Sunday, November 14, 2021

The almost camped in Charleston camping trip

 



November 2021

 

We had reservations for a week long stay at Huntington Beach State Park. It’s not far from home it’s so not an epic adventure but we like it there and we didn’t have anything planned for November.

 

Just prior to the trip we got an email notice that the Mavericks had rescheduled their thrice cancelled concert in Charleston. It was the night before our arrival date at Huntington Beach. We booked the tickets to the Mavericks, that was a given, we have been trying to see them perform for quite some time. There is a post about that here on the blog.

Raul Malo of the Mavericks


At first I thought of taking the RV to Charleston for the concert and then driving back to the state park the next day. Our campground of choice had no vacancy and we didn’t want to go to either of the other two in the area. It was kind of crazy idea anyhow; we can easily drive to Charleston and back.

 

The next issue that came up was the weather. Adverse rainy weather was predicted for the next several days. We figured if we were going to be stuck inside we might as well be home. Luckily I made the reservation in two parts and I was able to cancel the first four days and keep the remainder of the trip.

Site #6 at Huntington


 

Tuesday November 9th we picked up the RV and drove the short distance down to Huntington Beach. The weather was perfect as we set up in site #6 and it remained nice for the next three days.

 

I achieved my primary goal of waxing the RV; I also was successful in cleaning the mold off of the awning fabric. We also walked over to the ocean each day. Huntington Beach state park has gotten noticeably busier the last few years but it is still a pleasant experience. The beach is the best in the area and never seems crowded even when the campground is full.



 

I gained more experience cooking on the griddle, not chef quality yet, but not bad if I do say so myself.

 

November 12 our reservation was over, on the way out we thoroughly drained and rinsed the tanks, towed the RV back to A and A Storage and covered it with our storage cover.

 

And so it ends, this was the last trip of 2021. I spend a lot of time at the RV working on several projects but we’re looking forward to 2022 and more traveling.





Wednesday, November 10, 2021

The One Day Tour #2

aka 

The Maverick's

November 4 2021

Myrtle Beach to Charleston SC. (90 miles+/-)


 A current favored band of Millie and I is the Mavericks. We’ve been hoping to see them perform live for a while now. We thought it would happen in 2019, then 2020 but china fever stopped those dates. It finally happened in November of 2021.

 

Like the twice cancelled Gene Watson concert, we had planned the Mavericks concert in conjunction with a road trip. In both cases we ended up driving to the concert and then home again the same day.

 

First the Mavericks, the best band you probably have never heard of, who are they?



 

The Mavericks is a genre-defying American band with a musical style that has been described as an eclectic mix of neo traditional country, Tex-Mex, Latin and rockabilly.



 

They’ve been around or more correctly they have journeyed since 1989 in a state of flux. They have more X members listed on Wikipedia than current ones. Only two have been with the band since the beginning in 1989, band leader Raul Malo and drummer Paul Deakin. If the bands story was written as a play it would be a melodrama.

 


Despite all the ebbs and flows of the bands success they still have a loyal fan base who embraces the group’s eclecticism. The fans, like the bands musical style cannot be pigeon holed into one group. The concert we attended had fans between the ages of say 35 and 80+. For the most part they looked well healed, but we were in the Charleston Music Hall in the downtown high rent district. High brow or not when the music started they were dancing in the aisles, or some reasonable facsimile of dance. As they were predominately white people, a lot of them were challenged in the rhythm department. By the end of the show, most everyone was standing and as spirited as the bands upbeat tempo.



 

Millie and I, no we stayed seated all the way up to the song they end every concert with, “All you ever do is bring me down.” We were seated high in the back of the theater so we could see over all the gyrating down in front and didn’t feel out of place by staying in our seats. I might add, during all this alcohol fueled teen like behavior of the crowd I couldn’t help but feel relieved that I gave up my fourth row seats when the show was rescheduled last year. I would have been pissed if we were in those high dollar seats and couldn’t see past the mob. If we ever go to another, I will pick balcony seats, well above the fray.



 

Don’t take that last paragraph in a negative light, it was a high energy performance by a fantastic band and an enthusiastic audience, we enjoyed it immensely and were thrilled that we finally got to see them perform in person.



I feel like another of our important bucket list items has been checked off; Stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon…..check, drove the Highway to the Sun in Glacier National Park….check, saw the Mavericks perform live…..check!

 

 

 

Just the facts: two hour drive from Myrtle Beach to Charleston. Stopped for dinner on the way at TGI Friday’s in Mount Pleasant.  The ride home from 10 to midnight was the smoothest trip yet in this area, light traffic and all green signals thru Mount Pleasant and an empty road most of the way to Myrtle Beach. Our tickets with taxes and ticketmaster fees were just under $100 each. The fourth row tickets I had purchased but got refunded when the show didn’t go on……you don’t want to know!





 

 

 

The One Day Tour

aka

Gene Watson Concert

September 5, 2021

Myrtle Beach to Newberry SC (200 miles +/-)

Gene Watson…..Finally!

 

One of the unsung great performers of country music is Gene Watson. Only recently invited to become a member of The Grand Old Opry, for a long time he never got the respect he deserves in the industry. I don’t think he ever kissed up to the Nashville establishment. Every year he tours in an old bus, sings traditional country for his fans and then goes home to his garage in Texas to work on hot rod cars.



Millie and I have been fans of his for quite a while and we always held out hope that our traveling path would have a confluence with his touring schedule somewhere along the road.



 

And so it was in the summer of 2020 that he was to appear at the Newberry Opera House which is about two hundred miles from our home in Myrtle Beach. It’s over in the center of the state about forty miles west of Columbia, our state capital. No problem we thought, we’ll make it part of a road trip. This is how the Georgia and South Carolina High Points tour was conceived.


Unfortunately, the china virus happened and the concert was postponed until January 2021. Thinking we would not want to take the RV in the winter we started looking into hotels in the area. Early in December the venue emailed me again, this time the concert was cancelled. I was issued a credit to be used at a future date.

 

In July I received another email from Newberry, Gene Watson had been rescheduled and were we still interested? I called them right away and scored seats in the third row. Once again we started making travel plans for travel to Newberry. The show was finally going to happen on September 5th.


This time we held off on travel commitments and in the end we decided to drive to the show and back home afterwards, just in case it was cancelled again. It was a four in the afternoon show so we would not be driving late at night.

 

Interior of the Newberry Opera House

The Newberry Opera House is old, but appeared to be well preserved. The theater is on the 2nd floor, I think the first originally held the town offices. There was only one stairwell for the audience and one small elevator. I know there must be a stairwell for the performers behind the stage and I decide that will be our emergency exit, should the need arise. I think like that every time I’m with a crowd in a confined space, it’s just what I do. I’m not paranoid, just prepared.

 

The crowd was seated without any social distancing, that was ok with me I’ve had the Krippin vaccine! lol (movie: I am Legend) Actually the audience was 100% senior citizens and I’m sure they were all vaccinated.

Lifted from the net, not Newberry


 

Gene Watson and his band came out promptly at 4pm and played without any intermission for 90 minutes. He played all his hits and interjected short stories about each song between them.

 

Gene and the band

Mr Watson is 76, but his voice is still bracing, clear and emotional, just like it was when his songs were hits in the 70’s and 80’s.

The stage from our seats. I'm blaming the poor photography on LED stage lighting!


 

Our seats were great watching the show, but not for photography, we were below the stage and the lighting was such that I couldn’t get any good pictures. Most of the pictures here are lifted from his website; I don’t think he will mind.



 

We enjoyed the concert thoroughly. On the way home we drove to the east side of Columbia and stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. The journey home was pleasant in light traffic once we passed the Columbia area.

 

Was Gene Watson bucket list worthy……..What the heck, why not………….CHECK!

 

 




Thursday, October 14, 2021

The Generator Trip

 



We only took one road trip in September 2021 and it was of short duration. I was in the middle of a project at home which I did not write in my journal and now for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I could probably reference my Amazon and Lowes purchases and use deductive reasoning to solve this mystery but it's not that important. 

Millie's sister lives where we would all like to be in these turbulent times. She has a home on twenty acres in probably one of the most isolated areas of Virginia. Unfortunately, her husband Paul is suffering from Alzheimer's and Betty is tasked with everything. One of her fears is a prolonged power outage, and these happen frequently in the long winter months.

As an electrician this is something I could help with, so we put a plan into action. We acquired all the components we needed and loaded up the truck with tools, common electrical parts, the specialized generator transfer circuit panel and my big 8000 watt 120/240 volt generator. 

Monday October 11 2021. There are a couple different routes you can take to get to Konnorock Virginia, this trip we took one of the more direct ones. All the trips to the area of Virginia Millie is from start out the same, route 544 from Myrtle Beach to Conway, then Route 501 to just past Marion. We take route 38 to Rockingham or some variation of 38 to Rockingham, the goal being picking up I-73/74 and going north. On this trip we exited the combined 73/74 north of Ashboro staying on I-74 and heading west toward Winston-Salem. We left the interstate system for Route 421 and continued west, ultimately ending up on local road 21 to Sparta, the last town we would see in North Carolina. Continuing on 21 we intersect Virginia route 58 in the town of Independence. West on 58 and we're only about an hour from Konnorock. The route may sound complicated; but I don't even need a map anymore, and Millie of course could run it blindfolded.

The trip is +/- 320 miles, we arrived in the afternoon after about a 7 hour run.

Our campground of choice when we go to Betty's is Grindstone in the Jefferson National Forest. Unfortunately, it is closed indefinitely. A failure of the sewage treatment system is what I heard. Because we don't plan on being here that long we parked the RV on Betty's property. Typical mountain land, finding a level spot to park on was a challenge. It was down the hill from the house so we just boondocked, using our smaller generator for power. Yes, I brought two generators with me. 

Camp Pedigo


After spending a pleasant night in our mountain camp we hit the bricks a running on Tuesday morning. The utility company to generator transfer switch and generator circuit panel install didn't take as long as I thought it would and it was complete by midafternoon. 

My original intent was for Betty to pay for the installed parts and I would leave the generator there for as long as she needed it. I gave Betty a tutorial on starting the generator and using the transfer switch panel, which she had no problem learning. She must have been pleased with the setup because she told me she wanted to buy my generator. A satisfactory ending for both parties.

With an impending cold front approaching and my project waiting for me at home we decided that we needed stay no longer and on Wednesday morning we drove home. we used pretty much the same route south and arrived in the afternoon. 

I still don't remember what it was that was so important that was waiting for me at home?





Tuesday, September 28, 2021




 

The catwalk Road Trip


 

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

 

Departed the house at 10 am and drove to the storage lot to pickup the RV. Today we drove about 300 miles to Fancy Gap Virginia. Once again the little truck pulled the RV up the long incline at the gap with very little effort. 3000 rpm’s in 5th gear doing 70 mph. With the old truck we would have been in the slow truck lane doing 25 mph by the time we got to the top.

 

We stopped once for fuel and lunch at the Pilot station just south of Asheboro on I-73. Took on 13.7 gallons of fuel.

 

Our overnight stop and the destination for today are both at the same exit. We stopped at the Fancy Gap Pottery because we got to it first. Millie shopped (successfully) for fabric to recover our foot stool in the RV and for a future foot stool I haven’t made yet. I found some glazed pottery bird baths and after much discussion between us, we settled on a cobalt blue one. It will replace the homemade one in the back yard.

 

Route from Myrtle Beach SC to Fancy Gap VA

Just down the road from the pottery is our overnight stop, Fancy Gap KOA campground. It is without a doubt the nicest KOA we’ve ever stayed at. KOA franchised campgrounds have been around for a long time and some of them really show their age. This one has been rehabilitated and it is a first class park, we will stay here whenever we pass thru this area. Wi-Fi was good for a couple minutes and then slowed way down, everyone trying to stream Netflix this time of the evening I guess. I switched over to our jetpack, 4 bars 4G very fast. I think Millie is still on the campground WiFi and appears to be doing ok.

 

Weather is cooling down nicely here in the mountains; we will sleep with the windows open tonight. We left the RV hooked to the truck, we're just here overnight and will be on our way in the morning.

 

At the Fancy Gap Virginia KOA

Wednesday September 8, 2021

 

Fancy Gap VA to New River Gorge Bridge WV

We drove about 140 miles today from Fancy Gap Virginia to the town of Gauley Bridge West Virginia. Every major road in West Virginia seems to be weaving a path through rugged mountain ranges and our course today was no exception. Mountains are no problem for the truck and travel trailer combination, so we just enjoyed the spectacular scenery.

 

God's country

We fueled up before leaving Fancy Gap and topped off again when we neared our destination. We took on about 14 gallons each time. Our campground is about 16 miles off of Hwy 19, the main road through the area. This section of Route 16 is a winding narrow road that ran alongside the New River. There were many 8 and 9 degree hill climbs or downgrades; it seemed the road climbed from the bottom of the canyon to the crest several times as we followed the river to the New River Campground.

 

View from our campsite at New River Campground

It is not a resort campground by any measure but it has hookups and is for the most part a transient campground, I did notice a couple RV’s that appear to be here permanently or maybe for the season, but it doesn’t feel like a trailer trash park. No cell service or WiFi. We did have a waterfront site on the New River which was nice.

 

New River CG in town of Gauley Bridge WV

After setting up the RV we drove back out to the New River Gorge Bridge on Hwy 19. We had two objectives, finding the outfitter for the catwalk tour tomorrow and visiting the scenic overlook at the visitor’s center. I checked in with Bridge Tours and we then walked the 178 steps to the observation deck that looks out at the iconic steel arch bridge, the largest one in the northern hemisphere.

 

walkway to bridge observation deck

We didn’t go into the visitor’s center, mask required to go indoors and the museum is closed due to the china virus. We said no thanks; everything you can see in there can be viewed online. 

The New River Gorge Bridge from the Visitor's center overlook


On the way back to the campground we stopped at a waterfall we had seen from the road. It had little water flowing over it but it was very pretty, my photos will probably not do it justice.

 

Small waterfall alongside the road 

Forty some years ago (+/-) I rafted under the Gorge Bridge for the first time. It was a very memorable experience for me because during the decent through one set of rapids I became the oarsman and steered the raft through the turbulent waters.

 

View from the river

My promotion from passenger to leader happened incredibly fast. As we crested the pool of water above the rapids, our guide had misjudged his course and smacked headlong into a boulder as big as a Volkswagen. The raft stopped instantly and catapulted the guide over all our heads and lucky for him, over the volksrock and into the churning waters some thirty feet downstream. The massive water flow of the river quickly spun the raft around the rock and down the rapids we went, sideways. All the other passengers who had looked back to see what the guide was doing, got the deer in the headlights look of fear when they realized he was gone.

driverless

 



I would imagine people who do heroic things, used the same forethought as me. I didn’t think anything, I bolted up onto the platform that ran across the aft portion of the raft, grabbed the long steering oars and got the boat’s pointy end heading downstream. I instinctively knew how to steer the raft and we sped through the hundred yards of remaining rock obstacles, chutes of speeding water thru narrow rock openings and swirling jetty’s that will suck a man under.

 

What I thought I looked like!

We slipped into the next pool of still water, the maelstrom of white churning water now behind us; I maneuvered the boat to our guide, who had ridden thru it all with just his life jacket.

 

At the time I was somewhat slighted by his demeanor after we pulled him back into the raft. I received no thanks, no good job, nothing; he just crowded me off the platform and took over his position as guide. Looking back, he was probably stunned, embarrassed or maybe in shock about the whole incident. Me, I was on top of the world and the memory of that brief moment of greatness remains with me all these years later.


 

Back to this trip, why have we driven 500 miles to come the bridge that towers above the waters of the New River? I'll get to that in a moment, but first let me tell you about this iconic structure. It was designed to compliment the wilderness that lines the rugged sides of this almost 900 foot deep gorge. It is made with special steel with a rusty finish that actually protects it from further corrosion. In the 40+ years since it was built it has never been painted. Crossing it in a car the roadway stays level and you may not even notice the gorge.

One of the few level stretches of road in West Virginia!


BTW; this bridge was not any kind of modular construction; instead it was built piece by piece by skilled tradesmen, American Ironworkers. It is an example of the USA at it’s finest! Ok, I know you want to know how many workers died building the bridge. Just one.

 

Skilled trades built America!

At some point I probably would have brought Millie here to see it, but it moved to the top of the “places to see” roster when I discovered you can now traverse the catwalk underneath the road bed. The catwalk is two feet wide, 3000 feet in length and river is 852 feet below. When I read about this, I knew I just had to do it; my appointment is 11am tomorrow. 

under the roadbed

 

Thursday September 9, 2021

 

Millie has opted to stay at the RV while I walk the bridge. I arrived at the outfitter at 10:30, filled out the disclaimer; you know the one that says the outfitter is not responsible for anything that happens to you. Promptly at 11, our guide instructed us on how to get into our safety harnesses and how to use the lanyard and cable trolley. Next was a short bus ride to the base of the bridge, we then had to walk down a trail to get to the catwalk.

 

Our guide taking photos for the group

Once we were all (there were 12 of us) hooked to the safety cable we started our stroll across the underside of the bridge. The walkway is 2 foot wide diamond plate steel and there is a handrail of steel (everything under the bridge is made of steel) about 40 inches high. We are connected to a safety cable that runs the entire 3000 foot length of the catwalk. There is lots of large structural steel around us but if you look straight down, it’s a long ways to earth.

 

Looking straight down at the river

Our guide would periodically stop to give us some facts about the bridge, its construction, and also the New River National Park which we are in the midst of. It was very casual and you could stop and take pictures whenever you wanted. There is a mated pair of peregrine falcons that keep the truss work almost bird free with only a small group of pigeons at the south end. I think the falcons leave them there as a reserve food supply.

 

The catwalk tour (2021) cost is $72 plus tax = $80. Is it worth the cost, it certainly was to me!

 

Looking towards the original river crossing bridge down in the gorge

Bits and pieces: I spent the afternoon of our last day here writing this blog. Our meals so far on this trip have been leftovers from home and Wendy’s drive thru. Nightly entertainment has been DVD movies for the most part, especially here in central West Virginia. Campground WiFi is a joke and cell service is spotty. I think some of the hollers around here still have to pipe in sunlight! Our next destination is on a farm which has a few campsites with hookups. We don’t know yet if we will have data quality internet service there. The farm is near the town of Elkins and we will be there for three days. While there I will get the griddle out and create more of what I call “cowboy” cooking. I don’t really know what I’m doing but it usually is eatable and at times is pretty darn good!

 

Friday September 10, 2021

 

Travel from the New River Gorge to Elkins WV

Drive today was about 140 miles, instead of taking the most direct route which included some interstate highway we took an alternate route on two lane country roads. It was a wonderful ride thru the mountains and up thru a long series of valleys in the Monongahela National forest. There wasn’t a mile of it that was straight and level, it was all uphill or down with s curves and switchbacks all the way, this is the way to see the country!

 

The farm lane to the campground

We arrived in Elkins West Virginia at about 1:30 in the afternoon. The campground had given us instructions to not believe the GPS, but follow their directions instead. Seeing how the GPS couldn’t even find the road the campground was on, that seemed like good advice.

 

One of the dilapidated buildings on the farm/campground/music venue?

The campground is on a farm outside of town, that was something new for us and we were looking forward to it. It turned out to be an old dilapidated place; it hadn’t been farmed or taken care of for a long while.

 

Our camp site, well it was quiet!

The campground was in pretty good shape, utility hookups were good, the site was solid almost level gravel. One thing that was in need of attention the grass, it seriously needed mowing. If the previous camper hadn’t flattened it with a large mat in the area outside the door of the RV it would not have been acceptable. But then there really isn’t anywhere else to stay in the area.

 

One of the crazy traffic patterns on the farm

I was surprised that the owner hadn’t taken better care of the camp, for he had very specific rules we were to follow and I assumed he ran a tight ship. The one way only driving around the camp, double bagging trash, or not driving on the grass seemed petty after our arrival and finding Green Acres and not a Kentucky’s Claiborne farm.

 

The camp sites are laid out in a large circle around a grass pasture. In the center are the rotting remains of a stage setup. It had clearly been used for musical venues of some sort in the past. The owner told me they host Hippie fests there and have had 7000 people on the farm.  

 

Can you imagine 7000 old hippies here for a concert?

After setting up and lunch we drove into Elkins to check it out. To be brutally honest, it was pretty sad. It just seemed to economically depressed, old rundown and dirty. After our brief drive around town, we decided to go out to one of the other campground choices we had near Elkins. I had rejected it right off when planning the trip based on an online review.  On the campground reviews website someone claimed to have been thrown out because they complained about a turkey in their campsite. According to them the wild turkey was a pet of the campground owner’s brother. There’s more to the story but I digress.

 

We never did tour the campground with the turkey caper because we found a sign for a campground in the Stuart Recreation Area and it took all the daylight we had left to get to the top and back. The mountain is part of the Monongahela National Forest and when we turned off the main road it quickly became a one lane gravel road that spiraled its way up upwards. We drove at least 5 miles, never seeing the campground and hoping it was around the next bend. At the very top was a fork in the road and a sign. It pointed to the right for the campground and route 33 the road we needed to get back to Elkins. To the left the sign indicated there was an observation tower. We took the left fork and continued upwards another ¼ mile to a dead end. There were no signs at the small turnaround, just an unkempt trail leading further upwards. We locked the truck and ventured up the path. The area was very desolate and yes I was packing. It was just my 380, the 45 was back in the RV but it gave us peace of mind anyhow. The walk was a short one, less than one hundred yards I’d say, and at the very top of the mountain in a small clearing was a 40 foot steel tower.

 

Bickle Knob 4003 feet

As we climbed the staircase I told Millie I’d been to the top of a tower exactly like this a long time ago in Georgia. It’s a long story and not very interesting, but it was a twin to this one. This steel structure is called The Bickle Knob Observation Tower. It was in need of a paintjob, the top level was covered with graffiti, some painted, some carved in the wooden deck and an oddly placed aluminum flagpole that someone had tried to shoot off at the base with a large caliber weapon.

 

Millie climbing the tower

All of the previous rambling doesn’t paint a very nice picture and it shouldn’t. The Fed’s should be keeping up the maintenance here and other places like it. My theory is the politicians are so corrupt and obsessed with stealing for their own personal gain that they don’t even to care about places like this. Again I digress and step off my soapbox.

 

Lots of West by god Virginny behind me!

The very good news is the view from the tower (4003 feet) is one of the most spectacular scenes anywhere. For 360 degrees for as far as the eye can see are nothing but mountains, thousands of them. You see no houses, no highways, no towns, no buildings, nothing but trees and mountains. There are a few small clearings way off in one direction and what looks like a fire break or clearing for power lines but it is so far away it doesn’t distract from the absolute beauty of this place.

 

We finally found the campground

Descending from the peak we turned and followed the fork that would lead us to the campground and the road back to civilization. (I’m not sure we should even call it that anymore) By now we knew that the campground was going to be rustic with no utility hookups and probably not large enough site for our RV. It was exactly as we surmised; we did a quick drive thru and then continued our decent. This road was just like the one we came up, one lane, gravel and not a foot of it on level grade. The heavily forested terrain shot steeply upwards on the left and dropped headlong into canyons on the right, the only difference between this and the road we took to the top is we were now going downhill instead of up.

 

A close up picture of the tower

After what seemed like a long drive, the mountain trail ended on route 33, just like the sign said it would. We were 10 miles further down the road than were we started but we weren’t lost. A short time later we were at Wal-Mart in Elkins, fueled up the truck, picked up a few groceries and we were home just before dark. It was quite a day!

 

PS: An interesting side note. We got a call from our neighbor back in Myrtle Beach. Luckily, we were in town at the time and had cell service. She said a large box had been delivered to our house and it was sitting by the garage door. I knew what it was, but didn’t think it would be delivered so soon. I knew it weighed 100 lbs and the little lady who called weighed barely that, probably less. I asked her if she could push it into the garage if I opened the door, sure she said. So from at least 550, maybe 600 miles from home I opened and closed the garage door using an app on my phone. Pretty neat stuff!

 


PSS: This is the second campground so far this trip with no cell service, no data internet service and no campground supplied WiFi. I don’t know when I will be able to get this and the pictures online, probably when we get home.

 

We were without cell service (Verizon) more often than not in West Virginia

Saturday September 11, 2021

 

We had several objectives today, all of them were less spectacular than we expected. By 9:30 we were on the road to the town of Phillipi West Virginia. It’s about a 25 mile journey from our campground but traffic was light and we arrived in short order.  First thing on our list was a farmers market recommended by the campground owner. We found it, it was open, but it was very sparsely stocked. We bought two tomatoes.

 

The best photo view, but you still need to edit out the wires and cell tower.

Next objective, also in Phillipi was a covered bridge that predates the Civil War. We did learn some interesting history about the bridge and the war. The first land battle of the Civil War was fought here in Phillipi. Those damn Yankees charged down the hill, crossed the covered bridge and chased the confederate boys down Main Street. No one was killed and only a few wounded but it was a black eye for the south.

 


Interesting fact: The confederate battle flag carried that day was exactly the same as the present day South Carolina Palmetto Flag. Don’t tell the left, they’ll be protesting our flag as being racist and demanding we replace it with one with **********redacted by wife********. Use your imagination!

 

Confederate battle flag, later to become the South Carolina state flag

Back to the bridge, it is an impressive work of engineering; it incorporates two sets of arches in order to span the river. Another unique feature is its double width; it carries two lanes of traffic, one in each direction. Over the years the bridge has been reinforced to handle heavier traffic, mostly to the supports under it. The wooden structure is largely the original wood it was made with in 1855. Amazingly, this bridge still carry’s traffic across it.

 

Millie on the pedestrian bridge, original (1852) wooden arch of the Phillipi bridge behind her

The detrimental aspect of the bridge is all the junk you have to look at when you’re here viewing it in person. All the “media” pictures of the bridge have the unsightly stuff photo-shopped out, but here you see the steel excess height barriers, the sand filled collision drums, the metal walkway, the power lines, highway signs, etc. One more thing I missed is not being able to walk inside the bridge covering, it is a state highway going thru it and pedestrians are not allowed.

 

The not so nice view point.

On the way back to Elkins we stopped at a Flea Market. We had to pay 25 cents each to enter the grounds; we’ve never seen that before. The only thing we bought was 12 DVD’s at 50 cents each for the RV.

 

An easy walk from the parking lot to the tower.

After lunch at the RV we headed out again to the east this time. We traveled 50 miles to the base of a mountain in the Monongahela mountain range. We then drove another 12 miles up a single lane road to the top of Spruce Knob. At 4860 feet it is the highest point in West Virginia. From the parking area there is a ¼ mile trail to an observation tower. This is where it started going south; the spruce trees surrounding the tower block all of the view except for a small section to the west. They need to cut the trees or make the tower taller.

 

On the observation tower at Spruce Knob (elevation 4860 feet)

We got back to the RV at 5pm and I cooked our first meal outside on this trip; fried potatoes and grilled chicken on the griddle.

 

Sunday September 12, 2021

 

Breakfast= fried potato, eggs, bacon, and toast, all cooked outside

 

Today we drove 50 miles up newly paved route 219. It was a fun drive on a winding country road with almost no other traffic. Our destination was the High point of Maryland. It is called Hoye-Crest and has a height of 3360 feet tall. You have to access it through West Virginia and then hike up a very rugged trail for a mile and a quarter to the top of Backbone Mountain. The trail is mostly loose shale type rock and rises some 700 feet from the road to the top. The border between West Virginia and Maryland is at the crest. My ranking for this hike is Senior Difficult; younger healthier people may think it is less challenging.

 

This marker is at the top of the mountain

The trail and the mountain is private land, but the owner allows people to climb to the top. About ¼ mile up the trail the area had been logged. Besides being unsightly, the trail was a mess and in some places muddy. That went on for another ¼ mile and then we were back in the forest.

 

Passing thru an area that has been recently logged

About halfway up the trail we had a woman in the 50-60 age range that came up behind us very quickly. She stopped for a minute to chat and told us it was her 102nd time going to the crest since the start of the chinavirus. She then bounded up the trail and was gone in a flash. A short while later she came by us again, coming downhill this time and she was running. Not sure if her daily run up the mountain is for exercise or sanity during the epidemic, but she's dedicated herself to the task.

 

We made it to the top

When you get to the very top the trail levels out some and you have an easy walk for about 100 yards to the marker at the high point. The HighPointers Association has installed a bench and picnic table by the marker, we had lunch of crackers and granola bars, rested a while and then hiked down.

uphill or down, it hurts either way!


For me the descent was harder than going up. Neither of us had any difficulty with muscles or joints going up, we just had to stop once and a while to catch our breath. Going down my hips were in almost constant discomfort. The good news is any minor aches we had that evening were gone by the next day.

Living the dream!


 

We drove 48 miles each way 96 miles total and only took 4.1 gal of gas when we refueled in Elkins. Amazing.

 

Dominos pizza for dinner

 

We went back to town to a McDonalds for wifi after dinner. I made reservations for Monday at a Corp of Engineers (COE) park near Confluence PA. Our next quest is the High Point of PA, Mount Davis. I also made reservations for the KOA campground in Harpers Ferry for Tuesday.

 

Why do hippies always have a bus?

I did briefly speak with the park owner about the stage setup in the middle of the campground. He said he hosted rock concerts and has had as many as 7k hippies on the farm (Pegasus Farm). He looks and acts like a spaced out old hippie. UPDATE: When we got to PA and I finally got a data quality signal (For the first time since we left home) I googled the owner. He really is an old Hippie and so is his wife. Mark and Bonnie Branciaroli still play in a band called ZEN.

Front center, Bonnie and Mark


 

Movie night. I am Legend starring Will Smith. It is freakily like the chinavirus, it didn’t work out so well for mankind in the movie.



 

Final notes on West Virginia. A lot of the small towns are dead/dying/ or at best economically depressed. We did pass thru a couple nice looking places, the town of Parsons for one. On a brighter note, the government is spending big bucks improving roads especially route 219. There were lots of motorcycle groups running on these mountain roads, I know they were having fun on the newly paved surface. We didn’t see a lot of the rural folks, but we did see the urban dwellers n the towns. Like their big city brethren, they seem to spend their money on purple hair and tattoo’s. Mankind is in decline that’s for sure.

 

Several days after I wrote the above soapbox speech I read an interesting article by Carlson Tucker. I will paraphrase a few lines.

 

“the greatest crisis that America actually faces is the disintegration of America itself — and not just of the social fabric — what do we have in common again? — more than that. The physical reality of the country is disintegrating: the buildings, the natural landscape, and above all, the people. A lot of them are falling apart. So that is the actual crisis that we face; it’s the degradation of our people.”

 

Monday September 13, 2021

Elkins WV to Confluence PA


 We traveled up Rt 219 again, this time passing by the parking area for the trail to MD’s high Point. We continuing northwards, passing thru Maryland and and ending the days journey in Pennsylvania. We are camped at the COE campground (Outfall Campground) near Confluence PA. It is just below the COE dam on the Youghiogheny River.

 

Army Corp of Engineers CG near Confluence PA

We arrived right around noon and after a quick lunch of left-over Domino’s pizza we hopped in the truck and drove to Mount Davis. It is the highpoint of PA at 3213 feet. No hiking required for this one, just a short stroll from the parking lot. You do have to climb the steep steps of the 50 foot observation tower.

Another drive up highpoint.

The observation tower at Mt Davis appears to be an old fire watch station.




Millie studies the bronze 3D relief map of the surrounding area.



At the base of the tower there is a series of bronze plaques detailing the history of the area. Apparently someone has been offended by the wording on some of them. Maybe they should build a safe place building with a phone hotline to the offended peoples crisis counselors?




We took a different route back to the campground, The GPS got lost and we had to get home the old fashion way, printed road map, road signs and our intuition. 

It was almost this complicated!


After dinner in the RV we strolled the campground and took some pictures of the dam and its outfall discharge. It's kind of scary if you think about it, all that water above you and only a pile of dirt holding it back. But, its a government maintained damn, what could go wrong!

Large earthen damn looms over the campground


The outfall went like this 24 hours a day, I thought it might keep us awake but we drifted off right away.

water discharge from the damn


That evening while I was doing some online research on RV parking at Antietam I discovered that the visitors center is closed for renovations until 2022. We decided to cancel the last two days of the trip and just go home. This is a very common phenomenon in RV travel, when you get to the last day or so of a roadtrip you drop out of travel mode and just make a beeline for home. I’ll have to think of a name for that.


 

 

 

Tuesday September 14, 2021

 

A long but interesting new route for us.

We broke camp and were on the road a little after nine and drove 385 miles from western PA to Rocky Mount North Carolina. We traveled the interstate system from western PA to Fredrick MD to save time in the mountains. From Fredrick we drove secondary roads south to the North Carolina line, then a short jaunt down I-95 to our overnight camp. We stopped at a KOA campground located between Roanoke Rapids and Rocky Mount and just off I-95. We arrived at 6pm and left the truck hooked up to the RV, plugged in the electric cord and put out the slide.

KOA CG at Enfield NC.


 

Millie fixed burritos from some leftover ingredients in the frig and we just veg’ed out until bedtime, Millie playing games on her pad and me catching up on email, FB, etc.

 

Wednesday September 15, 2021

 

As usual we stayed off the interstates as much as possible.

Both of us being awake at 6:30am I said to Millie, “Do want to just get up and go, we can be on the road by seven.” We had arrived after office hours and left before they opened in the morning so I left my CC number on the night check in envelope along with my phone number. I never heard anything from them so I guess they got their funds. A little over 4 hours later we pulled into the storage lot to drop off the RV. A half hour later and we were on our way home.

 

Conclusion:

 

The Catwalk Roadtrip was a spontaneous adventure. We had just returned from 16 day trip when I read about the Catwalk tours under the roadbed of the New River George Bridge. We did minimal planning, we did add the High Point’s of three states and originally planned visiting two historic sights from the War of Northern Aggression. We did visit the Phillippi Covered Bridge, site of the first land battle of the war and succeeded in reaching the highest mountain tops in West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Maryland was the only one that required any serious hiking. The plan unfolded smoothly, the only wrinkles being the lack of cell/data for four days and the closing of Antietam.

The Catwalk Tour


 

I almost forgot the catwalk. 3000 feet on a two foot wide catwalk in the truss work under the roadway, 852 feet above the New River, it was about the coolest thing ever, I highly recommend it!

"While alive, live life!"