Country Roads

Wednesday
Leaving Franklin was hard, as we had such a lovely time with our friends there.
However we set off to drive I26 north to Kingsport, where we would stay over for one night at the Warriors Path State Park, which we first visited in April. Then yesterday, Thursday, we made the trip northwards to West Virginia, travelling up the WV turnpike (I77). Wow, what scenery. We left the Smoky Mountains behind and drove across what I think is the south western end of the Alleghenies. It looked a wild and empty area, though I think that there are many small farms and homesteads tucked away in the trees. Lots of steep sided valleys, with the Interstate ploughing straight across them on bridges, then through man made gorges cut into the mountain tops. The poor old truck started to feel it on some of the inclines and started to overheat, so we kept it very slow, then turned off the A/C, then turned on the heat, which kept the system from overheating dangerously. It is an amazing road, which climbs to 3750 feet. Fortunately, we were travelling north, because for the last 30 miles it drops continuously down to 700ft. If we were going the other way we would definitely have had cooling problems.
We found our little campground, tucked away south of Charleston and settled in.
It started to rain and at about 3.00 a.m the power went off! Amazingly when we looked out the window we could see dozens of little flashing lights – fireflies. Strangely enough though they were all on the ground! Not moving, just flashing away.


On Friday we were determined to see what Charleston, WV, had to offer - not much if the internet was anything to go by. Charleston is built along the banks of the Ohio (which we practised singing, but will do a proper rendition of when we get to Louisville) and is a long city, but only about a mile wide, because of the hills either side. It is an amazing amalgam of factories, shipping, shops and houses. It is the State capital, so the State Capitol building was our first stop. It has a lovely golden dome. Then we visited the State Museum, just across the way. Having seen that we would need more time we went to have lunch in a local restaurant – The Bluegrass Café (no music). We had a great lunch. Broccoli and Cheese Soup, followed by meatloaf in a roll, excellent. Sally had a ‘Perfect Chicken Sandwich’ which was pretty good. I was tempted into the blueberry buttermilk pie, which was also excellent. This restaurant was in the Historic District, a feature of which was a restored 1939 Art deco cinema (now offices). Interestingly one of the wooden houses which had to be moved to enable it to be built was placed, complete, on top of a brick built bar round the corner (OIA – Only in America).
The museum was excellent, one of the best we have been to (perhaps on a par with the Rosa Parks museum in Montgomery). It was a walk through a time line from the earliest settlers to modern day. There were excellent sections about the coal industry and post civil war industrial revolution, showing how people lived in coal company towns (“16 tons and what do get, another day older and deeper in dept – St Peter don’t you call me ‘cos I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store”). Also showed the explosion in machine produced goods, loved it. West Virginia’s economy was (and still is) based on coal. As we drove over the 77 we passed through several cuttings in the rock where a beautiful 2 foot seam of coal was exposed. Brine was very important at the turn of the 18th century, which led to the discovery of natural gas and later oil. This in turn led to the evolution of the chemical industries, plastics (Du-Pont factories all over the place). Somewhat like our home town.
The museum also graphically showed the effects of the great depression on this area as primary industries and agriculture shut down. Coal strikes and the civil unrest followed. One ‘battle’ ended up with a 3 day gun fight and the army and air force being sent in. I think 16 people were killed in that!
There were some fascinating displays about Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ AWP and CCC projects, which leads us back to the West Virginia Turnpike, started in the New Deal but partly built in the 50’s and properly completed in the 80’s.
So our visit taught us a lot about West Virginia. I think that I would like to return at some stage and explore a bit more its “country roads, almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. Life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains blowing in the breeze.”