Traveling West Virginia: Country Roads

After leaving Stonewall Resort we decided to take a different route home. Why go the same way when there are so many options to explore? We could have:

*taken interstates all the way to Ripley, our closest town.
*explored a road I drove last fall to find the church with the Irish graves.
*driven up Gassaway/Rosedale Road where the German church is, and back to Route 33
*gone the familiar route of Route 16 which also ends up on Route 33
*taken the interstate to Clendenin and then up Route 119 to Route 33

We did none of those. I had always wondered where Servia Road would take us, so we decided to find out. According to the map this road would take us to Route 16, and from there back to Route 33.

We headed south on Route 19 first through Walkersville, taking a short jog over to Crawford, WV to check out a place that had been for sale for quite a while. It was an older house that came with a separate former country store building. How perfect that kind of setup would be for us, right? But there was no for sale sign that we could see and it was hard to see which house went with the store. Still, it was such a quaint little community, a cluster of older homes and the store at a small crossroads.

We also stopped at one of my favorite places, Falls Mills.

The water was very muddy. There had been a storm the night before that missed where we were staying, but apparently hit hard enough somewhere to cause some heavy runoff. There is a lot a gasline-building activity in this area as well as all over our state and this is causing so much erosion and runoff as these lines run straight up and down the mountains and there is a lot of raw, exposed earth. I believe there will be significant flooding caused by so much silt getting into our rivers and streams.

We got on the interstate for a short stretch and then took the exit for Servia Road. The road was two-lane for a while, but narrowed after a few miles. The rest of the story can be told in photos.

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

A Saturday Ramble; or The Monster Festival that Wasn't

September is a slow storytelling month for me this year; only one gig, and that is next Saturday at the Appalachian Heritage Festival at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. So our September weekends are for the most part free. This feels odd after a summer of making engagements or canning food every open weekend. When we got up yesterday the question was, what to do?

Now there is always plenty to do around here: things that have to be done like laundry and cutting firewood, for example. Then there are the things that need to be done: weeding gardens, freezing the celery from the garden and drying basil, working on the edits for my CD. Then there are the things we'd like to do: going to festivals, visiting friends, taking road trips. This weekend we opted for #3--doing the things we like to do.

We started the weekend with a bonfire and music with friends on Friday night. Saturday morning we listed our options: go to the Southeast Ohio Storytelling Festival, the Flatwoods Monster Festival, go to St. Albans to hear John Lilly play, go to Culturefest at Pipestem, or to the blues and brews event in Charleston. Plenty to choose from on a pretty day!

We opted for the Flatwoods Monster Festival. This festival is based on events that happened in 1952 when what appeared to be a UFO landed on a farm in a remote area of West Virginia. The story is fascinating and the events have never been fully explained to anyone's satisfaction. We'd never been to the festival and I've always wanted to so off we went, with an understanding that we would stop at interesting yard sales and anything else that intrigued us along the way. The route to Flatwoods took us east on our favorite road, US Route 33. When we came to our turnoff on Route16, we noticed the Calhoun County Farmer's Market at the corner. And who did I see there?

"Stop," I yelled to Larry. Car came to a screeching halt. "There's Sue Cosgrove!"

And indeed, there was fellow Two Lane Livin' columnist and organic grower Sue, beaming behind her stand of plants and vegetables.

We had a good gab, a great hug, and the blue bowl of little tomatoes went with me for road food.

We stopped at several yard sales along the way too; I'll write about them later this week.

When we arrived in Flatwoods, the small community was strangely quite for a place hosting a festival. Where were the booths, events, people in costume or whatever else they did for a festival celebrating alien lifeforms? We stopped to ask and learned some disappointing news: the festival was held last weekend. Hunh? September 12th was the date of the occurrence, and this was September 12th!

I suppose the reasoning of the festival planners was that traffic was heavier on Labor Day, people were looking for something to do, and there were already quite a few festivals for the 12th. We decided to meander around town anyway, and saw this sign:

That, of course, enticed us further, and I'll have more about this interesting place later this week.

We left Flatwoods and headed north to Bulltown State Park, site of a Civil War battle over a covered bridge on the Weston to Gauley Bridge turnpike, a major route in central West Virginia in the mid-1800's. There are still trenches visible, and Larry decided to follow the interpretive trail through the battlefield. I was more interested in the historic Cunningham farmstead on the property and spent my time exploring the buildings, creek, cave and the remnants of the turnpike that were still visible. Again, more pics later this week.

The Cunningham homestead, and below a peek through the kitchen window.

When we left Bulltown we decided to head north and west toward home on Route 5; although we've been along most portions of this road, there are sections we don't know, and the piece between Heaters and Burnsville was one of them. The road offered spectacular rural scenes, like this one below. I didn't take many photos because the light was fading, so you know what that means--another trip in the future.

We had hoped to get back in time to go to the evening storytelling concert in Chillicothe, but that was not to be. It was almost seven when we arrived home. A friend came to visit and the day ended was another fire in the firepit and good conversation.

Today, it was back to business as usual. The laundry is caught up, dishes done, the celery chopped and frozen with the help of a friend, basil is drying, wood has been cut and split and now it is evening again and time to prepare for another work week. But we have our weekend memories of friends, places, and history...oh, and five more wineglasses, a set of tractor chains and...but all that is for the yard sale post.

Traveling Rosedale Road

Leaving the library conference last week, I suggested to Larry (my ever-patient husband) that we try a different way home. We've been on Rosedale Road before, but it is not that easy to find because while it's called Rosedale for part of its length, it's called Gassaway Road at its end and Chapel Road at its beginning. Very confusing. And it had been a few years so we weren't entirely sure where the road was in the first place. But Larry turned off the interstate and we went up the road we thought was the right one.

This drive led to a tiny little camp at its end. It looked like something from a fairy tale to me.

A beautiful barn made us turn around and go back to get a good photo. This use of wood not only makes the barn stronger, it also let the builder use up shorter lengths of wood. Note the cut-stone foundation.

This empty house was the homestead on which the barn lived. Although no one lives here, it seems someone is mowing the grass. Brave daffodils continue to bloom.

Further up the road (we still weren't sure where we were) we saw this well-maintained barn. I believe we were in former dairy country, back in the days before so many federal health regulations forced the smaller dairies out of business. I understand the need for precautions, but I remember when you could visit farms like this and buy raw milk for $1.00 a gallon and make your own butter. Even in northern Virginia, we were able to do that in the early 1970's. Now it's impossible to buy raw milk at any price.

Yet another beautiful homestead. Even on a gray, rainy day the care put into this place is obvious.

An old meeting house, maintained but no longer in use. Thank you to the person who is keeping this place in shape for future generations.

Rolling meadows and pastures wear their mantle of fog and rain beautifully.

Rosedale Road is only one of hundreds such drives in central West Virginia. You won't find these places listed as tourist destinations but for the real flavor of West Virginia, these are the places a traveler needs to visit.