A week ago tonight The Redding Brothers had a concert in their home-state of West Virginia, so our whole group decided to go up for the weekend. We stayed at their grandparents house in what is called Scott Depot, but its really not in a town. Its up on a mountain. Joyce Road is one of the main roads up to the house, and is one of the worst roads I've seen. (Although the locals say there are worse ones.) It is really only wide enough for one car, which makes it interesting when you come face to face with another car or - even better - a school bus. I do not envy the residents of Redding Mountain their main transportation route, especially during the winter months. However, they do have some very beautiful wildlife up there. I was intrigued by all the decidious trees budding up and flowering. While I was out in the mud taking pictures I saw my first red cardinal. It was so strikingly pretty and had a lovely song. Unfortunately he flew away before I could snap a picture.
BarlowGirl and Micah's wife (I'm going to call her Miss Grey) came up with the idea friday afternoon that I needed a 'tour' of all the local haunts. So saturday morning Micah, Gabe, Miss Grey and I all piled into the car and started off. First we went by the building Mr. Redding used to work at, called Building 82 owned by Union Carbide. That morning they had reduced it to a mere pile of rubble. We got some good pics of the guys by the rubble, and moved on.
From there we went to St. Albans where there is a road underpass which is more like a tunnell. It is only wide enough for one car at a time, so you have to honk before you enter it to 'announce' that you are going through. It was somewhat flooded but that just added to the effect, especially with all the graffiti. This is also the same place where they have multiple churches and multiple strip clubs all on the same main road. I got one priceless picture of a Baptist church right next door to both a strip club and an adult video store.
The local Power Plant is somewhat conspicous with white clouds billowing out of it constantly. According to Gabe the towers are something like 900 ft tall. He also said that the large white clouds are actually steam and not smoke like I thought.
On our way through one area we saw an apartment building that we think was designed and built by the Redding's grandfather. While we were driving around we went to Hometown where Josiah and BarlowGirl's old apartment is next to the Kanawha river. What could be quite a picturesque view from the apartment building is a somewhat sad sight because of the muddy brown water. Also saw a church with a quote from 1 Samuel about 'rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft'. It seemed like an odd scripture to quote and we still don't know what message they were trying to impart to passerby's.
Sunday morning we stopped at Tudor's Biscuit World which is (according to Micah) to West Virginia like Starbucks is to Seattle. The breakfast biscuits tasted good, mostly because the biscuits were very buttery, but made me feel somewhat greasy after eating mine. In our way out of WV we stopped in Huntington so I could see Marshall University & the memorial fountain on campus. The movie 'We Are Marshall' is a favorite of mine and I wanted to be able to see the memorials put up for the staff members, and football players who were taken in the tragic plane crash of 1970. We also visited the memorial in place at Spring Hill cemetary where the six unidentifiable victims were buried.
Even though I saw some bizarre stuff, and some of the roads scared me, I really did enjoy my time in West Virginia. I'm also thankful for my friends and how patient they were with me while I snapped pictures of all the sites! Here are some of my findings:
BarlowGirl and Micah's wife (I'm going to call her Miss Grey) came up with the idea friday afternoon that I needed a 'tour' of all the local haunts. So saturday morning Micah, Gabe, Miss Grey and I all piled into the car and started off. First we went by the building Mr. Redding used to work at, called Building 82 owned by Union Carbide. That morning they had reduced it to a mere pile of rubble. We got some good pics of the guys by the rubble, and moved on.
From there we went to St. Albans where there is a road underpass which is more like a tunnell. It is only wide enough for one car at a time, so you have to honk before you enter it to 'announce' that you are going through. It was somewhat flooded but that just added to the effect, especially with all the graffiti. This is also the same place where they have multiple churches and multiple strip clubs all on the same main road. I got one priceless picture of a Baptist church right next door to both a strip club and an adult video store.
The local Power Plant is somewhat conspicous with white clouds billowing out of it constantly. According to Gabe the towers are something like 900 ft tall. He also said that the large white clouds are actually steam and not smoke like I thought.
On our way through one area we saw an apartment building that we think was designed and built by the Redding's grandfather. While we were driving around we went to Hometown where Josiah and BarlowGirl's old apartment is next to the Kanawha river. What could be quite a picturesque view from the apartment building is a somewhat sad sight because of the muddy brown water. Also saw a church with a quote from 1 Samuel about 'rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft'. It seemed like an odd scripture to quote and we still don't know what message they were trying to impart to passerby's.
Sunday morning we stopped at Tudor's Biscuit World which is (according to Micah) to West Virginia like Starbucks is to Seattle. The breakfast biscuits tasted good, mostly because the biscuits were very buttery, but made me feel somewhat greasy after eating mine. In our way out of WV we stopped in Huntington so I could see Marshall University & the memorial fountain on campus. The movie 'We Are Marshall' is a favorite of mine and I wanted to be able to see the memorials put up for the staff members, and football players who were taken in the tragic plane crash of 1970. We also visited the memorial in place at Spring Hill cemetary where the six unidentifiable victims were buried.
Even though I saw some bizarre stuff, and some of the roads scared me, I really did enjoy my time in West Virginia. I'm also thankful for my friends and how patient they were with me while I snapped pictures of all the sites! Here are some of my findings:
This is Joyce Road. As you can see - the car takes up the whole 'road'.
Some of the nice wildlife...
The guys and Building 82...
the tunnel in St. Albans...
1 comment:
Hey! I enjoy reading your blog. I've never been to West Virginia--great pics! Hope you are doing great.
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