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.

CAMERON PRARIE WILDLIFE REFUGE VISITORS CENTER-LAKE ARTHUR

We spent the night in the parking lot of the Cameron Park Wildlife Visitors Center.  Employees coming to work  knocked on the door and told us there was no camping in their parking lot. Jim explained about taking refuge from the storm and told them we would be visiting the center before we hit the road.  There is a boardwalk to an observation platform.

There are no trails to walk here, just one huge wetland very busy with birds and ducks.  The center has  two films,  artifacts and information about wildlife in the area.


We were amazed to see about 40 roseate spoonbills huddling in a copse of trees at some distance from our lens.  Their feathers are all fluffed up in an effort to keep warm. It was still windy and cold in the morning.


Like the egrets they are such majestic birds and obviously hungry.


It was fun watching them eat.


One bird would fly back to the group and another would come out to eat. I tried to get a decent shot of them flying but by the time they lift off and you try to find them in your viewer, they are too far away.


Birds high in the sky made a pretty sight. I thought they were geese, but on closer inspection they have medium long curved bills and I don’t know what they are. If you left click on the photos they enlarge. Do it twice, and they get bigger still.


I caught this fellow just swallowing his food.


Each time I’d turn back and try to isolate a bird from the mob huddled in the trees, the clarity suffers from the distance. Fascinating anyway.


Then as we were driving away, I could see a path behind the copse of trees near the road. Jim turned around for me and I walked behind the birds and got a couple of crisp shots. They were edgy and most of them flushed somewhere out toward the wetlands.


The thick brush made photos difficult, but they are so beautiful, it was worth the effort.


We stopped for groceries in Lake Arthur and got permission to park at the American Legion Post 405. A very friendly group. In fact, when I came out of the grocery store, a gentleman coming into the store offered to help me with my groceries. A very friendly town. No one locks their doors. Very little crime. God’s country, we are told.


The other patrons wouldn’t let us buy a drink in the place. This is Norman, Joe and Sally. Sally looks much like Loretta Lynn. She loves her music.


Everyone I asked was born and raised right here in Lake Arthur. Norman loves to dance and he informed Jim that everyone there is staunch Catholic and we were living in sin, at which time the whole bar erupted into laughter. We could hardly get away. They’ve asked us to stay for their jambalaya feed on Thursday afternoon. We have another storm warning for Thursday, with a tornado watch, so we have no plans to drive anywhere on Thursday.

THE SHOE POLICE

Yesterday warmed a bit and we spent a restful day with a few small chores. Jim pumped up all ten tires and fixed a valve. I treated the sinks with a baking soda soak and scrubbed the cutting board covers on the sink.
Every morning, the little tree outside our window fills up with tiny flitting birds. We can’t see what they eat and they don’t stay long enough to figure out what they are.

It was warm enough for the jack rabbits to come out of their dens by afternoon. They are gangly; all legs and ears. You can tell this is a nursing female.

There appears to be nothing for them to eat, the grass is sparse.
We dressed up after dinner for a dance at the American Legion..

We arrived just as the band was setting up. I brought my pocket camera and the room here, especially after the music got started, was very dark with only the disco ball flashing lights about the room.

Jim has been promising to dance me. We dance about the motor home frequently but in public, he tends to be shy about dancing. He turned me around the dance floor and I lost my backless sandals on the first dance.  I’d never danced in them before and we struggled along twice, with my shoes wanting to come off, so I vacated the shoes and I danced in my stocking feet. Later, a gentleman asked me to dance, asking me if I like to twirl. I told him yes and he twirled and twirled me about the dance floor. He came back for a second dance and the shoe police made me leave the floor because I was in my stocking feet. The gentleman urged me to try again and I did, and again, the shoe police kicked me off the floor. I explained to him my shoes wouldn’t stay on my feet-to no avail. Jim and I danced once more, a slow dance where my shoes didn’t go flying, and then we left. It was difficult to understand why there is such a rule since most women’s shoes are scanty and thin, especially dancing shoes. In fact, this is the first American Legion we’ve been too where there was a security guard. Maybe they drink too much and get rowdy as the evening proceeds?

Could be, judging from this guy’s bottle, Machine Gun Kelly whiskey. He was very proud of his purchase and told me “I got the last one!”  He didn’t open the bottle, just showed it to everyone.
The American Legion here only sells beer. If you drink anything else, you have to bring it and the bar provides you a cup and ice and will sell you mix.
I was having a great time before I got kicked off the dance floor, a first for me. We wanted to get home early anyway to see if the Harlingen PBS station would be playing Downton Abbey. (They don’t even broadcast on Sunday.)  Darn!

FOUR CORNERS NATIONAL MONUMENT

There is only one place in the United States where four states meet and touch at the same place.  A monument established there allows visitors  to be in four states at the same time.  Quite an attraction for being out in the middle of  “nowhere”.  I hope I don’t get condemned for saying that.  This is Navajo Reservation and Ute Reservation land boundaries as well, with occupation by Hopi and Zuni populations.  The Navajo Nation runs the monument with flags from all states flying in the wind.

We watched amused as this family took turns touching all four states.

The daughter got creative and did a back bend.  My advice, best to do back bends while you still can.

After our long drive from Canyon de Chelly,  Jim was still feeling a bit of pain, but managed to get down on his knees to touch the four states.

Each state has a bronze plaque in the cement and a marble block engraved with  a brief history of the founding of each state.

Surveyor Chandler Robbins established the first line in 1875. The Marble Monuments were installed by the National Society Of Professional Surveyors.

The history is an interesting one about how the boundaries were established,  but the light was such the photos of the marble blocks  didn’t turn out.  The  Marble Monuments were installed in 2010.  The first survey line was established within measurable distance from a  recognizable land mark, a huge jutting rock that looks like a ship rising out of the desert, aptly named Shiprock.

The first surveyor, marked the point in 1875, and this monument has been upgraded five times since then, with a dispute here and there along the way.


It is an important thing to know the boundaries of each state yet we don’t give it much thought. We enjoyed the stop, and visiting the  Navajo Kiosks surrounding the site selling native crafts, mostly pottery and jewelry. Something called horsehair pottery,  peace pipes and items we’ve seen nowhere else are available here.

I bought an Indian fry bread and went back to the motor home and made a delicious taco from it.
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I offered to help drive, but Jim, with the help of a  little pillow to shield his bruised muscle and ribs from the seat belt, managed the 140 miles by himself.

This is back country, and the road plows through some desolate landscape with a sudden picturesque rock face jutting up from the desert floor.


I thought  this may be Shiprock.

Or this may be Shiprock. Kind of resembles a ship plowing through the waves.
We are parked at an American Legion in the small town of Cortez, Colorado.

For more information about the Four Corners Monument, you can click the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Corners_Monument

HUGGING LAKE ERIE

We arrived late in the day at Ashtabula on the 18th, with the heat. It wasn't a friendly area of the city and we didn't see anything of the town, just tucked into the motor home and read and did paperwork, made a few phone calls until bedtime.
 In the morning we lit out for Sandusky, staying away from the interstates, following Highway 6, 2, and 24, hugging Lake Erie. Having grown up on the Great Lakes, in the Upper peninsula of Michigan, I'm familiar with them but had not traveled anywhere near the south side of Lake Erie.
First, though, we threaded our way through Cleveland. An appealing place, with a pretty skyline and home of the Cleveland Browns.

A bit of Cleveland skyline through the window.

 Got a passing shot at the Cleveland Browns Stadium.

 Our first good glimpse of the lake, with a barely visible lighthouse out on a point.
Leaving Cleveland, I took a number of photos of the blue, beauty.

Below, the Huron River dumps into the Lake.

The drive was quite scenic, unhurried and uneventful.

I got a skewed picture of this old building where the owner has nicely allowed an old painted ad to remain. Its says, Honest Scrap. Below, that, 5 cents. Could be a pack of cigs. Our computers no longer contain a cents sign. Not much use for it.

 

An asphalt parking lot in front of a grocery store had nary a tree, but sported instead some electrical assistance with a generating windmill. I spotted three stand alones in as many days. I wish more businesses would to that.

Our last stop of the day, Sandusky. The American Legion Post 83 put us up for the night in their back lot. A huge place-the third largest in the U.S. It had a great restaurant and we enjoyed a nice dinner and good draft beer. We are on our way to visit friends of Jim's on the Detroit River for a few days.