A Story About Life and Living It

Needless to say, I was happy to make it home to West Virginia. I practically sang "Country Roads" the entire trip up to that point. We began the West Virginia segment of the trip with a night spent at Blackwater Falls State Park. I had always heard about how beautiful it was during my time growing up but had never actually made it there. Sure enough, it was fantastic. In the morning we hiked down the boardwalk to the falls:

The water isn't actually black but is a very dark color due not to pollution or something unnatural in the water, but rather to the dissolved acids that comes from certain plants that live upstream.


This panorama is pretty neat: (As usual, click to enlarge)


The hike and falls were absolutely stunning. They come highly recommended if you're looking for an out of the way vacation spot.

On the way to Charleston we made a few stops, including a view of Seneca Rocks, one of the most popular rock climbing destinations in the eastern United States. Unfortunately we weren't equipped to climb. We'll just have to go back some day.


Just down the road from Seneca Rocks is the highest point in West Virginia, Spruce Knob. The drive up to the top is rather harrowing on a narrow road around hairpin turns. In other words, it's extremely beautiful.


There's a neat tower there and a fantastic view


Of course there's a USGS marker as well.


The top of the mountain was covered with spruce trees and huge boulders. Lani decided that they looked good for both surfing and Gollum impressions. When asked which picture she would prefer me to include on the blog she opted to go with Gollum. I guess after a solid week of camping we may have resembled Gollum more than the Beach Boys.


Lani couldn't help but wonder if hobos often use these benches for sleeping. I somehow doubt it.


On the way from Spruce Knob to Charleston we drove past the Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observatory but didn't have time to stop. We chose to stop instead at Cranberry Glades since Lani had just finished a class in wetlands ecology. The glades are a very unique environment. At 3400 feet above sea level there is a system of large sphagnum bogs which create peat when they decay (Lani dictated that sentence to me). This gives the whole place a spongy feel if you step on it. You're not supposed to do that, so they put boardwalks all over the place. Speaking of which, we walked on a lot of really nice boardwalks in West Virginia. Props to them for winning the "Best State Boardwalks" award for our trip this summer.

After several years away I was super excited to make it back to Charleston. We stayed with Ann Martin back on good old Skytop Circle. Lani had to live with a whole weekend of nostalgia as we visited with old friends and drove around on the "Chad history tour." On Friday night we went out to dinner with Colin Wood, his wife Emily, and their son, Eli.


On Saturday we drove all over town, including a stop at Kenna Elementary, which has shrunk in the intervening years since I last attended school there,


followed by a stop at John Adams Junior High (since renamed, but not in my mind).


We stopped by and visited with some old family friends, the Larsen's and the Bell's, who live near the junior high school. Afterwards we ran by the farmer's market and met up with John who drove in from North Carolina to see us. We took Lani by the capitol building and some other spots around downtown.

Kanawha River near the capitol

We looked for the name of John's grandpa on the list of West Virginia WWII veterans but, mysteriously, it was missing.


The memorial actually has the names of all West Virginians who fought in any major war. I've always thought it was a really neat memorial.


Afterwards we drove by Magic Island only to find a professional jet skiing event taking place in the Kanawha River. Huh?


We dropped by the restaurant where John Query is currently working, Pies and Pints, and had some great pizza, then spent hours visiting on the Martin's deck with Ajay, John, and Matt.

Ann doesn't know the people who are living in our old house so we didn't feel comfortable asking to go in, but we did admire it from a distance and also saw mom's bench.







Church that Sunday was one of the highlights of the trip. There were plenty of new faces there, which is certainly a good thing, but there were also dozens of old friends and people that I've known for almost my whole life. I enjoyed visiting with too many old friends to name. We also greatly appreciated dinner with Gene and Diane Pennington after church and a visit to see my cousin Cordell and his family.

We left Charleston on Monday morning and took the scenic route south, stopping by the New River Gorge Bridge, the longest single-span arch bridge in the world.

Click to enlarge

We went to Beckley to the Exhibition Coal Mine, a favorite tourist spot from my childhood. Any family members that came to visit were treated to a visit to one of West Virginia's most interesting attractions.

Old miner's home

The mine tour takes you into an abandoned mine from the 1890's and explains mining techniques from that time all the way up through today. It's a really neat tour.


All of the tour guides are retired coal miners, which means that have two things in common: they really know their stuff and they have thick Appalachian accents.


As one final stop in West Virginia we stopped by Tamarack, a facility that brings traditional West Virginia artisans together to produce and sell their hand-made art, including hand-blown glass, fine woodworking, and items carved from coal, among many other sorts of things. Unfortunately, it is all very expensive.


Ahhh... West Virginia. It was great to go back, but after a weekend there it was time to move on, at least for now.