Monday, 1 April 2019
Happy April Fools Day.
And my momma would have asked this morning if I were tired, because I've just finished a 31-day march. (heh, heh)
The campground folks came around last night to warn that they were shutting off the water overnight due to cold weather. I'd already detached my hose for the same reason, but it got even colder than I'd expected. The temperature early this morning was 22°, and I'm certain the wind chill was way into the teens because the wind was really blowing. Made our first walk of the day a challenge.
Fortunately there didn't seem to be a trace of frost on the roads, and when I left about 9:30 it was really sunny so I didn't worry about slippery roads in the mountains to come.
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| today's route |
While still in Virginia, I stopped at Wytheville for groceries and a post office. I was surprised to learn, by seeing the historical marker downtown, that it was the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson's wife Edith.
Driving through town I ended up behind a fork lift and learned that they have no shock absorbers whatsoever. I could see how much of a difference they make, since I was easily going over the same bumps that were sending the fork lift driver flying out of his seat.
I also saw a truck that pumps out septic tanks and porta-potties and, on the rear, was the slogan, "Hauling Political Promises." Everyone's a critic.
For some reason the idea of tunnels instead of climbing up and down mountains never occurred to me, so the two I passed through this morning came as a surprise. The Big Walker Mountain Tunnel is 4,229' long. Not far beyond it and straddling the VA/WV border is the East River Mountain Tunnel. At 5,412' long that one's more than a mile. They came on me suddenly, but I've decided this month I'm going to conquer my fears about driving in mountains.
Starting with these tunnels. I think the problem I've had before with tunnels is worrying too much. Most tunnels aren't built any wider than the roadway and have about 1' clearance on either side. This isn't enough to accommodate my right side mirror while staying in the middle of my lane, and previously it's caused me great anxiety.
Today I took another tack: I did my best to stay in my lane (each direction of travel had its own tunnel with two lanes, so there wasn't oncoming traffic) but moved far enough away from the wall to not have to worry about scraping it. And I didn't worry if the people behind me thought I was crowding them, figuring they could deal with it themselves. And they did - cars passed me. I tried to keep up a reasonable speed but didn't worry about the speed limit and figured the semis behind me could deal with it, which they did.
This is my new mantra, I think. Do the best I can without obsessing over perfection and let everybody else take care of themselves.
That thinking had already allowed me to drive over several mountains prior to the tunnels, and I went the speed I was comfortable with and stayed in the far right lane, and let the semis (professional drivers, after all) work it out for themselves. Of course, they were doing the same thing I was, only I was fast going uphill and slow coming down, and they reversed that.
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| West Virginia, my 13th state |
West Virginia is the only state to lie completely within a mountain range. The Appalachian Mountains define this state, whose nickname is - surprise! - The Mountain State.
West Virginia is also the only state with two panhandles. They define that western hook that Maryland has that I missed two months ago due to weather. This month I'm aiming to see the area from the West Virginia side of the border.
Because I wasn't sure what effect driving through today's mountains would have on me, and thinking my nerves might be shattered, I booked tonight in the campground closest to the border I could find. It only just opened for the season in the last few weeks, I think, but the small section they put me in is very nice. It's surrounded by tree-covered hills and I'm surprised I can get a wi-fi signal here. All the campsites are paved and level and reasonably separated from each other, and including sales tax and my senior discount they're charging me $25.20 for the night. Pretty reasonable. I may come back later in the month.
When I got here around 1:00 PM there was only one other camper here. By my bedtime there were 11 of us, surprising to me since Mondays aren't usually high-volume days. And almost everyone has at least one dog. But it's quiet. Camp Creek runs a few feet away from the rear of my campsite, and I only wish it were a few weeks later in the month so the dogs and I could sit outside and enjoy listening to the flow. Today it's been really chilly all day, but sunny and therefore pleasant if we're indoors.
I stopped at a Visitor Center just this side of the border to see if there was any chance I could get some tourist information. I walked in and a lady asked if she could help me, and I told her this is my first time in West Virginia and I'm staying the month here so what should I see. She gave me an armload of brochures (only a fraction of those they had available) and a state map.
I thought about how poor I've heard the state of West Virginia is and compared the tourist encouragement to what I've seen in much wealthier states, and it gave me food for thought. And I found one of the brochures specifically said now that coal mining has dried up, so to speak, the state is turning to tourism for economic advancement. These brochures show that they've embraced tourism in a big way - they're very fancy and beautiful and were clearly not work cranked out by a local chamber of commerce.
So now I have a whole lot of reading and planning ahead. I'm booked for the next several nights in a KOA on the far western side of WV - David wanted a mailing address and KOA is usually reliable. I'll use much of the time for planning the rest of the month, though one of my new brochures lists sights to see in that neighborhood.
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