Road Trip

43 this morning, warming to 63. Cloudy after a rainy night, then a beautiful sunny afternoon. By 9 pm, rain and wind. Feels like March weather!

Today was my husband's day to travel to Huntington,  WV, for one of his appointments.  This one was with the podiatrist,  who checked his feet and advised him on foot care since he is diabetic.  With the VA, he gets free foot care, and even free shoes and socks! Thankfully, his diabetes isn't too bad and is controlled with 2 pills a day. Part of the reason for that is that he is so active, which keeps his circulation working well. His diabetes is connected to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.

Huntington is just over 2 hours away, so a trip there takes most of the day. Especially when there is a good bit of this:

We take the slightly longer but more scenic route along the Ohio River, where there is less traffic. I was glad to go along today. Since 2020, I have not been able to go inside the hospital with him, but now those restrictions have been eased. So I once again enjoyed the trip downriver.

The train tracks run along the river, just like the  2-lane Route 2. I tried to catch a photo of the train engine and the truck, but failed, as you can see. It was quite a long train. I counted 75 cars plus the engine.

This part of the Ohio was once dairy country, as attested by the many, often crumbling, dairy barns. The government put them all out of business during the years of TB. Since then, the beautiful river bottomless have turned to growing grain crops. And today, we saw signs of something big happening in the valley. Not sure what it is, but we saw a lot of earth being moved by large equipment. I hate to see industrial development in such rich, fertile country, but I know that jobs are needed in that area too. One of life's many conundrums.

At the VA, this lady's backpack attracted my attention.  Ingenious! She was knitting away while waiting on her husband's appointment. 

Finally homeward bound, and the bridges at Point Pleasant, county seat of Mason County and, home of the Mothman legend.

And later, our county seat of Ripley. 

As you can see, for a small town, our Ripley is very busy. There is always a good bit of traffic here as it is really the main commercial district for the county.

A good day to be out. Tomorrow is auction pickup day in the completely opposite direction

So see you tomorrow, in Ohio!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.