May 6, 2013 - Fayetteville WV

Today was wet, interesting, satisfying and frustrating. Sit down, be quiet and I’ll explain. We hit the road about 9:30 and headed north on US 19 a couple miles to US 60 east till we hooked up with I-64 east to The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs. This backroad route is slightly faster and about 20 miles shorter than taking the interstate the whole way so we opted for the trip back through Rupert and Rainelle this time. The weather was cloudy but no rain until about 30 minutes before we got to WSS, then it started drizzling which...

May 5, 2013 - Fayetteville WV

OK, pay attention. Today was kind of a busy one so I’m gonna fly through what we did. We left the bus a little after 9:00 and stopped at Bob Evans for breakfast. I have never been to a BE before so it was new territory for me. My review? Nothing special, but I was able to get a cheeseburger for breakfast which bodes well for a future visit from me. From there it was off to the New River Gorge Visitor Center to look at the exhibits and the bridge from the viewing platform. It was all really neat and the bridge is a very impressive piece of...

May 4, 2013 - Fayetteville WV

We pulled out of Grandma’s and headed north on I-65 to I-265 around the east side of Louisville, then eastbound on I-64 for 234 miles – give or take – until we got onto US 19 just north of Beckley for the 17 mile ride northeast to our home for the next 3 nights at the Rifrafters Campground in Fayetteville WV. We beat the rain that pummeled Louisville and the Derby and except for a few sprinkles along the way, it was a pretty uneventful 6 hour trip. There were 2 tollbooths on I-64 in WV and we willingly gave them $3.25 at each in the hopes...

Jun 27, 2012 - Visiting a Coal Mine

Today we went to Beckly to visit the Demonstration Coal Mine. There are a group of buildings representing the various things you would find at a coal camp. At the family home, there was a copy of the miner's pay chit. After the company took out lodging, food, tools (yest they had to buy their own tools and even dynamite), medical expenses, etc. this miner had $1.50 left for the month. We also saw a single miner's residence, a church, school and the superintendent's home. Then we took a coal train ride down into the mine and saw how the...

Jun 26, 2012 - New River Gorge Bridge

This morning we had breakfast at Biscuit World. It was really good. After breakfast, we went on the BridgeWalk which is a walk underneath the New River Gorge Bridge. They put you in a harness with an anchorline attached to a guidewire. You walk on a two foot wide catwalk with handrails on either side. It is thrilling and Sue thought a little scary. The bridge is 876 feet high, the third highest in the United States. It is a little less than three quarters of a mile long and the longest single arch steel bridge in the Western Hemisphere. The...

Jun 25, 2012 - The "Mon"

Today we took a scenic drive across the Highland Scenic Highway which runs along a ridge in the Monongahela National Forest in the Allegheny Mountains. Our first stop was to hike in to a set of waterfalls. There were three but we only got to two of them. The hike took us through woodlands with rhodedendrons blooming everywhere. Then back to the drive. Along the road are multitudes of wildflowers in pink, yellow, purple and white. There are several scenic overlooks along the way with grand views of the West Virginia mountains. At the end of...

Jun 24, 2012 - Goin' to West Virginie

Beginning Mileage 20234 Ending Mileage 20550 Gorge Gateway Center 130 Laurel Creek Rd. Fayetteville, WV 25840 304-574-1802 6/9/7.5 We got an early start this morning (on the road before 8:30am) to avoid the crowded streets of Pigeon Forge. The ride up was uneventful and very pretty. We had a little trouble contacting the RV Park to get a street address to put in the GPS but finally arrived without getting lost. When we got here, we had to wait for someone to come to the office then the first site did not have enough power, the second site...

Aug 1, 2010 - New River Gorge Bridge

August 1, Sunday: Today started out overcast and cool; we were hoping for a sunny day to do the New River Gorge. However, the sun was trying mightily to come out, and by gum (and chew it as old Mr. Bennett used to say) it made it by about 1:00. We drove north from Beckley to the New River Gorge Bridge, an engineering marvel. It is the longest single arch bridge and the second highest in North America. The span is 3030.5’ long and the arch is 1700’ long. The rise of the arch (from where it’s anchored on the mountain side) is 360’ and it...