West Virginia

Istra's latest Facebook self-portrait, Charleston WV =)

 Well, we’re at the end of day 2 of our cross-country trip.  Our little car has been working hard and faithfully getting us from one place to another.  We are packed quite full, and the back is riding pretty low.  We went through the mountains of West Virginia none-the-less and it was beautiful.  We had to go slow on the uphills, patting the dashboard every once in a while to encourage our little car.  “You can do it.” –pat pat-  We really got to enjoy the green, yellow and a few reds of the trees on the mountains we were weaving around and through, and we went right through the place where I proposed to Susanna on top of Spruce Knob, the highest point in WV.

Champe Rocks near Seneca Rocks, WV.  The rocky Tuscarora quartzite backbone of the mountain in WV juts out to frame the pass like the walls of a fortress.

The WV mountains are much greener in early October than early April!

We haven't hiked or climbed any of them yet, but some day would love to see what the world looks like from the top.

We had an early morning at the Bluemont Cottage.  We had told Hayes, the teenage boy whose Grandfather Russel lives down the hill, that we would be up by 7 so he could start squirrel hunting.  We repacked much of the car, then set off to Winchester, VA to get a full sized spare.  By noon we had gotten a spare, repacked the trunk, found that we didn’t have the propane stove, knew the layout of greater Winchester, and were very hungry.  After getting PB and pumpernickel at Walmart, we felt better and then decided that this trip was going to be more utilitarian than we thought at first—better to get to LA with a car that hadn’t hit a pothole and broken something because of the weight than to find rustic places to camp and take our time.

We experienced two kinds of roads driving through the mountains of West Virginia.  Some were highways with long sweeping grades on causeways or bridges between mountains and blastways through ridges.  The rest were small roads that followed the winding river valleys and wound up and down and around the sides of the mountains.

The route we traveled included sections of the Appalachian Development Highway System.  We heard from Chip that the road system in West Virginia was developed to get resources like coal from the places where they were being extracted to the places where they were going to be processed or shipped.  Very few of these roads are through routes that can be traveled easily from city to city within WV let alone to the surrounding states.  The new highway system makes the sections that have been completed a little faster, but is also controversial because of the way that it changes the landscapes that it passes through.

We took the slow lane on the uphills and the downhills so we got to have more time to enjoy the scenery.  The sun stayed out long enough for us to really enjoy these parts, and by the time we got to the highway leading out of the mountain region into Charleston, we were surrounded by misty rainclouds until nightfall.

Istra exploring the rather boring room while I warm up some beans and quinoa for dinner.  Yum!

Istra meowed all night at our first night in the Motel 6 in Charleston, WV. Loud kitty meows, not soft ones. We couldn’t figure out what she wanted, except that she clearly missed the cobwebs of Bluemont and the good smell in all the hiding places. 

"Rraow...MEEoooww...MEEEEOOOOW!"

She’s perfectly good all day in the car too- resting peacefully in her box-, so it could be that she’s letting out all of her mews before we get in the car. I hope that tomorrow night is a bit quieter and more peaceful for her. Lord, please remind Istra that you are with her and that she doesn’t need to be afraid.