West Virginia - Days 27-30

Tomlinson Run State Park
Saturday, 27 and Sunday, 28 and Monday, 29 and Tuesday, 30 April 2019

My right hand and arm have been hurting again intermittently and I took some time off to give them a rest.

It rained much of these four days, or was overcast and windy and chilly.  But there were 2 afternoons I could put the dogs outside on long leashes and let them lie in the sun, which was good.

There are only two camping loops, a total of 51 campsites, so the places to walk are limited.  They have several trails, but I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for them because of the mud from the rain.  Too bad because there were so few dogs here I could have taken my pups down a trail without worrying about who we'd meet.

I haven't seen deer here but know they're there, especially early in the morning because of the dogs' reactions.

This campground is on a narrow ridge with valleys on each side.  And it's really pretty, even in bad weather.  I keep thinking one of those valleys includes the Ohio River, but I know we're a little too far away.  Actually, it's not the distance but another ridge between us and it.

Dogwoods are still blooming here, and they show up like a bright white against the growing green and the dark wet tree trunks.

what it looks like now

what it'll look like soon

At the entrance to the park, which is at the base of the ridge, I've seen what I'm pretty sure is Skunk Cabbage.  I haven't seen it since Alaska so I'm not positive, but it looks like these photos I saw online.

There's a bird here with a call just like one of Dexter's squeaky toys.  I keep thinking he'll react to it, but so far he hasn't.  There's another one whose song is like a chord - it sounds like 2 or 3 notes at once.  I know it can't be possible, but that's what it sounds like.  Really pretty.

Towhee

The bird I can identify is a Towhee.  I've published a photo of one before but I'll do it again.  You'd think they'd look like Robins but they don't.  Their red's much redder than on a Robin.

I spent an entire day sorting through months and months worth of receipts, checking them against my credit card statements (I found one restaurant that added a few dollars onto the total I'd designated), figuring out what could be put into a recycle bin and what needed to be shredded.  Now all I have to do is find a shredder.  But it's a chore that's been bugging me so I'm glad I got it done.

I found out what I need to do to update my vehicle registration, only I ran into a snag when I did it.  Texas DMV says online I have to get a self-certification form for "seasonal Texans, RVers" that will say the vehicle is out of state.  But it also says to call my county tax assessor's office.  When I did that, they said forget the form, just go online to register.  And online there'll be a screen that asks if the vehicle is in Texas or out of state, and when I say I'm out, it'll know not to expect me to provide a current inspection form.

The snag happened when I went online, followed all the screens to register, got to the end and still nothing about where are you.  So I went back to the beginning and checked all of them carefully and still no where are you query.  So I went ahead and submitted the registration form, and then I called the Help phone number.  She couldn't believe I hadn't found a where are you screen but I assured her I'd looked carefully.  She said what will probably happen is, in a few days I'll get an email saying too bad, we've rejected your registration, and then I can go back through and use a different website - she said to use www.TxDMV.gov, which wasn't the site I used before.  She assured me there'd be the screen I need on that website, and emphasized that I need to use the "www" part of the address to get the right site.  So we'll see what happens.

I spent time looking up laundromats in Ohio, and propane dealers for RVs, and Jiffy Lube type places (I'm overdue).  I figured out the driving routes to get to everything - got a lot of stops to make tomorrow to run errands before settling into the campground.

I made an appointment to get Gracie her Lyme shot - I got the first one last year but can't find any record that I ever got the booster, and it doesn't matter that I'm sure I did if I can't find a record of it (good reason to save receipts).  Gracie's health depends on me doing right by her, which means getting the two shots all over.  Actually, Dexter needs one too, but he did get his booster last year so will only need one shot this year.

I've been coughing so much lately that I worry about the effect on my throat, which matters because I've been diagnosed with a pre-cancerous condition in my esophagus and I don't want to mess with it.  I decided Ohio's bound to have decent health care available, and it's a small enough state that I can afford to make a doctor appointment, and then keep it.  Which is what I did.  I have an appointment with a gastroenterologist in Toledo on May 10th, so I know that's when I'll be in Toledo.

And of course, I've gotten the blog mostly up to date.  Finally.  It's hard when I can't get a wifi signal.

The rain we've had off and on for days is scheduled to continue for much of the week.  I think tomorrow's supposed to be pretty and hot - up around 80° - but there's a 40% chance of thundershowers tomorrow evening, and rain's expected for most of the rest of the week.  Oh well, I need some time to get oriented to Ohio, which I haven't even really tried to do yet.  Wonder what Ohio's state parks are like?

Now my hand's sore again so I'm getting offline.  I'll finish catching up another day.

West Virginia - Day 26 - china company tour

Tomlinson Run State Park
Friday, 26 April 2019

It's been raining, sometimes quite hard, off and on since yesterday morning.  I went back to Newell and stopped at a little park there to walk the dogs, and found this historical marker.

Later I learned on the tour that it wasn't just the town that the company developed; they also own the water supply, and some local townspeople were at the plant paying their monthly water bill.  They also built a trolley bridge over the Ohio to connect with East Liverpool, OH, (where the first factory was built) so employees could come back and forth more easily.  Our tour guide is one of them - he says now it's a vehicle toll bridge, charging 75¢ one way or $1 round trip.  You'd think the much newer government bridge would have supplanted it, but I saw quite a few cars using the old toll bridge.

We weren't allowed to take photos in the factory, though our guide said we could find videos on "Made In America" and "How It's Made," 2 programs that had permission to come in with cameras and were allowed to see things we weren't on the regular tour.  So if you're interested, you can look them up.

There were only 3 in our tour group, including me, which was handy because the factory was noisy and I wouldn't have been able to hear the guide in a bigger group.  All this information I got from the guide.

The company recycles all the glaze that doesn't get used in a run, and all the clay that isn't used as long as it wasn't fired or glazed.  Reconditioning the glaze takes 36 hours, but a tank of it costs $5,000-$7,000 so it's cheaper for them to recycle.  Products that are glazed but can't be sold because of defects are bulldozed into smithereens and will eventually disintegrate - because they did start out as clay from the ground, after all.

They have 2 basements in the somewhat Dickensian-looking building in my photo - the lowest level is for the old kilns; the higher basement  is where it takes them 3-8 hours to re-create the clay to get it into a semi-liquid form that can be pumped to where it's needed.

The company uses 2 types of clay: one from England they use to make their fine china; one from Kentucky they use for everyday dishes, and this kind comes as powder, not in clay form.

glamorous china factory

on the banks of the Ohio

The company moved here from across the river in 1903 and has several kilns.  At least one kiln is set at 2400° C. - the heat temperature creates the color in the glaze, and a specific temperature is used for a specific time.  The guide showed us pieces with no glaze, and with glaze that hadn't been fired, and with glaze that had been fired.  Totally different appearance.

Firing also shrinks each piece up to 15% - we could see that because the pieces not yet glazed that we saw in the factory were bigger than we knew they'd become by the end process.

They used to sell online themselves; now they use Wayfair for their shipping.  They also sell retail in stores such as Kohls, Penneys and Macys.

They have 900-1000 employees.  A typical 8-hour shift will produce 16,000 pieces, and they run 3 shifts/day.

There's an incredible amount of handwork done in this factory - particularly incredible when you consider their output.  For instance, any piece that's round has its edges smoothed by a machine; all other pieces are smoothed by hand.  All handles are attached by hand.  All decorations - decals and painting - are done by hand.  All the employees seemed very skilled, and most said they'd worked in the plant for a decade or longer.

They spray the glaze on the items, but bowls and cups are dipped by hand to get the glaze inside.

Every employee we encountered was friendly and willing to answer questions.  One of the employees attaching handles offered to let us attach a handle ourselves, and then take the item home with us.  One of our tour group took him up on it, saying they knew of a kiln near where they lived so they could fire the cup and use it.

Another of the employees attaching handles to cups took time out to tell me, "Tell your kids to stay in school - don't end up doing this."  Up till that point I'd been seeing this as good work and skilled labor.  It never occurred to me how someone might end up doing this work instead of anything else.

Much of the work is seriously repetitive and hypnotic to watch - I saw one of the tour group get as hypnotized as I did watching a guy creating bowls in a machine form.  They were larger than cereal bowls but smaller than a typical serving bowl, and he did it one bowl at a time.  The guide said he got an hourly wage and also a per-piece wage, and I think he created 4 pieces every 2 minutes.  Skilled but seriously repetitive.

There was much much more information - the tour lasted an hour - but I felt handicapped by not being able to take photos to illustrate the processes it'd be really hard for me to describe by typing.  I'd need to use my hands to help demonstrate what I saw.

I think when I'm ready to settle back down in a place where I can use real plates, I'll come back here to buy tableware - better prices and better selection.

On the way back to the campground I got behind a school bus.  This allowed me to watch 2 brothers rush out of the bus to the waiting car and fling each other aside over and over trying to get into the front seat first.  If I were the one picking them up, I'd make it a rule that the one who gets to the door first gets the seat.  But it was fun to watch.

West Virginia - Day 25 - far northern WV

Tomlinson Run State Park, New Manchester
Thursday, 25 April 2019

When I walked the dogs right before leaving last night's campground, I got a photo of a sweet little waterfall in the creek that gives Creekside Camping its name.

The hillside was nearly carpeted in those tiny blue wildflowers.  I'm seeing them everywhere.  You can see that this far north the trees aren't all budded out yet, but spring's well underway.

today's route

I'd wanted to spend some time in Wheeling, as there are several places I've been wanting to see.  For instance, Wheeling used to be the state capital and that building is still there.  Also there's a place known as the West Virginia Independence Hall that has a museum I wanted to visit.  But the weather was looking drizzly and grey and I was getting too tired to tackle a large town without more preparation - and I haven't had internet access in the last 2 campgrounds.  So I decided to head on north.  Today we went into that little narrow neck that's known as WV's Northern Panhandle.

First, I passed through a part of north Wheeling that was a step back in time to the Victorian era.  Block after block of beautiful old houses, some shabby but others just lovely.  According to this website, the neighborhood has more Victorian architecture than anywhere in the US.   www.onlyinyourstate.com/west-virginia  It was a complete surprise to me and I kept holding up traffic while I gawked.

Pike Island Locks - WV is on the left

I passed something labeled only Pike Island that looked like a hydroelectric site to me and found when I looked it up that I wasn't so far off.  It's the Pike Island Locks and Dam, a Corps of Engineers project that doesn't include power generation but does provide part of the municipal water supply.

I continue to be impressed with the Ohio River, which never seems to get any smaller as I drive along.  I finally looked it up and realized that I'd forgotten I watched it being formed.  When I visited Pittsburgh, I saw the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join and create the Ohio River.  From there it flows 1,000 miles through 6 states and drains 190,000 square miles of area from 15 states.  By the time it ends, the Ohio is actually larger than the Mississippi River where they join.

On the other hand, I was right to wonder about pollution: as a whole the Ohio is ranked as the most polluted river in the United States.  That ain't no way to treat a lady.

I passed a number of historical markers: one for Beech Bottom Fort, which was part of the defenses during the Revolutionary War; one to mark where George Washington crossed the Ohio River in 1770; one for Brickyard Bend of the river: 

Named by boat captains for many brick works shipping from area. John Gamble first mined clay in 1839; James Porter had first brick works in 1832. By 1844, five works produced 1.5 million bricks. Later, some 20 plants: including Captain John Porter, Clifton, Mack and Cresent, using local clay, gas and coal, and hundreds of workers, produced millions of bricks yearly. First shipped on the Ohio River after 1886 also by Pennsylvania Railroad.

I've been thinking as I went through some of these tiny towns that they were reminding me of the mill towns I was seeing in PA and New England, and sure enough I passed a historical marker that listed four mills that had been built just in this one area: Nesselroad's powder mill 1795-1801; Hartford's grist mill early 1800s; Swearingen's grist mill 1823; Eaton's saw mill 1823.  Not quite the same as the textile mills I was seeing farther northeast, but they would have provided some jobs in those early years.

I passed a plant for ArcelorMittal, which claims to be the world's largest steel producer; their plant in Weirton WV is, they say, their premier tin plate operation.

I just missed the annual memorial service held in the memory of steelworkers who died at the local steel mill.  There were about 120 deaths over a 100-year period; the last was in 1999 so they seem to be improving their safety record.

I passed the Mountaineer Casino, one of five in West Virginia.  It's clear they're trying everything they can think of to diversify their economy.

Because it was still morning when I passed the turnoff to the campground, I continued along Route 2 to Chester, WV's northernmost town.  A few miles west of it is Newell, home of the Homer Laughlin China Co., makers of world famous Fiestaware.  Of course I had to stop.  I'd hoped to take a tour but learned they only have those on Tuesday and Friday; today being Thursday I looked around the display room instead.

2 sizes of pitchers; many bowl sizes

more bowls, salt/pepper shakers

Most of what was in the display room was Fiestaware - many styles I hadn't seen in stores and all at discounted prices.

And a wide selection of pet supplies.

there was a whole other display, too

But Fiestaware is only one of the company's products.  They make china that's used in restaurants all over the world.  In one of the side rooms, I saw many patterns I recognized.

huge bins all over a huge room

I was afraid to breathe around these stacks

and more patterns

restaurant ware

I tried to enhance this photo so you could see the pattern, which I recognize well

Two enormous side rooms off the display rooms - one is where I took these photos, and these are only a very few of the bins there.  There weren't any signs or prices, but I saw people in there pushing shopping carts, so apparently these things were for sale.  The other side room is labeled as seconds, and there are price lists posted there showing about 50% discounts on store prices because they are, after all, seconds.

After this intro, I decided to come back tomorrow for the tour.

From there, we went to the campground where the ranger assured me I'd never be able to get an Internet signal.  Very disheartening because it's still 5 days till the end of the month and I was tired of looking for a campground where I could rest and catch up.  But I guess the ranger was using the wrong provider because my little hot spot got a good signal right away.  I found a nice campsite, they only charged me $26, and I decided to spend the rest of the month here.

West Virginia - Day 24

Creekside Camping

Wednesday, 24 April 2019

today's route

(Same apology as yesteday for the changing text size.)

The weather had been just beautiful yesterday afternoon, and I rolled out the awning and hooked the dogs up to long leashes for a while.  Then, shortly after dinner, the heavens opened up and it started pouring.  Good thing I had the awning out so I could put away the leashes without getting soaked, and I can roll up the awning from inside the cabin.  I’ll need to remember to roll it back out soon, though, to get it dried out.

After all that trouble I went to to get rid of that dirty water, I found there was still some in the system.  And it’s not just aesthetics – the water pump makes funny noises and runs a lot more often with that dirty water.  But after I ran the water a bit, the rest of the dirty stuff seemed to get clear of the system and the water pump started sounding and acting more like itself.  I wonder if the brown color wasn’t more than minerals – maybe some dirt in there too.

I remember once when I was a little girl and we were living in Waco, there was a time when the water came out of the faucet looking awful and my momma told us that the river had turned over.  The city’s water supply came from the Brazos River, and maybe they didn’t treat it as much as they do now, though I know they added fluoride because Momma always said that’s why our teeth were so strong.  Anyway, I guess when the river turned over, silt got into the water supply and turned the water dirty.  And maybe what I got in my water tank this time was muddy water.

Sometime after it got light, I heard Lily making some odd noises.  When I looked in the same direction she was, I saw a big black crow.  I don’t remember her showing any particular interest in birds before, so this was a surprise.  She made that odd little kek-ing noise cats make when they’re looking at a bird.

Speaking of odd noises, on our last walk before we left the campground I heard an odd noise, and at the same time the dogs both reacted exuberantly, so I looked around for the deer.  Three of them on the steep hill above us.  The odd noise had been one of the deer warning the others, I guess, and they took off, bounding up that steep hillside at great speed.  I don’t think I could have fallen down that hill as fast as they were running up it.  Their legs look so delicate, but they’ve got real muscles to be able to do that.

On the road

I followed the directions for the road to Harrisville the campground hosts gave me, and it wasn’t quite like they said, but I got to see some different countryside.  That nice newly-paved road was still going on and lasted another 2½ miles before showing me what I would have been driving on for miles if not for the new pavement.  Maybe another 2 or 3 miles of badly potholed road, but then it became just ordinary country roadway with just the ordinary surface.  That I don’t mind a bit.

Along the road I passed a gate to someone’s property with a sign on it:

NO HUNTING

NO TRESPASSING

DON’T ASK

They must have had a lot of annoying people along.

Also along the road, I was met with a parade of dump trucks.  Really.  Well, not a real parade but there must have been 9 or 10 of them, all going the same direction.  I was curious where they were headed and didn’t pass anything that looked like it might be the place.

downtown Harrisville

I’d written myself a note that Harrisville is the home of Berdine’s Five and Dime, est. 1908, the oldest such store still in operation.  I’d intended to look for it but forgot by the time I was there.  It’s a beautiful old town, though, and still has many lovely buildings.  I got this photo off the internet, but it gives you an idea.  Odd because the town is really small.  I tried to find some history of the place, but even Wikipedia failed me.

I knew I’d come into Harrisville on Route 5, and the map said that would T into Route 16, which I wanted to take northwest to the Ohio River.  In town I found a sign that said “To Route 16” but that was the last mention I saw of Route 16 for miles and miles.  I knew I was on it, but I’ve found West Virginia to be really good about labeling their roads so felt almost abandoned when I went such a distance without seeing any labels at all.  At least there was just the one road and I didn’t have to make any choices.

Route 16 meets Route 2 at St. Marys, about 14 miles away from Route 50, which functions like an interstate in that part of the state.  Not long after I passed Route 50, I saw a highway warning sign saying there was an 8% grade 12 miles ahead.  And later a sign that it was 10 miles ahead, then 7 miles ahead.  They really wanted us to know there was a steep hill coming up.  But as I've found so often in West Virginia, when I got to it, the road wasn't all that bad.  The hill was only a mile long and, honestly, there are roads like that in Texas's Hill Country.  

In comparison to the terror I felt on Pennsylvania's roads, I'm starting to feel some real affection for West Virginia's, where broken pavement and no shoulders are the worst things I'm finding.

I turned right at St. Marys and, from then on, I followed the Ohio River.  WV Route 2 winds along the river all the way to the PA border.  The online mapping programs kept trying to route me through Ohio where Ohio Route 7 also follows the Ohio River - it's just a fancier roadway, apparently.  But I'm really glad I stayed in West Virginia, because I got to see what WV life is like along the Ohio.

the mighty Ohio River

This is an obstructed view of the river but you can see the size and the surrounding hills, which continued all the way north.

One of the first things I found along the road was a WV correctional facility, with a big recycling facility right next to it.  And what I want to know is where they've been hiding their recycling capability for the last 3 weeks.  I still haven't seen any indication that anyone in this state knows what recycling even is.

I was still in the environs of St. Marys when I started to see signs of trouble.  First one ambulance came screaming by, lights flashing - and then a second one, ditto.  I could see a plume of smoke in the distance but had been thinking it was just from a smokestack or something.  But when the traffic came to a complete standstill, I rethought that.  We inched forward a short way, then some oncoming traffic came on.  And then a tow truck coming from behind me passed by with flashing lights.  Sure enough, I found - .8 mile and 26 minutes later - that there'd been a bad accident.  By then there was only one smushed burned out car left blocking half the road, but the 2 ambulances had already told me it must have been a really bad mess.  The accident must have happened not too long before I got there, and emergency personnel were doing a great job managing the traffic - the lines for both lanes were already much shorter than when I joined them.  You can't help but worry, though, what with 2 ambulances and at least one completely burned car.

In the town of Friendly, we stopped at the Methodist Church because it had a large parking lot and the dogs were needing a break.  I'm glad we stopped because walking the dogs gave me time to notice this tiny town still has some beautiful old buildings, though most of them are in various stages of disrepair.  Behind the church I saw a staircase that went up to the next street, and then I noticed it kept going to the street above that, and then I saw it went on to the street above that one.  I haven't seen anything like it since I lived in Juneau, where hillside staircases are common.

Farther down the road I came to Sistersville, where there is a historical marker saying the town was named in 1815 for the sisters of Charles Wells, who settled the area in 1776.  Online, though, I found an odd website for this event called the Sisters Fest, and they include a different, and more amusing (including the misspellings), version of local history.   https://sistersfestwv.wordpress.com/history-of-sistersville-wv/

As noted in that history link, the town sits near the Mason-Dixon line, and not far down the road I found their survey marker.

You can see it's protected by a case, just as well because it's already worn almost past legibility.  It's 3-sided, with one side being rounded.  I tried to clean up the photos, but even when I was standing in front of it I had trouble reading it.

Farther down the road I passed a historical marker for Zachary Taylor.  I knew he wasn't from here, and can't find a copy online I can attach, so here's what it said:

General Zachary Taylor, on his way to Washington to be inaugurated as the 12th President of the U.S., found his steamer blocked by ice here.  He left his boat and completed his trip over the National Pike.

I passed many many industries along the Ohio River on both sides of it.  Most of them seemed to be chemical companies, making me wonder about the water quality in the river.  One that said only Natrium on it was seriously stinky.  Among others I passed the Westlake Chemical Co., CertainTeed Gypsum, Moundsville Calcining Plant, and a nuclear power plant.  Seems ignominious for the great Ohio River to have its banks lined with this sort of thing, but I understand these companies provide good jobs for the area.

Today's song of the day is "Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train."  Quite a number.

Moundsville
My primary goal today was the burial mound here, and I found it quite easily from online directions.  I was really surprised when I got here, though, that it's immediately across the street from an old penitentiary.  I'd heard about this place but it seemed to be famous mainly for being haunted, and I wasn't interested in a tour for that.  The building turned out to be a lot more, though.

main penitentiary building

close-up of the center

there's another wing this same size on the other side

This prison was in use from 1876 until 1995.  When you imagine it being used so recently, you get an idea of the problems they had there.  There's some interesting history to the place on the first two pages at this link  www.legendsofamerica.com  and the stuff about being haunted is on the third page.

Across the street is what's called the Grave Creek Mound.  The Native Americans are estimated to have carried more than 60,000 tons of dirt, one basket at a time, to build this mound.

I waited for ages for the teenagers sitting on top of the mound to come down, or at least to move out of sight, but they seemed ready to homestead up there.  I finally gave up when still more folks started climbing up the path to the top.

Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive, but this is a burial site, there are people buried in this mound and it was sacred ground for a long time.  It feels disrespectful to me to be climbing on it and taking photos of the view, as I saw people doing.  One thing to be doing archaeological research, an ongoing activity, but another thing entirely to be hanging out and chatting with your buds in the place reserved long ago for the priests.

Back on the road

About two miles away from Moundsville is Glen Dale, which looks lie an even larger town to me;  it was the birthplace, and apparently is the current residence, for well-known country singer Brad Paisley.

Wheeling is only a few miles farther along the road.  Nearby I passed the Ohio County Mine and buildings for its owner Murray Energy Corp., which operates 13 coal mines in 5 states and employs 6,000 people.  So if anyone was wondering, coal mining is still a going concern in this part of the world.

I headed east on I-70 and saw a sign saying it had been designated the Doc and Chickie Williams Highway, the King and Queen of Country Music.  I actually knew about them because they have their own exhibit at the West Virginia Culture Center that I visited a few weeks ago.  I guess they were from this part of the state.

I was looking for a campground called Creekside Camping.  I'd chosen it mainly because it looked like it was right on a main road and I thought it'd be easy to get to.  It didn't quite work out like that, though.  When I called to make the reservation, the woman gave me all kinds of directions, saying she thought landmarks would be helpful, and I dutifully wrote them down because I, too, like landmarks.  But her directions didn't at all match the online information, so I took another look at her website and realized she never even put an address on her site.  I'd gotten the address from some generic computer something and it didn't have anything to do with reality.

Figuring she knew what she was talking about more than the internet did, I followed her directions (exit 11, go downhill a ways, at the T turn right on Timber Haven, pass the Girl Scout Camp, cross the concrete bridge).  And she was right.  There they were.  And the road in wasn't any worse than any other back road.

But this place was tiny and was nearly full of what appeared to be full-timers who left early for work every day (I learned) and who all had dogs (it seemed) and who wanted to relax after work.  There was very little space between campsites and I finally turned on the fan (for white noise) and went to bed at 6:30 to drown out my neighbors - very nice folks but too full of their own concerns to remember to keep their voices down.  Weird little place.

West Virginia - Day 23 - Ripley, Parkersburg and Cairo

North Bend State Park

Tuesday, 23 April 2019

today's route

(I apologize now for the distracting text size that changes here and there.  Not having any internet for several days, I wrote most of this on the word processing program that came on my computer, but the additions and editing changes appear in a different text.  I'd rewrite all of it but that seems too much trouble right now.  Sorry.)

There was no point in leaving very early, because the first stop I wanted to make was the Best Buy in Charleston to get a new camera, and they didn’t open until 10:00 and were only a 40 minute drive from the campground.

On the way out I saw 2 male Cardinals in a Redbud tree – a striking color combination.

In this part of the state, the Redbuds are so far advanced they’re starting to lose their beautiful color and turning to green leaves – still pretty but not as stunning.

We got to Charleston with just enough time for the dogs to take a walk around the parking lot – easier when the traffic’s lighter because customers haven’t started arriving.

I was Best Buy’s first customer and had clerks competing to help me.  The little Canon Rebecca gave me is able to do a lot more than I’m asking it, but ordinary camera operations are simple enough even for me.  Plus it’s small and light and has a lens that hides if I’m not using it.  But when I looked at most of the cameras Best Buy offered, they included almost none of those attributes.

Fortunately they also had the latest version of exactly what I have now.  It’s thinner and a bit longer and lighter, but it’s the same model number and everything.  As a result, the memory chip that I have now fits just fine, and the USB connector to download photos to my laptop fits just fine, and the carrying case works just fine – the new one came with none of these things, you understand so, even though this was the cheapest camera they offered, I cared whether I had to buy new additions.

Actually, with those stupid theft-prevention devices attached, the clerk and I couldn’t tell whether any of those things would work.  I had to buy the camera first, and then the clerk ushered me over to the Geek Squad corner and introduced me to someone who looked the epitome of geek-dom, it was incredible to look at him, but he was very helpful.  Together he and I figured all this out, so I was happily able to leave the store after only about a half hour with my nice new camera.  I’d still like to get my old one fixed, but with my kind of life these days it’s not all that easy to do.

From there, Parkersburg is less than 2 hours away, but part way up the road I knew the critters and I needed a rest stop somewhere.  We got off in Ripley, one of the largest towns along the way.

At the entrance to the town is a big sign:

Welcome to Ripley

Where we honor our Veterans, support our Law Enforcement and First Responders and

We Believe!

And farther into town there’s a sign:

Ripley Believes!

Since 1832

And there was also this sign:

(See – my nice new camera takes non-fuzzy photos!)

On the way back to the RV from taking that photo I noticed deer tracks by the side of the road.  This was the main road in town, and I hope the deer didn't show up there until the early hours of the morning, so as to avoid getting hit by a car.

We found a nice old-fashioned Dairy Queen and I got a nice old-fashioned chocolate malt for my lunch, and I was just about to take the dogs for a little walk when someone else got their dog out of the car to go sit at a nearby picnic table on the grass we were just about to walk on.  So the dogs didn’t get as nice a walk as I (and they) had hoped.

We drove on into Parkersburg, where I’d found online addresses for a grocery store and a liquor store.  The online info said the grocery store was a Foodland, but the store turned out to be a Piggly Wiggly.  Fine by me.  We were out of dog food and milk, and they had both those things.

West Virginia doesn’t seem to have many liquor stores.  I know from when I visited the distillery a while back that liquor stores have to buy their supplies from the state (which is how they tax and control it, I guess), but the stores seem to be individually owned and I’m surprised there aren’t more of them.

This one in Parkersburg is the first one I’ve been to in West Virginia, and of course they had a huge selection of bourbon, but a tiny one of scotch, which I suppose is an indication of customers’ preferences – we’re certainly in the South.

Parkersburg is an old town

Blennerhassett Hotel

, as you can see from the internet photo of the Blennerhassett Hotel I passed downtown.  The Blennerhassetts were once people of enough wealth to own an island in the Ohio River near town.  The island is now famous for its link with the conspiracy to commit treason Aaron Burr was charged with.  I've included a link to information about that incident, not only because we've all heard about it, but also because it includes information about Pres. Jefferson's assertion of executive privilege and Chief Justice Marshall's response - still relevant today.  Amazing.   en.wikipedia.org/Burr_conspiracy

It was supposed to be another 45 minutes to the campground but took longer because of the road.  The online directions said the campground was only about 4 miles from the interstate, but I’m certain it was about double that.  Or maybe it only seemed that way because the road was so bad for much of the distance.

We passed a railroad station at North Bend with a sign that said “Rails to Trails” which seems to be a big program around here.  I looked it up and found out why: the North Bend Rail Trail (a public path created from an old railroad corridor) is part of the American Discovery Trail.  Having never heard of this I looked that up too and learned something else amazing about our country.  This trail runs without breaks from Delaware to California - all 6,800 miles of it.  So much for the Appalachian Trail, an upstart at only 2,200 miles long.

From the railroad station the road got worse, including a section where the bridge was being replaced and it looked like the road was actually closed, so I stopped at what I guess used to be a gas station and still had an “Open” sign lit, but it hadn’t seen any paint since before I was born – but there was a person sitting outside and I wanted directions.

The person turned out to be a young woman, who looked much older than she probably was, and who was very nice and gave me fairly good directions to the state park.

And a little way past there the road suddenly was beautiful and newly paved.  Of course, it was still only 2 lanes, not even an inch of shoulder and many many curves and hills.  But pavement that was probably less than a month old.  Vast improvement.

The campground was nearly empty, except for one other site where the people seem to go to day jobs, and for the campground hosts.  The hosts told me that somewhere along that road I’d gone through Cairo, though I have no idea where – maybe at the old gas station and bridge replacement – and that it’s pronounced Kay-ro, as in the corn syrup.  And they also told me they never use that road but instead go farther east to Harrisville and come into the park from there.  They said it’s a much nicer road.  I hadn’t been looking forward to going back over that same road in the morning, so I’ll try their way.

No people here, but the campground is packed with Canada geese.  Dexter loves eating their poop, so we couldn’t walk too far because I got tired of having to pull him away from it.  Otherwise a very nice place.  Too bad there’s no wifi signal or I'd think about staying longer.

West Virginia - Days 19-22

Fox Fire KOA
Friday, 19 - Monday, 22 April 2019

Nobody in West Virginia seems to recycle.  When I've asked people about it, they just shrug their shoulders.  Maybe this is a field some entrepreneur should take a look at.  But in the meantime, I've accumulated bags full of milk jugs and wine bottles and lots of paper and cardboard.  Of all the campgrounds I've visited only the first, Camp Creek State Park, collected water bottle-size plastic and aluminum and the second, this KOA, collected everything.  Both are relatively close to state lines, which may explain why they're the only ones.  But one of the reasons I chose to come back here was to rid myself of all this recycle material I couldn't bear to throw in the trash.

Friday, 19th
I've been getting so tired, and my arm's been hurting so much, that I was getting almost desperate for a day off.  The forecast for today was a lot of rain, which seemed the perfect time to be not doing anything.  Which is nearly what I did.  I spent a couple hours figuring a rough plan for what I still want to see in WV and where to stay and how to get there.  I covered a whole chicken with herbs and spices and stuck it in the crock-pot.  And I watched all three Jason Bourne movies.  Helps relieve tension.

Saturday, 20th
Today is Anna's birthday, so I called to congratulate her.  It sounds like she and David had a good trip to Scotland, and I'm glad they're home safely (before Brexit wreaks havoc with travel).  Today, it was still raining off and on, and I spent most of the day trying to catch up on my blog.  I was a week behind, thanks to so many days of traveling constantly and staying where there was no wifi signal.  I'm pleased to report that the pain medicine seems to be helping Dexter - he's putting weight on that foot more often and has mostly stopped licking it.

Sunday, 21st
Happy Easter!  Again, the day spent on my blog, but at least I'm nearly caught up.  The rain mostly stopped but it was quite cool all day, helped along by a strong breeze that made me wish people reported the wind chill temperature more often.  It's too cold to put the dogs outside and I think they're pretty bored.  Quite a few people here for the Easter weekend, little kids riding bikes or fishing or walking large dogs.  When I take mine out I have to dodge the others, but at least this is a fairly large campground.  The dogwoods are blooming like crazy - I saw one that had both pink and white blooms on the same tree - really pretty.

Monday, 22nd
This was a very warm, sunny day, so it was the get-things-done day.  I wrote down the driving routes to the things I want to see in the next few days.  To the extent I could I made reservations for the next several campgrounds - most state campgrounds won't take reservations this early but assure me there'll be room.  I even picked out the first campground in Ohio, which won't open until May 1st so I had to make reservations online.

In one of the last few campgrounds I picked up a bad batch of water - it tasted okay but was so brown it was staining pipes and dishes.  So I spent hours and hours draining the water tank, which happened v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, and then trying to flush it out and refilling it.  Very tedious but I think I got most of it out.  I dumped the sewage tanks and did laundry and trimmed my hair and took a shower and shook out the dogs' beds and swept the floors. 

You may remember that, in preparing for this trip, I made loose-leaf notebooks with background information for each state.  I put the first year's worth inside the cabin and stored the others in the downstairs storage area.  (Well, "the others" up to Texas, where I'll be reunited with my storage unit and will pick up those for the remaining states.)  So today I exchanged the ones inside for those for the next year.  That was more difficult than I'd expected, though, because I'd forgotten that I've collected tourist information in each state, so these inside notebooks are much more bulky than the ones stored - meaning it was hard cramming the used ones into the space the unused ones had occupied.

While I was down there, I pulled out a few summer clothes and stored the heaviest of my winter ones.  The forecasts are for gradually increasing warmth, but no more of those freak snowstorms.  I'm leaving out a few sweaters, just in case, but storing my winter pajamas, for instance.

I ran out of day - and energy - before I ran out of things needing to be done.  I'll do the dishes in the morning before we leave and finish catching up my blog while I still have a wifi signal. 

I expect to spend the rest of the month in northwestern WV where, everybody tells me, there's nothing worth seeing.  But it's all new to me, so I'll go see if it's not worth seeing.  I can tell by the maps that I won't be running out of mountains, though I guess that'll be happening in a month or so: a guy from Indiana staying near us tells me Indiana is flat with corn and wheat fields.  Flat is not what I've got in West Virginia, so I should enjoy it while I've got it.

West Virginia - Day 18 - Charleston again

Huntington/Fox Fire KOA
Thursday, 18 April 2019

[photo of route not yet available]

By this morning, I'd realized several important things. 

One is that Dexter probably had something more than a bruise on his foot.  He's a little reluctant to go for walks and limps along on 3 legs - it's his left rear foot that hurts.  I've checked his foot out several times and, other than being really sensitive, can't find anything wrong - no stones or stickers or anything like that.  So I figure I need to take him to a vet.

Another is that this campground does not have wifi.  My computer didn't acknowledge any signal at all, even from someone's personal source.  And my own little hot spot picks up a signal so weak it's slower than when I used dial-up.

And still another is that I really miss my camera.  I either need to get it repaired or I need to get a replacement.  Or both.  And I can't find any place nearer than Charleston that claims to do any of that.

So despite being a nice campground with a quiet level site by a nice little stream, and despite being desperate for a nice long rest, I knew I'd have to head out today.  The only cell phone signal I can get is weak, and I can pick it up only if I hold my head really still in one position - not real useful.  But good enough to allow me to call the KOA I stayed in a couple of weeks ago and book my previous campsite for a few nights.  Then down the road we went.

I saw lots of green fields and grass along the way.  The hill tops that had looked like wire bristles 2 weeks ago were showing green instead now.  I saw redbuds and dogwoods blooming.  Spring has reached West Virginia and it's pretty.

I went to the PetsMart I'd been to before because online it said they have a Banfield.  And learned when I finally got there using only my memory as a guide that the Banfield's been closed for years.  And when I said something to one of the employees, he said he didn't have any control over that.  So I said maybe he should at least alert the company, and he ignored me.  Not my best PetsMart experience.

Back in the parking lot I got an internet signal and started calling nearby vet offices.  My cell phone is so old the battery only lasts a day if it's not being used, and about 40 minutes if I'm making calls, so I kept worrying I'd run out of battery before I found any place to work us in. 

But we did find a really nice vet office called the Kanawha Blvd. Animal Hospital.  And this is when I learned how to pronounce Kanawha.  I'd been putting the emphasis on the 1st syllable.  Wrong.  The woman who answered the phone said kah-NAW-ha and kind of swallowed the last syllable, and I didn't understand her because I wasn't expecting it.  But now I know.

Nice people, nice vet, worked us in fairly quickly and only charged the usual vet fee.  The vet said he could x-ray Dexter's foot if I wanted, but it would only be to confirm his diagnosis which was that Dext had fractured his toe.  He said with or without the x-ray he'd treat him just the same, which is to give him pain pills and recommend an Elizabethan collar to keep him from chewing on it and wait a month.

He was actually a lot more reassuring than that sounds and said I should maybe get an inflatable collar instead of a stiff collar, which wouldn't fit very well in a 24' RV.  But he said it'll take about a month and will heal on its own, and the pills will make him feel better.  He made me feel better, anyway.

There's a Best Buy back over near the PetsMart, but it was after lunchtime by this point and I was really a truly exhausted so figured the inflatable collar and the camera could wait.

I stopped for some groceries and went on down the road to the KOA.  I'm taking tomorrow off.

West Virginia - Day 17 - Morgantown, Fairmont, Weston

Broken Wheel Campground, Weston
Wednesday, 17 April 2019

[photo of route not yet available]

On our early walk in Chestnut Ridge Campground, the dogs and I all saw the deer at the same time, so this time I was fully prepared to haul them back to the RV.  I just couldn't handle another morning like yesterday's.

When it got light we went back out, dodging potholes and other people's dogs.  The online reviews for this place are glowing and I have no idea why.  The online photos show lots of green trees and grass, which there aren't much of yet, but that doesn't bother me.  None of the commenters say a peep about the roads, so I'm guessing they don't know how bad the roads get before they get graded for the summer tourists.

Yesterday when I was going to my campsite, I was followed by 2 parties with Class A RVs who watched me jounce and jolt my way to my site, and then they disappeared.  Walking around the campground this morning I looked for them in the other camping loop, but apparently they decided against even trying to take their Class As into these sites and went to another campground.

One interesting note, though, is that this was once a CCC camp and there's a stone structure that's been preserved that's labeled as the oven used in the 1930s to bake bread for the CCC camp.  I wished I could take a photo of it.

I wasn't looking forward to going back on the interstate because, just before the turnoff onto the campground road yesterday, I saw many warning signs about an upcoming dangerous hill.  There were also signs saying trucks were required to stop to check their brakes, and cops were enforcing it when I drove by.  I figured it must be a 9% or 10% grade with all those warning signs and thought that wasn't the way to start my day.

Instead, I found all those warnings were only for a 5% grade.  Big deal (I thought).  They even had a runaway truck lane part way down.  I sure don't know what all the fuss was about.  Come to think of it, there was all this fuss on a different interstate when I came into West Virginia a few weeks ago, and that was for a 5% grade too.  And I'd think those were warnings for drivers not used to driving in mountains, except it's impossible to be coming into WV on this road - I-68 - and not have come from either southern PA or western MD.  And drivers who were coming in from the south on I-77 would have just passed over all those western VA mountains to get there.  Shouldn't have been novices at 5% grade mountain driving.  Anyway, another worry not needed.

Morgantown
I wanted to drive around Morgantown a little just to see what it was like, and ended up getting more than I'd intended.  I found a camera repair place online that looked like it wasn't too far from downtown so, first driving past the main West Virginia University campus, I went looking for it.

First I was forced to take a detour because of one-way streets I didn't know about, and then was trying to get back on track but kept encountering streets with signs saying too narrow for trucks - and they were narrow.  So I was ready to give up the idea when I suddenly found the street I'd been detoured off of.  This road would have been 2 lanes wide if it weren't for the cars parked along the side and the telephone poles that were set right at the edge of the street.  So I was dodging the poles because of my side mirror, which meant straddling the center line, and then I found a whole line of dump trucks and semis with trailers coming my way.  And they weren't intimidated by the narrow street at all and I finally just sat still and waited for them to go past me, holding up the traffic behind me, until one very nice dump truck driver stopped for me to go on.

And then there was an uphill left-hand hairpin curve where the street got even narrower, and still these huge trucks coming.  I kept looking for the little camera repair shop but all I saw were houses and convenience stores clinging to the side of the hill.  And then suddenly the road got wider but it had changed its name to not the road I wanted.  I had to keep going and going and finally found the DMV to turn around at.

On the way back down the road I didn't see as many trucks, but I also didn't see the camera shop.  By then I figured I'd seen plenty of Morgantown and just wanted to get back to the interstate (you can see how WV's narrow roads are changing my interstate prejudice).

Don Knotts (Barney Fife) grew up in Morgantown and graduated from WVU, so it's not a surprise one of the main roads is named for him.

Morgantown is built on the banks of the Monongahela River.

Fairmont
I had several errands planned in Fairmont.  First I found a BP gas station selling regular for $2.69, about 10¢ less than I'd been seeing.  The young woman inside told me she'd heard the price is going up another 15¢ or 20¢ in the next few days, so I felt lucky.

I found the post office right where I'd expected it and got a package mailed off.  The town's parking meters cost a whopping 25¢ for an hour, so I walked the dogs, too.

Fairmont has a Mary Lou Retton Dr. because it turns out she was born here, though she spent much of her growing up in Houston where she was training in gymnastics.  I'd always admired her but have learned today that she personally went to Sen. Dianne Feinstein to ask her not to pursue her bill that would help prevent the Larry Nassars of the sports world.  A year later she gave an interview saying she'd been lied to about the Larry Nassar situation.  Given that Feinstein introduced her bill in response to the numerous accusations against him, and that he pleaded guilty to several counts, it's hard to understand how Retton could have accepted and acted on lies to that extent.  But there it is.

I've been having some increasingly severe pains in my right arm and hand and fingers - getting worse over the last 5 or 6 days, and I finally decided maybe I needed one of those support gloves I see people wear for carpal tunnel pain.  I found a CVS right where I expected it, and they had quite a selection of these things.  One of the clerks urged me to try on the one she uses, which I did, and discovered it did nothing at all for the pain in my fingers and concluded I'd misdiagnosed myself.  I'd realized for days I needed some rest, but I already had all these reservations made, and few of the campgrounds had wifi signals so there was no point in staying there for long.  I ended up deciding the place I'm heading tonight might be a good place to stay awhile, because they claim to have wifi in their campground.  But I still had to get there.

The main reason I was in Fairmont, though, was to get a pepperoni roll from the Country Club Bakery.  These are, unsurprisingly, rolls with pepperoni inside , a creation that originated at this bakery for coal miners to take for their lunch.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperoni_roll  Considered as one of the definitive West Virginia foods, I figured I needed to try them.  I've found them everywhere but have been holding out for the original.

And I discovered that Country Club Bakery is closed on Wednesdays.  By this time, I'd had my unsuccessful driving sprint through Morgantown, had been driving all morning either there or on the interstate, and I was tired and hungry.  I went across the street to a little strip mall and found a place called Wright Dawgs and decided to go with a hot dog.  But once inside I discovered they sell pepperoni rolls too and ordered one.  In this place, they're also willing to put a sauce on the bun, which the young woman at the counter urged me to do, so I did.  This thing was huge - with a bun the size of 2 very large hot dog buns side by side and 3 sticks of pepperoni inside - and the sauce turned out to be chili, like for a chili dog.  Fine by me.  It all cost $2.75 and fed me for both lunch and dinner, there was so much of it.

The dogs and I walked around in the grassy verge between the shopping center and the street, and by the end of that walk Dexter was limping.  But I didn't worry, figuring he'd just bruised his foot.

Weston
I passed a sign on the highway saying I-79 along here is a high tech corridor.  Not quite knowing what that is, I looked it up and learned that 60% of the US population lives within a day's drive of this area, including NYC and Boston and Chicago and Atlanta.  I learned that they've set up advanced telecommunications and electrical infrastructure along there to lure in high tech operations.  I learned there's a Tech Park along there that's apparently giving away land for building sites for high tech companies.  What a contrast to the National Radio Quiet Zone, not too many miles away as the crow flies.

I learned that Weston is the home of the Weston State Hospital, once known as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.  It opened in the mid-1800s, and is now in use only for tours.  It's supposedly haunted, go figure.

In town I saw a historical marker about an event during the Civil War the sign calls the Seizure of Weston Bank Funds www.wvculture.org which was an event I'd missed, somehow.

A couple of miles outside town is tonight's campground.  Seems to be a nice little place that caters mostly to sport fishermen.  I may decide to stay longer here.  I need the rest.