Twin Falls and the Trip Home

The signs are correct--you really do feel like you're going backwards and forwards at the same time when you travel some of the twisting mountain roads in West Virginia! These are located on the road to Twin Falls State Park, where I told stories on Saturday night. The park is remote, has beautiful scenery, a frontier farm and many walking trails. We sat outside in the evening listening to a fox bark a territorial warning on a far hillside as the stars came out.

The staff people were great too--friendly, funny, and very personable. When I called to be sure the activities director had reserved a room for us, the desk clerk said "I'll just have to skin him if he hasn't" in a cheerful southern mountain dialect that has to be heard to be appreciated. All West Virginians have accents, and it's distinct from one region to another. In Wyoming County where this park is located, the accent is a real treasure.

This log school house is located on the road to the park. I love the angled logs in the gable, and the many windows. Those kids had lessons with a view.

The chutes at a coal tipple in Boone County, WV. My husband told me a story about a time he and his sister slid down one of these (a much shorter one at a small mine), thinking it would be like a big sliding board. It was a rough, rough trip--they didn't think about the heads of the bolts sticking up, or the 6-foot dropoff at the end onto a pile of coal. I think they were lucky to survive the trip, although Larry told me that their overalls were in tatters and their mother was mad as a hornet because their clothes were ruined.

It was a great weekend, filled with friends, stories, memories and travel.