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.