Beautiful West Virginia
May 10-14-17
The social planner and driver, Perry, made reservations
awhile ago on the outskirts of a small town called Elkins, W. Virginia in the
Monongahela National Forest. The GPS
took us up a narrow road where we missed our turn into the RV park. We
eventually turned around a few miles down the road arriving at another unique
place called Smokey Bottom RV park. The
young owner told us to pick a spot (not many RV's at this place) which we found
next to a "babbling brook". We
were first greeted by a couple who were so excited to see our license plate
from California, she came up to us saying "finally, normal people". We weren't quite sure what she meant since
she had never met us. Comes to find out,
she was from California and hadn't been back in many years, missing her home
state.
The next day we made
an hour drive to Seneca Rocks to do some hiking. The drive was so picturesque with all the
greenery and rivers running through the mountains, spotted with century-old
homes and white-steeple churches. The formation of Seneca Rocks reminded me of
a small Yosemite. After, we ventured
over to a park called Blackwater Falls State Park which was magnificent!
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| Are we there yet ? |
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| Rock climbers were on Seneca Rock! |
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| Ahh....freedom! |
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| Beautiful Blackwater Falls |
Missing our Children
During the Derby, Kaylyn had her birthday but
three weeks later, David (our oldest) was celebrating his birthday. Knowing we recently saw Kaylyn and soon would
be seeing Brandon during the next couple of months made it a little
easier. David had recently gotten a new
job and wasn't able to make a trip out to see us. Technology is a wonderful thing, so we could
wish him a "Happy Birthday" over FaceTime. Taylor, his wonderful girlfriend of four
years made sure he felt special on his special day! His birthday always falls close to Mother's
Day (sometimes on the actual day) ………my Mother's Day gift…
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| The dearly missed "Birthday Boy" |
Perry and I attended
Church together on Mother's Day with the large windows looking out over the
mountains. Since being in the south, you
can't help but notice most of the churches have cemeteries on the property. Catholic churches typically don't, however,
this beautiful friendly church did. The
young pastor was newly assigned and pleaded to the congregation for guidance in
being a good, "hands on" pastor.
He had a good sense of humor and drew us into the Mass. We left with a
Mother's Day carnation and some parishioner handshakes….off to a great
day!
Perry wanted to take
me on a two hour old fashioned steam engine ride through the Monongahela
(Appalachian) Mountains. The scenic hour
long drive took us to a very small town that primarily was supported by the
train rides. We got there early so we
decided to get a drink before. We sat at
the bar next to a "crusty" grumbly old sort of man who turned out to
be the train conductor. This was going
to be an interesting ride! The small
crew shoveled in coal to the steam engine built in the early 1920's which was
used to transport logs back in the day.
They sounded the train whistle and off we went at a clip of 15mph. It turned out to be a lot of fun and we got
to know and like our conductor…….he was quite the character!
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| Appalachian Performers |
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| Mother's Day |
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| Not confusing, right? |
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| Our steam engine in the Appalachians |
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| The "crusty" old conductor |
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| A typical hollow |
(I am intrigued by
the Appalachians for many reasons but mainly the people. It's a different culture and from what I read
online the people originated from Scotland and Ireland settling in the
mountains. They found work either in the
coalmines or timber and most of the people over the years in the Appalachians
were uneducated, hard working, of modest means who were happy staying away from
the outside world. They are religious
Christian people but not necessarily affiliated with any one religion. They live a simple life!
There's something about W. Virginia that really
tugged at our hearts. We loved the
simplicity, the kindness of the people and the beautiful serene mountains. We're going to miss it!
Off to Pennsylvania and Amish
Country!
NEXT- AMISH COUNTRY, LANCASTER, PONY
BOY AND TRACE ADKINS!
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