scene of an important Civil War Battle.

The park was a pleasant place. You can see Ward heading toward the log cabin that houses a museum.

Until next time...

Day Three, My Trip Across the Mountains

For years now, I have traveled across the Allegheny Mountains to visit my parents. Whether it was flying in from the Gulf Coast and then crossing the hills or traveling from our home in Maryland, we've had a long, focused drive to get there. There was beautiful scenery and interesting things to see and do along the way, but because spending time with my parents was always more important than taking time out to see the sights we pressed forward without much stopping. But this year is different. With no more on our agenda than a family reunion on Saturday, Ward and I are going to traverse the state and see some of those things we have wanted to see for years now. And maybe find somethings to see that we didn't know about.

Day Three:
Destinations, Distractions, and Discoveries

Today was a transition day as we moved from the Parkersburg area to go south to a new base in Beckley. We had planned to take about a five hour drive to get there with one stop along the way. But we got distracted and it took us about 9 hours to complete our journey. But we discovered a lot of interesting, fun things. That's what is great about having flexibility.

We made an impulse stop at JR's Donut Castle before we even got out of town. In spite of having breakfast just an hour a go, I felt hungry as we passed and told Ward we had to go back. JR's has been making fresh donuts for 40 years and in fact one of my uncles started his day there every day for years.

We drove south along the Ohio river which forms the western boundary of West Virginia with Ohio. Ward has been curious about dams along the river since we saw it the first day. And, lo and behold, when we saw this sign we just had to stop.

This is one of 10 dams along the Ohio River and accompanied with four locks at this location. Ward is always happy when he gets to look at dam construction.

West Virginia is rich with natural resource of coal, oil, gas, and silica which means there is industry up and down the Ohio River using these raw materials. The river provides inexpensive transportation to get the raw materials to the plants. This is the APG Polytech plant along the river at Apple Grove, WV. The business went bankrupt a few years ago, but some of the employees convinced the bankruptcy judge to let them go in and shut down the plant properly with no pay. This kept the equipment in working order and allowed another company to buy it. The new owners reemploy many of the same workers and brought back prosperity to the town again.

Next, we finally arrived at our first planned stop for the day, Hillbilly Hot Dog in Lesage, WV. I only learned about this place recently when one of my sisters said I should visit it. Apparently people come from near and far to eat here and it's been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

It would take a tome to thoroughly describe Hillbilly Hot Dog, but basically it consists of several old school buses cobbled together with lots of junk artifacts piled everywhere that serves all kinds of hotdogs.  Ward had a nacho dog and I had a basic hot dog with chili and both were delicious.

After Lesage, we headed east away from the Ohio River. We were enjoying the change in scenery until we came up the Pumpkin Festival Parade in Milton, WV. All of the roads were blocked that we needed, so there was nothing to do other than stop and enjoy the parade. We watched with a group of very friendly people and now we have a standing invitation to stay with Jerry anytime we are back in town.

After the parade, we headed on our way taking the scenic route. We made another stop when we saw this sign.

The Kanawha Falls are natural falls where a water powered power plant was located. The plant has since closed and now the area has good fishing according to the several people we met with their poles in the water.

After our full, but fun day we finally arrived at our destination at dark.

Until next time...

Day Two, My Trip Across the Mountains

For years now, I have traveled across the Allegheny Mountains to visit my parents. Whether it was flying in from the Gulf Coast and then crossing the hills or traveling from our home in Maryland, we've had a long, focused drive to get there. There was beautiful scenery and interesting things to see and do along the way, but because spending time with my parents was always more important than taking time out to see the sights we pressed forward without much stopping. But this year is different. With no more on our agenda than a family reunion on Saturday, Ward and I are going to traverse the state and see some of those things we have wanted to see for years now. And maybe find somethings to see that we didn't know about.

Day Two:
Family, Friends, and Findings

Today was the event that was the impetus for our vacation: my family reunion. It was held at this little hilltop church.  Our reunion originally started when I was a little girl and my father and his siblings and families would gather at my grandparent's farm to celebrate my grandmother's birthday.  It has changed a lot over the years as the family has changed. The reunion was bittersweet today since this was the first year without any from my father's generation. The last sibling passed away a few months ago.

But a good time was still had by all as we caught up with each other, laughed at family stories, and of course, enjoyed great food.

After the reunion, we crossed the Ohio River to visit a high school friend, Julie, in Marietta, Ohio.

We took her somethings from my mother that Julie might use 

for creations she makes from old objects. Above is a lamp she made. 

See if  you can identify where the different parts came from.

After visiting Julie, we had a little time so we decided to explore Marietta and took a walk on the River Trail. Marietta is a town of about 14,000 that is located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers. The trail follows the Muskingum River and the garden club had several nice plantings along the way.

Also, along the trail, we saw several historical markers and displays such as the pilot house from the Tell City steamboat. If you want to know more about it, you can read below.

Then we walked around the historic district downtown and saw
interesting architecture including the county courthouse you see here.

Until next time...

Let the Adventure Begin, Day One, September 27, 2019

or My Trip Across the Mountains

For years now, I have traveled across the Allegheny Mountains to visit my parents. Whether it was flying in from the Gulf Coast and then crossing the hills or traveling from our home in Maryland, we've had a long, focused drive to get there. There was beautiful scenery and interesting things to see and do along the way, but because spending time with my parents was always more important than taking time out to see the sights we pressed forward without much stopping. But this year is different. With no more on our agenda than a family reunion on Saturday, Ward and I are going to traverse the state and see some of those things we have wanted to see for years now. And maybe find somethings to see that we didn't know about.


Day One, Friday, September 27, 2019

The first part of our trip was the same as always as we traversed Maryland on our way to West Virginia. We were armed with a full tank of gas, snacks, and sandwiches for lunch, so we wouldn't have to stop along the way if we didn't want to. However, I ate my sandwich before we even made it 10 miles from home.  What can I say? The excitement of the trip made me hungry. :)

Here are a few things we saw.

We entered West Virginia about half way through our five hour trip. Soon after this, we stopped at a welcome center to pick up brochures on some of the areas we plan to visit.

Next stop was Morgantown, West Virginia, to see the statue of Don Knotts. Don grew up in Morgantown and went to West Virginia University, which is also my alma mater. Since we visited the statue of Andy Griffith in North Carolina, I wanted to see this one too. In case you haven't guessed, I am a big fan of the Andy Griffith show.

The destination for the beginning of the trip was Parkersburg, WV. I have a lot of family history here and it is the location of my family reunion tomorrow.

One of the things I've always wanted to see is Blennerhasset Island--an island in the middle of the Ohio River near Parkersburg. To get to the island we took a 20 minute ride on a stern wheeler boat.

The captain let me "steer" the boat along the way.

In the late 1700's, the Blennerhasset family immigrated from Ireland and built a mansion on the island. The mansion was visited by many influential people including Aaron Burr.  Burr and Harman Blennerhasset, and others were allegedly plotting to set up an empire in the southwest. Thomas Jefferson accused Burr of treason and then the accused were on the run. After capture, trial and acquittal, Blennerhasset never returned to the island and the house burned down in 1811. In the 1980's using archaeological digs and detailed records from the time, the mansion was reconstructed and the area made into a state park.

That evening we had dinner with friends. There was a lot of talk and laughter as only old friends can do.

Until next time...

What's shakin' bacon?

Here's a little of what's shakin. :)

The reading theme for this summer at the library was a Universe of Stories. To promote this theme, the teens made a a space-like-picture t-shirt. There were extras, so I made one for myself. It was an easy project and has limitless possibilities. The orange background was made by spraying a bleach solution on the shirt. The other colors came from sponge painting. We used to get Astronomy magazine and there was a picture in the same style on every cover, so I think the universe theme was carried out well. However, the shirt fits Theo better than me, so I passed it on.

And this is why we have AAA. One of our cars wouldn't start recently and we used our AAA membership to have it towed to the garage. AAA is expensive, but one use recouped all of our money and more. With only a couple of days of car shuffling, the car got fixed and all was well.

It's that time of year again when we have the community fair. I entered several things and won several ribbons. However, I am proudest of a 2nd place ribbon for this mini flower arrangement. Flower arranging is a stretch of my abilities, so I was happy to be rewarded for my efforts. I was especially happy since I grew the flowers for it.

Recently, I tried a tip from Kris that if you add a teaspoon of cornstarch to your cookies,  it will help soften them. I was skeptical, but it worked like a charm in the recent batch of cookies I baked. These were part of a host gift for a family we were staying with for my niece's wedding.

This year we added a meadow garden bed to our yard. We are still learning about these kind of flowers so we went to a local park to look at this one. It was a Girl Scout project and contained both annual and perennial flowers. I particularly liked the splash of red the fire hydrant provided.

This weekend Ward and I will be going to my family reunion in West Virginia. After that, we will be vacationing and visiting several sights in the state. For most of our visits to my parents over the years, we have been very focused on the getting there and spending maximum time with them. Now we can go to some of the places we have wanted to along the way. I hope to do a travel log, so tune in starting Friday to see where I go. (Of course, all is contingent upon connections, etc.)

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday, September 22, 2019

I am thankful for good endings.

Several days ago Ward and I were driving along a busy highway when we saw a truck rush through the light in front of us. It looked like something fell out of the side of the truck, but we weren't sure until the truck cleared the intersection and we stopped for the light. Then we saw a stunned golden retriever puppy standing in the middle of the intersection. We didn't believe it, but we had seen a dog fall out of that truck.

Representative picture from
thehappypuppysite.com

Luckily the traffic had stopped going the other direction, so I got out and led the puppy off the highway. He seemed to be okay and we knew soon that that was true when he wanted to play just like puppies do. I kept him on the side of the road in sight so the owners could see us when they came back. Ward went into a nearby parking lot and then helped me look for any identifying information on the collar the dog was wearing. There was none to be found.


After what seemed to be a very long time (although time can play tricks on you when your adrenaline is rushing), the pickup returned and a young woman got out. She was visibly shaken and very happy to see her dog. She said something about they thought they had the childproof lock on, but maybe not, and the dog stepped on the control and fell out. She also said something about a disagreement she had with her dad, who had been driving, about the best way to travel with the puppy. But mostly she was happy to see her dog in one piece. And so was I.

So for a good ending to what might have been a very bad situation, I am very thankful.

Thankful Sunday, September 15, 2019

I am thankful for my dishwasher.

I don't like to wash dishes. I suppose it's not on my list of horrible things, but it's not on my list of fun things, either.

We saved this metal dish pan from my
 parent's things. This held our rinse water
while washing dishes.

When I was growing up, we didn't have a dishwasher. My parents always said why should they buy a dishwasher when they had four perfectly good ones already--meaning me and my sisters.

Every night after supper, my parents would retire to the living room to watch the evening news while we cleaned up the kitchen. My oldest sister was a good singer and knew a lot of songs so she usually led us in singing while we worked. I really liked that part. But the washing, rinsing, and drying were not so much fun.

However if truth be told, I spent the lion's share of my time goofing off and left most of the work to the others. One of my go to activities was to soak the label off a jar, tear it into little pieces, and put it back together on the cabinet fronts like a puzzle. The wet pieces clung well and I tried to make the pieces fit exactly right. While I enjoyed doing this, I had even more fun irritating my oldest sister. My younger sister and I knew just what to do to push her buttons. I'd like to say that I was mature and didn't bother her, but I wasn't and I did. We could always get to her by singing, "I Want to Be Loved by You" in the style of Mary Ann in one of the Gilligan's Island episodes. 

As time progressed and my two older sisters went to college, I assumed more responsibility in the kitchen. Eventually I went to college and my parents finally got an automatic dishwasher. They said it was time since most of their "dishwashers"were gone now.

Not having had a dishwasher growing up really made me appreciate the one I had when I moved out on my own. I have been happy to have one ever since. So for the convenience and help of a dishwasher, I am thankful.

It Takes a Village

You've heard the expression, "It takes a village to raise a child." Well, apparently, it takes a village for me to have people over. August was my month to host my book club and as I was preparing for the meeting, I realized that I was using a village to pull it off.

First I made some chocolate chip cookies because I just happened to have the ingredients for them. See the mixer? That was my mother's. I got it recently when we cleaned out her house. Before that, I had been using a hand mixer that I got when I went to college. It's much easier to use the stand mixer, let me tell you. Also, the canisters in the background were a gift from a high school friend.

After the cookies came out of the oven, I cooled them on this heavy duty cooling rack that was also my mother's. The metal is about twice as thick as the one beside it.

I served the cookies on this pottery dish from my sister in Maine made by a local potter there.

Next I prepared a vegetable plate with dip. The divided vegetable tray came from my mother's house and the dip bowl was my grandmother's. The cucumbers for the dip and tray came from Uncle Billy.

Then I fixed a fruit tray with yellow watermelon from Uncle Billy and the tray was new to me from my mother's things.

To add some salty to the mix of food, I had crackers and hummus served in a plate made in Kentucky given to me by a friend.

The drinks were served in glasses that were a gift from Ward's grandmother.

The napkins were from a friend at work who was giving them away.

And tablecloth (not pictured) was a gift from Ward's aunt in Guatemala. I didn't get a picture of the tablecloth so I'm using the cookies again. They turned out delicious.

So with my village of things, we had a successful meeting with good refreshments. 

But Wait, There's More for Inquiring minds:

Why did you spend over 30 years using a hand mixer when you wanted a stand mixer?
I ask myself the same thing. Have I ever mentioned that I have a hard time spending money?

What did you use for these plates and trays before you got them from your mother? 
I made do with whatever I could cobble together. I'm into practical solutions which sometimes comes at the expense of pretty.

Do you entertain very much?
No, and it's usually outside where we supply the meat and others bring the sides. Then we use our picnic plates which are melamine ones we got from MacDonald's years ago that feature the movie Aladdin.

What recipe did you use for the cookies?
The standard one on the bag of chips. I added a little less butter because I like chewy better than crunchy cookies. 

Thankful Sunday, September 8, 2019

I am thankful for my sisters.

My mother and father
with my oldest sister.

At the end of August was the first anniversary of my mother's death. It was also my sister's birthday. My mother died on the same date that she gave birth to her first child many years earlier. That may or may not mean something depending on how you feel about the cosmic connection of things. I feel like it was a coincidence. Maybe.

What I do know is I didn't want my sister's birthday to forever be overshadowed with the sorrowful day of our mother's passing. So I told her to start thinking ahead on how she wanted to celebrate. We couldn't ignore our mother's passing but that day needed to have more to it than the sorrow we were feeling.

My sister thought about it for a while and came up with the following. We should each say a prayer of thanksgiving for our mother's life and how well she lived it. And then have a hot dog with everything on it to celebrate my sister's birthday. So amid the tears, we each said a prayer of thanksgiving for our mother and then had a really good hot dog. Because of the distance between us, we weren't actually able to be together for this experience but we shared pictures of our special meal, some of them complete with birthday candles. We had a fun time seeing what each of us chose to make our perfect hot dog and wishing my sister happy birthday.

Here are all four of us,
ten years after the above picture.

So for shared experiences with my sisters, I am thankful.

The rest of the story:

I am not sharing the picture of the hot dog I had because I put candles on it with my sister's age. She may not want me to share that for 50+ various reasons.

Also, sharing common things from a distance is something my sisters and I have started to do. On my father's birthday, we have ice cream to remember him because that was something he loved. We all share what we did whether it was a trip to the Dairy Queen or a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce at home.