Sunday Drive

I am way behind on posting, but hang on for this ride.

Our Sunday drive on West Virginia back roads took us from Clarksburg to Chester to Wheeling on routes 19, 250, and 2. On this part of our trip we hoped to find some flea markets or antique stores where we could find some unique items, but no luck there.

We did find a covered bridge near Hundred, WV. I think it is one of the smallest since it spans just 36 feet of Fish Creek, but it was covered and a bridge. It was originally built in 1881 and is a single post truss bridge.

After that bridge all we found were yellow signs and views of far off places.

There was this sign - it was pretty common.

We saw a lot of this right turn sign too.This one made a few appearances.
This was the funniest sign - FabHub even turned around and went back up the road to get the picture.
The diamond portion of this sign was common, the speed limit not so much.
But it was not posted everywhere it could have been even the most of the roads looked a lot more like this
Than this.
Some times we even went around the mountain to the left.
every now and then we came out on top of the ridge and found a scene like this.
Which usually led to a picturesque view like this, which we call the WV Can't Get There From Here view.
You see, no matter how pretty the view is. Unless you know exactly what it is you are looking at, and exactly where it is, you won't be able to get there from where you are. Not without a lot of luck anyway.

A few interesting sights along the way included the Hamilton Round Barn at West Augusta.
It was built in 1912 and used as a dairy barn. It is 62 feet in diameter and 75 feet tall. About 25 cows could be in it at once and seven tons of hay kept in the loft.

In Weirton we found this interesting building. It is the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church. It caught my attention because of the stainless steel roof and bell tower. Definite indication that Weirton is a steel working town.
Our trip took us to the very top of West Virginia, a town called Chester where we searched out the World's Largest Teapot.
To be honest there were a few city blocks further north and probably a short hike along the Ohio river to get to the actual most northern point, but we got close.

One of the odd things we saw in that area was the Newell Toll Bridge spanning the Ohio River.

We didn't notice any indication of how much it would cost to cross over on this toll bridge. but it was kind of funny to think about actually "paying" to go to Ohio. No offense intended, it was just funny.

On our way to Wheeling we saw lots of factories along the road. Most of them had a few lights on, but tall weeds in the parking lots.

So much indication of a history that is now gone.

Another part of the area history is in the bronzed Mingo Indian on the National Road.

The attached sign says "Original inhabitants of this valley extends greetings and peace to all wayfarers."

That was a nice sight at the end of a long days driving.

Next up, is our drive to Huntington.

East West Virginia

We started out on the second part of our vacation by heading toward Seneca Rocks, WV, which compared to where we live is Eastern West Virginia. We went past White Sulpher Springs and headed up route 92.

This part of the state has a lot of flat land backed up by portions of the Appalachian Mountains.

There is plenty of land and water for farming and hills to make sure the water runs in the right direction.

We didn't find a lot of things to get pictures of along the way, but the Green Bank radio telescope was visible along the way.

The size of this telescope is hard to define from this picture, but according to their website the signal collection area is 2.3 acres or 100 meters by 110 meters. The height of 485 feet would fit in between the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building.

Our first real stop on day one was at Seneca Caverns.Above is the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Below is a Fairy Pool.

Outside the cavern is a nice view of a really deep country home site.
Inside the Seneca Restaurant are some displays of local flora and fauna. There is also a bear who tries to attack unsuspecting tourists.
Look a nice picture of FabHub for once!

Our next stop was at the cross roads where the Seneca Rocks recreational site is located. This is the ridge that climbers like to use for recreation.

I didn't see anybody out there, but it may have been too early. I don't know when they would have been visible. I have a good camera zoom and used it to try and find someone, but no luck.

Our next stop was Smoke Hole Cavern.

It is a LOT more commercialized than Seneca Caverns, but still interesting. They do a lot more tours too I think, which means the lights are on a lot and more people can touch things. That makes it possible for more growth of things that are not natural.
This is rainbow falls, they added the concrete edge to make the water fall more dramatically.

These look like gills to me. Very old and very close to people.

We hoped to stay in Elkins that first night after having dinner at the new German restaurant, Schnitzel Haus Tyrol in Dailey, WV before continuing with our trip, but they were fully booked with 4 of 24 Little League baseball teams. We were so happy that I hadn't made a reservation.

We did make it to dinner and everything from the salad to the coffee was delicious. We will be back as often as possible. They are located quite a distance from our home though.

On our way through Elkins we found this statue of Minnehaha the wife of Hiawatha.

I can't find any reason for her to be there and I don't like how she is getting stabbed by the light pole, but there she is.

In other bad photo sights from our drive through Elkins.

This is a really big base for a really small Eagle statue.

We ended up driving all the way to Bridgeport this first day. Not such a long trip if you do it along the main roads, but we are trying to avoid all interstates and see what is on the less traveled roads of West Virginia for this trip. So between not getting in a hurry and stopping to look at things, it took us all day.

Well that was Saturday the 10th of July. More to come, but not tonight. Catch you later.

New Georgia Sights

Uh oh, forgot to post this one. Well, that gives me time to get the next post setup.

We are getting ready to leave Georgia, for the time being anyway.

During this trip we wandered around the countryside on different errands for ourselves and for Mom. We tried to find interesting things that we haven't found and told you about on previous trips. I had a really hard time finding something though. We have been here so much that what some might find odd we think is normal, but I did finally get a photo of an item that we have seen from the very first visit to Mom's several years ago.

It looks like one of her neighbors used to do a lot of auctions in a field along the highway. The sign says "Registration and Check Out 5% Buyers Fee". Maybe the toddler's pedal car was a landmark for people to find the sales field. There are a few items left in the field from a sale that was held a couple of years ago. There is a fire truck, a pickup truck, and some other things, but they are more depressing than interesting. Poor left behind stuff.

One thing we like to do on these trips is to try restaurants that we haven't been to before. Some how we get much braver when we are on vacation than when we are at home. It takes a lot of references for us to stop at a place like this in our neighborhood. Actually, there don't seem to be too many places like this, but if there were we might try.

This is the "Old House Restaurant" in Statham, Georgia. If you are ever in the area and want a good lunch give it a try. They were gone on vacation the day I took the picture, but the day we ate there what drew us in was the number of vehicles outside such a small Mom and Pop looking place. We figured it must be good and it turns out we were correct. They had a pretty simple buffet that put out some great food for a fair price. We might have gone back for seconds if they were open.

The adventure of looking for tasty food in odd looking places is that the experience isn't always a good one. When we got to town last week we stopped at another place that has a "G" in the name, but I won't say much more than that. Admittedly, we got there pretty late for the lunch run, but that doesn't excuse serving food that is past its prime and taking full price for a very limited buffet. The biscuit was left over and warmed from breakfast, the roll was dried out, and the rest of the food was edible, but shouldn't have been served when the quality and variety was obviously gone from your buffet. Or maybe that is how it is all the time we will never know. The thing is because it is so local, we would have gone there for breakfast one day this week if we had had a descent lunch, but now there is very little chance of us stopping again.

What would have helped? Let us know that it is late and the roll/biscuits are not up to par, offer to replace the lack of variety and bread with one of the several desserts that are not going to get sold today. Simple customer service things that small business owners ought to do no matter who the customer is. But then that is what I would want, doesn't mean it makes sense.

Well that is the end of Georgia trip July 2010. Next up should be Georgia trip August 2010. There is a tree that needs to come down in the front yard.

Time to pack up and get out of here.

Partying in Georgia

The 4th of July in Georgia involved some all American work in the yard, a parade, an antique shop, and some wild animals.

We primed, trimmed, dusted, and cleaned our way through the day until about 2pm when we left for Braselton where the town was putting on a festival and parade.

The trip to Braselton took a bit longer than necessary because we talked Mom into the adventure of our vacations - Believe in the Tom Tom. Ok, sometimes Tom Tom takes us the long way around something, for no particular reason, but don't second guess the directions and just do what you are told (in a safe manner) Tom Tom WILL get you to wherever it is you told him you want to go. If it doesn't seem right, well, just enjoy the trip down the roads you probably wouldn't normally take on a trip. You will always be somewhere and there is always a way back home available in the maps. Then again, if the pavement ends and turns to unfamiliar gravel, dirt, or is snow covered you can deviate from the course, but normally just stay on track and the adventure will follow.

Once we actually made it to our destination I got a good picture of Mom outside the antique shop that was open.

I think this shop does pretty good business anyway because they have good prices on things, but on fest day when it is hot outside and they had a nice air conditioner and fans running, they seemed to do pretty well on sales.

Aunt Rose - tell Uncle Harold that FabHub said you should go to this antique shop the next time you are in Georgia. Mom knows where it is. The fun of treasures is the hunt and we think he would enjoy finding the trophy hiding in this store.

Speaking of FabHub, I got a good picture of him from the front seat of Mom's car, with the camera upside down.

It really is better this way. Those are the new sunglasses he got at the festival.

The parade was pretty short and started early so we missed the color guard, but after that there were not many entrants.

Of course there were fire trucks and kids chasing candy.

There was also a fire dog on top of a truck.

The biggest thing missing from this parade were the tractors.

There wasn't one in the whole parade! Who has a parade without an old John Deere or Farmall in it?

The closest they got were a couple of lawn mowers, which like most of the participants were either advertisements for businesses or political hopefuls.

There weren't any clowns or Shriners either, but there were some characters from a local theatre company.

The whole event was fun though and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Even the people who spent the whole parade hiding in the shade.

After we were done in Braselton we had dinner at "Golden Corral" because FabHub has been seeing commercials for the restaurant all over satellite television. Been there done that now.

On the way back to the house we went by the new church/school complex that Prince Ave. has moved into. It is huge and they haven't even built the main chapel yet. The school and ball fields are to the left and behind the buildings in the photo, while the chapel will be to the right.

After the tour of the church grounds we went out the back gate to check out the neighborhood out there and find a new U-pick blueberry patch she heard about at the Athens festival on Saturday.

On our way there we drove past a pasture and then FabHub yells out Buffalo! When we realized he wasn't creatively expressing himself we backed the car up and saw this guy waaaay back in a field. My camera has good zoom, so I pulled him in some though a bit fuzzy.

Then we drove up the next pasture and found this odd creature.

And in the same field a whole group of long horns.

The other wild animal we saw today was this guy. Mom said he had been sitting next to her for a while when we were shopping, but here he is hanging out watching crazy people take his picture.

That ends our day. Tomorrow is painting, updating electronics, and going to a movie. WooHoo!!

Oh man, I haven't check on the race yet! Bye!

Summer Projects on Vacation

We arrived at Mom's a couple days ago. We didn't find anything worth reporting on the way down and then not much happening except getting started on the projects.

The first thing we did was trim back some tree branches in the front yard. Now you can actually see the flowers and the truck isn't getting whacked when we park it.

FabHub's main project for this trip is to paint the eaves and window trim. He started by pressure washing and scrubbing the eaves yesterday - and then he took the gutters off today. So he washed again.

Those oak leaves are hard on a house.

The only thing of note is that the ladder below is not very friendly. It is perfectly healthy ladder. It isn't any more wobbly than the day it was purchased, which really isn't saying much.

This ladder is fine for climbing on the roof as long as someone will hold it for you, but if you have to stand on it and scrub eaves or do something that your helper doesn't want to get covered in - well you might want to try something else.

Like the ladder below. It has several sizing options since the pieces slide together and it makes FabHub feel much safer, which is important.

Good news is the price wasn't bad and it fits in the back of the truck for easy transport back home so that we don't have to buy another one up there.

My project for this trip is two part - Part one is to stay out of FabHub's way unless he needs a ladder held or something. Other than that, he doesn't need any ideas of new ways to do things. Part two is to kill wood bees. I recently discovered there is a way to do some serious damage to those dumb bees and carpenter ants. I found the website www.carpenterbees.com and learned all about how those bugs makes their homes in wood and then I found out that the website's physical home is located about an hour from Mom's house. I also found out that one of the main ingredients in their product is permethrin. So I picked some up at the local lawn and garden store, but they didn't have the "puffer" to blow the powder in the bee holes. I tried another idea, but that didn't work so well. So I ended up just sprinkling the powder around the entrance hole of some carpenter ants in an oak tree and that stuff messed them up! I hate to be destructive to their little families, but they should leave us alone!

Since my "puffer" idea didn't work and we couldn't find one anywhere locally we took off for the website store. They had just what we needed. I got a puffer, some of their dust, and an additive for the paint that is supposed to keep bees away.

So here is me working on my project. Find bug hole, puff dust in, and see if anything comes out.

I used the lawn and garden powder in the yard and followed a wood bee to her home and gave them a shot. A few minutes later I went by to see what might have happened and the carnage was evident. There were eight adult bees in bad situations. They should have stayed in the woods.

We have a bad infestation of the bees at home too, so there is much dust puffing in my future.

In other non-bug and work news:

We went yard sale shopping this morning. There weren't many on a holiday weekend, but we found some stuff that we thought we needed.

Then we stopped in at the local 4th Celebration today, which is early, but allows us to go to another one tomorrow. They had a farmer's market and lots of things for kids to do. A band was playing some good music and a local guy was there with his smoked pulled pork for lunch. We might try that at our next picnic.

Now it is time for FabHub to take a nap and me to see about dinner.

Next up is a trip to another 4th party. See you later.

July Garden Update Number One

We have begun to enjoy vegetable from the garden! Some of them anyway. Some of them are not doing so well. It turns out that when my garden got its last freeze, so did the greenhouse from where we bought the replacement plants. Lesson learned. Thanks guy. The prices were right so we might go back, or I might start all my own stuff next time.

This is the first batch from the garden. A nice yellow squash, a red onion, and a kohlrabi that I started peeling before the picture. They were all delicious!

As for the garden itself, the top half is doing well.

The cabbage, squash, cucumbers, and marigolds are starting to fill out nicely.

The lower half of the garden - made up mostly of plants from the frozen greenhouse purchases - not doing so well. In fact the fertilizer I put on them seems to have overwhelmed some of the plants.

No close ups of those plants though. They would be completely embarrassed.

On a brighter note - FabHub's truck got some new Bling.

It is so tall we both got tired of the big step in, so we put rails on it. Mom and the nephew's kids like them too. The vent visors are so he can let some airflow without letting rain in and people can't really tell the windows are open when it is parked. The Lund tri-fold bed cover is so that we can get some "good" gas mileage on the road, he is still able to use the bed when he needs to since it folds open, and it is easy to remove if needed. We like that better than the hard shells or snap/velcro versions that are hard to replace in the winter time.

I hope he is done for a while!

Next up - we are on vacation and need to share some adventures. See you here later.

Spinners and the Stolen Lawn

We made a couple of additions to the garden this weekend. The beans needed something to climb so we added these old clothes line poles that I bought at a yard sale about a dozen years ago. They have been waiting patiently to be used. FabHub attached them to the raised bed frame and then strung cable between them. We had some old burlap like rope so that was used to give the plants something to hang on to. We haven't tried this before so we will see what happens.

Then we added the spinners as an attempt to confuse deer, birds, dogs, anything that wants to get near the garden. Here is a tip - try to buy something like the spinners that is "Made" to be in the garden and you might pay $3 or more for them. Go to the Dollar store toy section and you can find them with the handy extender sticks for $1.

Last Thursday, June 3rd, I came home to see my BIL had a mess on his lawn where he had mowed and left the cut grass in rows all over the place.

So, Friday, while he was at work I went down there and used the sweeper to "steal" his messy lawn. I wanted the cut grass to mulch the in-ground part of the garden. As you can see, he had plenty to share and didn't mind losing it at all.

Yes, I see the weeds popping through I will get them. By the way, BIL didn't even notice. He saw it was gone, but it rained after I finished and he thought the rain had knocked the grass down into the lawn. What he hasn't noticed yet is the two zucchini plants that I put in his garden. I just hope he doesn't try to give them back to me! I didn't think of that before!

Other than that everything is growing nicely. Thanks for visiting our garden.