THREE STATES IN FIVE HOURS

Before leaving Tygart Lake State Park yesterday morning, I went for a short walk. Met a pair of ducks.

Couldn’t get them in the same photo without missing the head or half the body of one bird.

West Virginia might not spend much on their road maintenance in the mountains, but they are working to protect their wilderness.

Not only the emerald borer that attacks ash trees, but the Asian Long Horned Beetle attacks all hardwood trees. It is very sad. The area we are driving through on Highway 50 is said to be the most remote area left in the East.

Perhaps the bad roads are deliberate, to keep traffic down. You may laugh but I actually encountered that philosophy in a nature area of Costa Rica where the last bastion of certain hummingbirds and butterflies  survive. They don’t want the roads to be welcoming.

Here is an identifier for the Emerald Ash Borer. A metallic green sheen to its wings.

We drove back through Grafton with its hilly, narrow roads. This is how you build a garage or car port when you live on the down-hill side of the road. We tried to find the memorial that states that Grafton West Virginia was the first place that celebrated Mother’s Day. But we must have whizzed right by it.

Highway 50 down and up through this part of the Appalachian Mountains was a rough drive. We saw many of these signs, counting down how many more miles you have of 9% grade.

There was good signage here to help you identify pull outs. From West Virginia, we drove through eight miles of Maryland, then back into West Virginia. Then on to Winchester, Virginia. The road knows the way to carry our sleigh…

I like adventurous roads like this one, but in my car, not with a motor home. The scenery is beautiful. The driver doesn’t get much of a chance to enjoy it.

At one point the speed limit was down to 15 miles per hour. For a comparison, this was like driving the California Grapevine out of Bakersfield before it got “fixed”, only longer and with less traffic.

The road only rises to 3,095 feet, but it gets down to 1600 and then takes you back up again. If you decide to travel Highway 50, you need to know what you are in for.

We planned to spend the night in Romney where there was two choices, a Moose and an American Legion. The parking lot at the Legion was miniscule, on a narrow one-way street. They sent us to the Moose with a bigger lot. It was small, steep and uneven.  They directed us to a truck stop on a hilltop on the edge of town. We ate lunch there and debated the suitability of the lot.  About two hours later, feeling rested, Jim said, ” let’s go to Winchester.”

By four o’clock, we were sitting in the shade of a lovely copse of trees at a huge Moose Club in Winchester, Virginia.

Winchester, Virginia – Day 1

Yesterday I drove the motorhome the about 140 miles from Grafton, West Virginia to Winchester, Virginia. Due to the configuration of state boundaries along the way we passed through Maryland for only eight miles. During that time we crested the highest point on U.S.Highway 50 in the east…Backbone Mountain at 3,095 feet elevation.

For numerous miles and in numerous places the road remained very narrow curvy and rough. It’s been many years since the original pavement and over the years patch upon patch has been applied with no apparent concern for smoothness of the finished product. Many times our speed was to be required to be less than 20 miles per hour.

Here are some of the photos I took along the way…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

At one point we had to deal with 5 miles of 9% of both upgrade and downgrade…

I had originally planned to spend the night in Romney, West Virginia about 40 miles west of Winchester. However, both the American Legion and Moose parking lots were too small with uneven grade. So we continued on to Winchester where we are parked at the rear of Moose Lodge #1283…

Where they have a delightful bank of tall trees to the west where we can hide from the blazing afternoon sun. Here’s the usual dinette window photo…

Yesterday it was 86 degrees with 87 forecast for today and 86 tomorrow with equivalent humidity. Too danged hot and humid for my liking!!!

We expect to depart on Thursday.

Enjoying wide and smooth roads with no 18 wheelers is another joy of the full-timing lifestyle!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of West Virginia. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

SALT LAKE CITY SAYS- NO ROMNEY!

During the debates last night, we had two emergency broadcasts about unusual and dangerous weather conditions in Nevada County, Placer County and El Dorado County. Tornadoes are something we don’t have in these parts. But, that was before we created a change in the climate, a subject that has not come up in any of the debates, and should have.

I thought Obama proved his leadership as a strong world leader during the debate that Romney could not counter. When he got buffaloed, he would divert to the economy hammering on a plan that does not work. I have  a hard time putting together the Mitt Romney who tells us who he is and the Mitt Romney of record.  But, I’m not the only one who feels that way I discovered.

I was on-line and read that the Salt Lake City Tribune had endorsed Obama. I didn’t believe it, so I checked and it is true. I was stunned.

Tribune endorsement:

Too Many Mitts- Obama has earned another term

First Published Oct 19 2012 12:13 pm • Last Updated Oct 22 2012 10:31 am

The Tribune article is copyrighted and can’t be reproduced here, but I can recapture some points of the editorial:

People admire him there in a largely Mormon, Republican, business friendly state and for his handling of the Olympics.

But, his bid for the White House has made abundantly clear that he courted the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now he has become a shape-shifter, embracing the party’s radical right wing all the while  claiming to be a moderate champion of the 47%.

(Direct Quote.) Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: “Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?”

The editorial acknowledges that politicians routinely tailor their words to suit an audience.  But, (direct quote.) Romney, though, is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear.

The editorial sites  Romney’s  failure to  share specifics of his radical plan to simultaneously reduce the debt, get rid of Obamacare (or, as he now says, only part of it), make a voucher program of Medicare, slash taxes and spending, and on and on, is utterly meaningless because it doesn’t add up, just as Obama keeps saying it doesn’t add up. If he is such a hot shot business man, why can’t he prepare a plan that we can all see and depend upon?

The editorial goes on to emphasize the many accomplishments of Obama. If you care to read the editorial, you will find it at this address:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/55019844-82/endorsement-romney-obama-president.html.csp

The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board had hoped that Romney would exhibit the same talents for organization, pragmatic problem solving and inspired leadership that he displayed in years past. They failed to see that Mitt Romney.

(Direct quote”) …our endorsement must go to the incumbent, a competent leader who, against tough odds, has guided the country through catastrophe and set a course that, while rocky, is pointing toward a brighter day. The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first.