These are at and around the new construction on Beechurst. (Here’s a shot from last April.)

Looking up an unfinished elevator shaft.(I thought these pictures would turn out much worse–I basically held my camera out in the dark and took several pictures blindly.

Unfinished stairwell

Someone had dirty paws after their stroll.

The center of Berkeley Springs are the springs that bubble up from the ground. The became a spa that was visited regularly by George Washington. In fact, there’s a little stone tub labeled “George Washington’s Bath”.

We again had beautiful weather, and since the Eastern Panhandle is slightly warmer than us, there was still plenty of leaf color.

If you look at a map of the area, you can see that this is where Maryland is at its thinnest point. So in the picture below, you are standing in West Virginia, looking at the Potomac as it runs through Maryland, but the mountains of Pennsylvania are visible in the distance.

And here are the springs. I loved the way the leaves were lying on the top of the water.

The rings are caused by water bubbling up through the sand. (A couple more pictures if you click through to Flickr.)

The springs then are channeled through the canals that run through the town.

There were “newer” stones that had obviously replaced older worn stones, but even many of the stones from the early 1900s are wearing and will soon be illegible.

Very humbling to think that even the stone markers we leave as our memorials eventually return to nothing more than stone, with our passing and history erased.

More pictures if you click through to Flickr.

I’d like to find whoever thought planting Yucca was a good idea, and smack them. I can’t stand Yucca, and it felt highly out of place in this cemetery.

Of course, this isn’t as illogical as it sounds. The son of friends of my parents was killed there, struck by a train, when I was eight or nine years old. (Their daughter is the same age as me, and the memories of the day of the funeral are still sharp.) It just never seemed like a fun place to go.

But, today I decided it was time to leave the past in the past, so we went. It was a little odd, but I’m glad I finally decided to let myself get past it.

Seeing this was very strange. It doesn’t seem as if the tracks should be as overgrown as they now are, when the train was still running when I was a child. Guess that’s a sign of getting old.

Earlier this year, the old iron bridge was finally closed. Luckily, it’s completely open to pedestrians, so Michael and I wandered over the bridge. I wanted to walk to onto the construction site for the new bridge, but Michael nixed the idea, and since he’s sensible and I’m not, I didn’t go down. But I really did want to get pictures underneath the bridge.

It was a beautiful day to be out and around the lake.

The bridge over Summersville Lake actually has a pedestrian walk, and is an amazing view.

Hey! Look! Someone getting pulled over! (Don’t give them any sympathy. The speed limit is 65.)

And we saw a lot of raptors. My guess is hawks, but I truly have no idea. They were fun to watch though!

And not Summersville, but here’s the view from an Overlook on 19.

Yeah, it was a gorgeous day.

We went for walking across the bridge and taking pictures.

We’re almost there!

BASE Jumping (which Michael does not want to do). Some of the jumpers are quite fancy when they jump.

And some common sights on the bridge.

]]> http://klishis.com/notreally/archives/8430/feed 2 http://klishis.com/notreally/archives/8407 http://klishis.com/notreally/archives/8407#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:00:15 +0000 Michelle http://klishis.com/notreally/?p=8407 Saturday we took a nice scenic drive to Blackwater Falls State Park. Oddly, despite the number of times we’ve visited the park over the course of our lives, we’d never actually hiked around the park, so that’s what we did this weekend.

Noon:

Early Evening:

Back to Noon (this is what caught my eye and made us turn around):

Zoom in on this one to see what caught Michael’s attention:

]]> http://klishis.com/notreally/archives/8402/feed 2 http://klishis.com/notreally/archives/8396 http://klishis.com/notreally/archives/8396#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2011 01:56:17 +0000 Michelle http://klishis.com/notreally/?p=8396

I must say that Michael and I had a perfectly lovely day. (More pictures in the coming days.)

4) Mountaineer Week beard growing contest begins

West Virginia University’s annual beard growing competition begins with a group shave at noon on Oct. 12 in the Mountainlair.

Mountaineer Mascot Brock Burwell asks participating students to challenge his legendary beard for a $100 prize and year-long bragging rights.

Contest organizers hope to see 75-100 participants in the event, which marks the beginning of Mountaineer Week scheduled for Oct. 28 through Nov. 6.

More online: http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2011/10/04/mountaineer-week-beard-growing-contest-begins

Note: I will not be participating.

I loved it. (More pictures if you click through.)

Cathedral State Park is a virgin forest–sometimes it feels like it’s one of the few. Unlike much of the rest of the state, the area was never strip mined or logged, so it’s a truly old growth forest.

For years, Decker’s Creek was a lifeless waste, due to acid mine drainage. The creek was orange, and there was little life. It most certainly was not anything you’d want to splash around in.

Today–after years of fighting to force mine owners to take responsibility for the damage they caused, it’s quite beautiful.

I realized when we came back from vacation that although I have been to lots of places in West Virginia, there are many many more places where I have not been. So I bought to WV guide books (one for scenic drives and the other an explorer’s guide) and decided it’s time to get to know my state better.

Our drive for last weekend, New River Gorge, was canceled by the brakes on the car acting wonky (we replaced the rotors and pads both on Wednesday) but this week–shiny new brakes in place–we took our first drive to some place I hadn’t been before.

Just a few miles outside of Westover is the only covered bridge in Monongalia county. It’s not actually in use anymore, and there’s a rather unattractive “modern” ridge running next to it, but it was a lovely drive.

Star City Rail Trail:

Dent’s Run Covered Bridge and Environs

(photo is part of this set)

We found employment for Nathan:

We went to Blackwater Falls:

We enjoyed the fall foliage in many many different places:

And we even got to hang out with Natalie!

I like having visitors.