West Virginia, Day Three and Day Four

After a trip through West Virginia coal country on Friday, we needed to have a "down day" to do laundry, clean the motorhome, and such. And, I've got to tell you, the trip through the hard scrabble towns in the hills and valleys of Southern West Virginia was an eye opener. With a little imagination, the bustling villages can come to life. Underfed, overworked men, women, and children can be seen laughing together after a days' hard, satisfying work; gossiping over the "doin's" of the neighbors family. Dirty long days in the mines, always with the threat of explosion, cave-in, and mine closure in the back of everyones mind. Boys went off to the mines at twelve or fourteen because their income was needed. Girls were expected to leave home as soon as possible to lighten the load on the family table. But they made a kind, resourceful, considerate and accepting life. Generations of families came and went, not knowing anything about life outside the "holler", their only touch of outside at the company store.

We are in awe at the life these coal mining families led and that now is lost.

So, Saturday was a cleanup day. We finished our chores in the late afternoon and went into town for a cup of iced tea....

We have not experienced the drink that was presented to us: Black iced tea with lemon and sweet cream! Must be a West Virginia thing! We felt refreshed after drinking it, but allowed as how we probably won't repeat the experience!

Sunday, we needed to see a couple of the sights around Princeton. Just a few miles from the rv park, Pipestem State Park has a nice camping, golfing, hiking, zip lining, tram riding, and sightseeing facility. We drove around the park expecting to see rock formations that resemble pipestems but were disappointed. Turns out, a Pipestem is an evergreen shrub native to the southeast, with stems growing to 12 feet high. The stems are hollow, hence the name....

Evidently there are a lot of them around here, but we didn't see any. Must be the wrong time of year!

An overlook along the road gave us a bit of a sense of the mountains that surround the Bluestone National Scenic River. Zip lines and a tram normally descent from the state park down to the river, but the entire operation is closed for remodeling.

Forty miles southwest, near the town of Bluefield, we took Highway 598 to the top of a mountain where West Virginia and Virginia meet. A scenic lookout gave us a cool view of Bluefield and surrounding area.

We slid back onto I 77 North at Rocky Gap, Virginia, and soon came to the East River Mountain Tunnel.

Opened in 1974, the 5,412 foot long tunnel lies almost exactly half and half in the states of Virginia and West Virginia. It's one of only two tunnels in the entire country that crosses the border between two states. The only other state-crossing tunnel is the Cumberland Gap Tunnel between Kentucky and Tennessee. Before the opening of the tunnel, travelers crossing East Mountain had to navigate the narrow, twisting, two lane Highway 598 that we had just traversed! Closed for fog and snow often in the winter, the road presented an obstacle to interstate travel.

After an arduous 85 mile day trip (!), we stopped in Princeton for a little lunch at Tudors Biscuit World! With everything on the menu revolving around biscuits, how could we go wrong? Well, reheated biscuits and hockey puck sausage smothered in leftover sausage gravy kinda ruined it for us. No pics, folks, nothing to see here.

On our way back to Brush Creek Falls RV Resort (whew! I'm glad the name isn't any longer), we stopped at a narrow bridge and admired.....Brush Creek.

Ya gotta love the scenery in West Virginia!