We went a little further south on the Mon River rail trail this weekend, but as temperatures were in the high 90s, we didn’t go all the way to Fairmont.
Oh, we got a new toy–a Garmin Oregon GPS. It has a camera, which I’m excited about not for the pictures it takes, but because of the precise GPS data attached to that pictures. When I upload the GPS pictures to Flickr, it automatically puts those pictures on the map. I can then drag other pictures taken at that spot onto the map in the same place. So if you have a GPS you can now find a specific spot, which is fun.
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We took another ride along the Rail Trail this afternoon. This time we took the trail north to the Pennsylvania state line.
There are lots of day lilies along the trail.
I don’t know what this is, but it must be from when this was a rail line. (There are a few other pictures of the structure if you click through to Flickr.)
W. Looks to be the same age as the above structure.
There are abandoned power/telephone lines alongside the trail. They’re not visible the entire time, but are visible for long stretches.
Tips of the stacks of the Fort Martin Power Plant.
Your greeting at the PA state line.
Yesterday continued the week’s weather of thunderstorms punctuated by periods of gorgeous sunshine, so we decided just to take our bikes out on the Rail Trail.
We biked from the park in Star City to Hildebrand Lock, stopping off at Mt St Brewing Company for lunch, and at Wamsley Cycles to get our bikes checked over, and to get a kick stand mounted on my bike.
The kick stand seemed a better solution than having Michael hold my bike every time I dismounted to go take a picture.
It was a gorgeous day, and we had a lovely ride.
Although I have three walking sticks, I’m considering getting one that collapses even smaller than the ones I have, that I can strap onto my bike. I wanted to get further off the trail to get a closer look at some of the water runoff areas (water falls when it’s been raining) but don’t trust my ankle enough without a stick.
And I think I just talked myself into it. :)
And if anyone is interested, this is the case I got for carrying my camera while biking. I chose a handlebar case, because it seemed the most protected if I took a spill.
Actually have pictures scanning a couple weeks here.
May 27th
Sunnyside
Looking South West
Looking West
May 30th
Sunnyside
Looking South
Looking North
June 8th
Sunnyside
Looking South West
Downtown
Willey Street & North High
I forgot to post these pictures of the AMAZING parking job we saw by the Farmers’ Market yesterday.
Poor parking meter.
Michael and I decided that moving along at the fast clip of a bike ride would be a much more pleasant way to get exercise today, than walking anywhere (It was 89 when we were coming home.)
We decided to ride the rail trail, riding from Star City, out to Marilla Park, then back to town and out to Greer Limestone, then back to town for lunch at Mountain State Brewing Company. Then, after we’d rehydrated and eaten more than we should, back to Star City.
Next ride, we’ll most likely ride past Greer, out to Hildebrand Lock & Dam. Maybe.
One of the first things I bought for my bike was a camera bag, because I like having my camera with me. (Duh.) We stopped a couple times so I could take pictures, but most of what we went past was familiar ground, areas we’ve walked multiple times. But that didn’t mean there weren’t interesting things to see.
This is by Seneca Center. I’ve photographed these windows before, and remain fascinated by them.
Poor, unloved, crane.
How did I not know there was a major construction project by Marilla Park?!
The entire section of road is blocked, which means you have to take the long way around to get to the DMV.
On our first bike ride, we went around areas we normally don’t walk, which is how I got a closer look at the CPASS building.
If you’re a townie, this is going where St Francis High School went. As I was miserable in high school, I won’t lie and say I miss the old building, but it IS very strange looking. And the new building is going to be HUGE.
I put notes on the pictures, to orient you as to the surrounding structures.
Looking East
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It rained Friday, we we walked to town on Saturday.
It looks like they’re trucking in (back?) dirt to level out the area.
Looking South
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I think it’s pretty much been deconstruced–hardly looks like there were houses there.
THIS did not make me happy. BOO HISS! (previously…)
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We walked downtown for dinner, and then back home.
There’s really only one corner of debris now–most of it is already down to dirt.
Debris
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For our evening walk (now I’m not longer feeling like death warmed over) Michael and I spent 50 minutes walking around the area close to our house.
We saw four separate construction projects, and we only walked 2 1/2 miles (and half of that was back-tracking to return home).
Most striking were the pictures of the Sunnyside area–I’d taken pictures there just a week and a half ago.
Sunnyside (previous)
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Yesterday we walked to town (and back) for dinner, and discovered that the Sunnyside deconstruction is now going full scale.
For those not familiar with Morgantown, Sunnyside is an older residential area that transitioned to student housing years ago.
Any by transitioned to student housing, I mean, turned into an utter slum.
Houses were divided into multiple apartments (in the cheapest manner possible), yards were turned into trash heaps, and the whole place looked like hell.
Which is really too bad, because many of those houses were almost certainly gorgeous at one point. Unfortunately, they’d been neglected to the point of no return, and there was no saving them. So whole swaths of Sunnyside are now being knocked down to create a new apartment / shopping center complex.
What I’d LIKE to see from this is a revitalization of the remaining houses–that they be bought up and returned to single-family homes, but I think that’s blindly optimistic, so I’ll just have to hope that maybe the remaining landlords will clean up their properties.
I’m not holding my breath.
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I’d forgotten I’d taken these pictures of house down the block from us being demolished. I won’t say I was sorry to see those houses go. They–like many houses in Sunnyside–are beyond recovery.
Mind you, the building in the background is another brand new apartment complex, but I guess we really can’t have too much new housing around here.
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Temperatures got into the 70s today(!) so Michael and I took a short hike around the Arboretum.
Looks like the plants have recognized it’s warm as well–won’t they be sadly surprised when it snows on Wednesday.
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