Wow, it was a "bit brisk" this morning, as one of the other hotel guests said at breakfast. About 5 C, which is the chilliest I've felt for a long time, considering that it was in the high teens when I left home on Dec. 24. As I drive north, it's not going to get any warmer, I'm sure. 'Twill take a bit of getting used to. Especially since I really didn't bring any winter clothing. Good thing I'll be staying close to an outlet mall tonight!
Sooo..... one last long drive, since tomorrow should only be about a four or five hour run. Today looks to be about 7 hours, and since I also hope to get a few pics while driving through the mountain, I head out fairly early, before 9:30. Not long after I hit the road, I see a car in the ditch off to the right - surrounded by yellow crime scene tape. Yikes! No cops around, so no worries.
A bit further, and I see an odd rock formation way ahead in the distance. Look for a place to stop and take a photo, nothing around... wait... Aha! Scenic outlook up ahead. Pull over, and there's only one other vehicle, and that's a jeep parked there. Weird, doesn't look like anyone is around. Oh well, grab the camera and walk past jeep to get a shot - omg there's a guy sleeping in the jeep! Well, at least he wasn't driving if he was that tired. The whole back of the car is full to the roof with stuff, including his cowboy boots stuffed up against the back window. I hope he's just sleeping - better not hang around too long in case he wakes up. Grab the shot... (which I'll have to upload later when I have a decent wifi connection - again).
Next cool experience was in driving through Virginia, and there was a wall of mountain ahead of me. I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the road went - it didn't appear to go up and over, and there was no discernible way of going around it. As I went around a curve it became apparent - I was going through the mountain. They had simply drilled a hole through the mountain, and that's where they put the road. So, feeling a little Lord of the Rings - ish, I went through the mountain. The song is wrong, she's not comin' around the mountain, she's comin' straight through!
Next up was West Virginia - wow those mountains are big, and gorgeous, and so dark. Where the road has been blasted through, you can see that a lot of the rock is black, what's that about? When I stop at the Welcome center to grab a coffee, there's a little gift shop. Asking for the one thing I could buy that's truly West Virginia, the clerk suggests the little coal figurines - aha, the black rock is from coal! Never occurred to me before, although it should have.
Not much farther along, I find myself driving across a huge bridge that appears to be floating in the sky that's how far down it seems the bottom is. What the heck??? Did they just put a bridge from one mountain top to the next? That's even weirder than tunneling through a whole mountain. There's a sign on the other side for a scenic lookout - awesome, I need to see this. And wow, there's my exercise for the day too, because they've built a staircase partway down the mountainside so that you can get a great view of the whole bridge. There's a river way down at the bottom, I have no idea how far down it is, but there are tiny cars down there.
Suddenly I hear screeches from below on the other side of the gorge and see people in the river - whaaat??? It's like freezing out here and people are swimming? Oh ya, it's New Year's Day, a polar bear plunge. They jump in and race right back out again.
Another stop reveals stepped excavation to build the road. This must have something to do with the geological formation in this area, I've never seen this before but it's easy to see the layers of different types of rock. The sky is partly cloudy, and the patches of sun dance across the mountains creating really intriguing patterns.
The rest of the drive is mostly uneventful, although the scenery is quite interesting. Coming around Pittsburgh at dusk reveals a ton of residential building at the top of each rise, ruining the vista. Although I'm sure someone made a ton of money.
Arrive in Grove City to a temp of about freezing, so it's a good thing I'll have time to do a bit of shopping tomorrow, didn't bring enough warm clothing! (Haven't needed it yet...)
Sooo..... one last long drive, since tomorrow should only be about a four or five hour run. Today looks to be about 7 hours, and since I also hope to get a few pics while driving through the mountain, I head out fairly early, before 9:30. Not long after I hit the road, I see a car in the ditch off to the right - surrounded by yellow crime scene tape. Yikes! No cops around, so no worries.
A bit further, and I see an odd rock formation way ahead in the distance. Look for a place to stop and take a photo, nothing around... wait... Aha! Scenic outlook up ahead. Pull over, and there's only one other vehicle, and that's a jeep parked there. Weird, doesn't look like anyone is around. Oh well, grab the camera and walk past jeep to get a shot - omg there's a guy sleeping in the jeep! Well, at least he wasn't driving if he was that tired. The whole back of the car is full to the roof with stuff, including his cowboy boots stuffed up against the back window. I hope he's just sleeping - better not hang around too long in case he wakes up. Grab the shot... (which I'll have to upload later when I have a decent wifi connection - again).
Next cool experience was in driving through Virginia, and there was a wall of mountain ahead of me. I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the road went - it didn't appear to go up and over, and there was no discernible way of going around it. As I went around a curve it became apparent - I was going through the mountain. They had simply drilled a hole through the mountain, and that's where they put the road. So, feeling a little Lord of the Rings - ish, I went through the mountain. The song is wrong, she's not comin' around the mountain, she's comin' straight through!
Next up was West Virginia - wow those mountains are big, and gorgeous, and so dark. Where the road has been blasted through, you can see that a lot of the rock is black, what's that about? When I stop at the Welcome center to grab a coffee, there's a little gift shop. Asking for the one thing I could buy that's truly West Virginia, the clerk suggests the little coal figurines - aha, the black rock is from coal! Never occurred to me before, although it should have.
Not much farther along, I find myself driving across a huge bridge that appears to be floating in the sky that's how far down it seems the bottom is. What the heck??? Did they just put a bridge from one mountain top to the next? That's even weirder than tunneling through a whole mountain. There's a sign on the other side for a scenic lookout - awesome, I need to see this. And wow, there's my exercise for the day too, because they've built a staircase partway down the mountainside so that you can get a great view of the whole bridge. There's a river way down at the bottom, I have no idea how far down it is, but there are tiny cars down there.
Suddenly I hear screeches from below on the other side of the gorge and see people in the river - whaaat??? It's like freezing out here and people are swimming? Oh ya, it's New Year's Day, a polar bear plunge. They jump in and race right back out again.
Another stop reveals stepped excavation to build the road. This must have something to do with the geological formation in this area, I've never seen this before but it's easy to see the layers of different types of rock. The sky is partly cloudy, and the patches of sun dance across the mountains creating really intriguing patterns.
The rest of the drive is mostly uneventful, although the scenery is quite interesting. Coming around Pittsburgh at dusk reveals a ton of residential building at the top of each rise, ruining the vista. Although I'm sure someone made a ton of money.
Arrive in Grove City to a temp of about freezing, so it's a good thing I'll have time to do a bit of shopping tomorrow, didn't bring enough warm clothing! (Haven't needed it yet...)
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