A Visit to the Bridge

 

Ann Marie and I hadn’t visited West Virginia in a while and so, when talking one day, we decided to take a drive.

        Leaving on Thursday we left early, as is almost always the case for us. We timed our departure so that we would arrive at Curbside on the Run shortly after they opened. We have started many of our trips from this coffee shop, why not this one also? Anytime you stop by, the workers are all smiling. With cups of delicious, freshly made coffee and a couple snacks we turned the car towards the south.

    The trip started out dark but slowly we started seeing more than just the silhouettes of the trees. Details started showing and then houses and streets appeared. We didn't see the sun until we were a bit past Carnegie.

    We leapfrogged on and off the highway, getting off to find some geocaches and to enjoy the two-lane road for a while before we returned to the higher speed road. One of the caches was hidden on the line separating the states. 

    A bit further south we encountered our favorite cache of the day. It was attached to a rubber hand hidden in a guard rail. Highway workers were standing near-by discussing their job when we found it, we should have showed them, maybe they could’ve used another hand… Another cache brought us to an old style diner. Opening in 1998 its time is almost over unless they can find someone to buy it and keep it in business. It provided us with a very good breakfast!

    Coming into the town of Weston we made our next stop at the Trans-Atlantic Lunatic Asylum. This huge hospital was being built when the Civil War started. The buildings were constructed to allow the patients plenty of sunshine and fresh air. When first erected it was intended to hold around 250 patients but by the 1950’s they had an excess of 2400. The conditions for the people weren’t very good towards the end. The facility closed down in 1994. Now owned by private owners, tours are held daily along with special events. Halloween is a big time for this site!

    We were taken on a tour by Nick a friendly young man who was very familiar with the history of the place. We were the only ones on the tour which made it an even better experience. Walking through these halls and rooms and hearing about what all happened in them really makes you think! 

     (I think that AMB may have been considering leaving me there, luckily they weren’t excepting any patients that day!)

    Rt.19 parallels rt.79 for a good distance into West Virginia. When the pair separated, we followed 19 towards Summerville and Fayetteville. We made a quick stop to walk out to the observation deck looking out at the New River Gorge Bridge before we got to our motel. All the people we met on this trip were so nice and congenial. We met James and Alexis on the overlook. Both were photographers and James had a film camera hanging around his neck. It is always fun meeting people with similar interests!

    That night we split a barbecued chicken in a near-by restaurant. We sat, BS’d and played hangman while we waited for dinner and laughed a lot. It was the end of a great day!

    The next morning, we got up for another early start. I woke up first and went out to take some night pictures. Venus and Orion were looking over my shoulder as I set up the tripod.  Later, after a quick breakfast we hit the road again. 

    Our first stop was the ghost town of Thurmond. Supposedly there are 4 or 5 people that live here but we didn’t see anyone while we were there. We had the town to ourselves! Not far from the town we had to stop because a train was crossing the road.  Once we had crossed the single lane bridge into the town, one that shares a railroad track, another passed by. Sunlight was hitting the mountains above us giving us a glimpse of the day to come.

    The main street of the town sits 15-20 feet from the railroad tracks. None of the buildings were open so we could only walk around them and look inside through the windows. The town was a coal and railroad town. Once the busiest stop on the rail line, it declined after the depression and even more so in the 50’s as steam engines were replaced by diesel.

    The sun was working its way down closer to the town. The trees and cliffs on the mountain tops were bright and colorful and the breeze from the river smelled good. Standing on the bridge we could see a fisherman way upstream by the sunlight reflecting off his rod and line. We found it hard to imagine that no one else was here.

    Returning back the twisting road we next visited Fayetteville where we got some lunch. This town was busy with lots of visitors who had come to see the near-by parks, the bridge, and to go rafting, camping and rock climbing. It was fun watching all the different people.

    We then drove to Babcock State Park where we saw the Glade Creek Grist Mill. It was only 7 miles away from Thurmond as the crow flies, but 23 miles by road. It was definitely worth the drive! When we arrived, we could hear children playing in the stream, they were climbing on the rocks with their parents and everywhere we looked, people were smiling and having fun. This is what more families should be doing, taking the kids out to explore nature! Go out in the woods and play in the streams, getting wet and dirty. The dirt will come out in the wash, but the memories will last a lifetime!

    Surprisingly, the mill isn't as old as it looks, it was built in 1976. It is a replica of Coopers Mill which was located near-by. Set in this picturesque site the mill actually produces flour which can be purchased at the near-by park store.

    We then returned to the New River Gorge Bridge. After enjoying an ice cream cone at the rim, we drove down under the bridge to see it from below. It is quite an impressive sight! It is the longest steel span bridge in the Western Hemisphere, and it is the third highest bridge in the United States. Once a year, on the third Saturday of October, Bridge Day is celebrated. On that day the bridge is closed to traffic and people can walk across it along with rappelling and parachuting from it. The bridge is so high that two Statue of Liberty’s could be stacked on top of the Washington Monument and there would still be space on top! It is 876 feet above the river.

    Calling it a day, we returned to our home base, the motel. Later, we ate an excellent Mexican dinner and then while driving back in the dark, we missed our exit. We ended up on a limited access highway and when we finally came to an exit, we saw a sign directing us to the town where the motel was. This turned out to be quite an exciting ride. There were no lights on the road and it was twisty. There were places where we made 180° turns, ending up driving in the opposite direction. The road went up hills that didn’t allow us to see what was over the peak; the brakes were used a lot on this drive. We only saw trees; a set of railroad tracks and an occasional house, the darkness hid everything from us. It was both fun and a bit scary! This road would have made an excellent rollercoaster! Some might call it getting lost but to us, it was just another adventure! We slept well that night.

    Saturday was the day we headed back towards Pittsburgh. Before we left the area, we stopped in the small town of Whipple where we saw a building that once was the Company Store. The building was built so that the owner could observe everything that went on in it from his perch in the center of the building. Built in 1890 it remained in operation until 1954 when the Whipple Mine closed. It became a “trading post” after a private owner bought it and later became a dinner theater and later a museum dedicated to Appalachian Cultural Heritage. Sadly, it has been closed for quite a while.

    We stopped at The Mystery Hole for a quick photo. It’s a fun site where for a small fee; you can experience a mysterious spot where the laws of gravity have gone askew. Of course, you can also purchase just about any type of WV souvenir you could imagine while you are there.

    Just a couple miles down the road is Hawks Nest State Park. We stopped here to take a final look at the beautiful New River Gorge before we returned to the highway and the long drive home. This site and some of the others brought back memories of the trip I took with my daughter Chelsey in 2008.  We stopped in Washington for a hamburger which provided the fuel for the final portion of the trip. I was unloading my car before 5.

    Over the three days, we drove a little under 800 miles. We found 19 caches, had beautiful weather and ate great meals.  We met lots of friendly, happy people and saw some truly spectacular scenery but still, it was great to get back home again. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; there is something gratifying about curling up in your familiar bed after a good adventure!