Road Trip with Extras

Monday we went on a road trip.

We were delivering a dining set I'd painted to a young woman friend, and decided to take advantage of being on the road and just take the long way home.

We started in Glenville, WV and drove north on Route 5 into Calhoun county. I'd traveled this way before but it had been a long time ago, and Larry never had. I'll say right up front that there is nothing special about this road--and yet there's everything. I did not take out my camera on this trip; I just wanted to sit back and enjoy the ride and the views.

What was there to see? Well, the road follows the Little Kanawha River (pronounced KenAW) for many miles; along the roadside were fishing camps, pretty homes with lush gardens, and plenty of paths wandering from the road to the riverbank, made by fisherman no doubt. There were poor places too, homes long neglected or even abandoned. Both Calhoun and Gilmer counties struggle for economic opportunities because both are in the central part of the state and the only interstate highway just touches their southern borders. So poverty is a fact of life for many in the area.

The drive took us through several small communities with intriguing names, my favorite being Annamoriah. How pretty is that? There were also Big Bend, Five Forks, Creston, Cabot Station, Leafbank, Two Run and others. We went through the county seat of Grantsville, quiet on this Memorial Day Monday, and as we drove north I told my husband a bit about how this place came to be the county seat, and the bitter quarrel over its location.

We passed Cabot Station where Cale Betts of the infamous Cale Betts ghost story is buried, passed Big Root Run where Betts once lived, and Yellow Creek where for a short time the county seat was located. We stopped at an intriguing antique shop, located in the middle of nowhere basically, and browsed for a bit, buying a couple things but not much because their prices were as high as any other antique store, and a man, presumably the owner, wasn't particularly friendly or welcoming.

We were soon turning off toward Elizabeth, the county seat of small Wirt County. This community too was quiet but we could see people on their porches and in their back yards, and the smell of grilling meat was everywhere. We stopped at a roadside yard sale and came away with a carbide lamp, a cameo and a WWII "good conduct" medal.

Finally we turned south and west, toward home. We stopped in Spencer, the county seat of Roane county, for a bite of supper. As it happened the restaurant's card machine wasn't working and we were out of cash, so Larry ran back up the road to an ATM. Another couple offered to pay for our supper--so nice of them!--but Larry was back in a flash and all was well.

The "extra" in the title of this post happened on the way home on Route 33. We were about 10 miles out of Spencer when we saw the strangest sight: an older man, a woman, a dog, and two younger people walking along the shoulder, pulling suitcases and carrying tote bags and backpacks. They didn't look like itinerants--the only thing I could think of was that they might be waiting for a family member to pick them up. I thought perhaps there'd be an reunion on a nearbly farm or something like that.

The sight of them bothered me, and I convinced my husband to turn around and go back to see if they needed help. He wasn't too willing at first, but pulled up beside them so I could ask if they were okay.
He warned, "Don't blame me if we both get murdered!"

As it turned out, they did need help. They'd been visiting a son and his vehicle broke down so they had no way home. They were walking to Ripley, a distance of about 25 miles. They'd been walking for hours apparently, and were hot (it was close to 90 degrees), tired and hungry.

Well, we loaded all of them, even the dog, into the van and took them to Ripley. Since they'd had nothing to eat or drink and we had nothing in the van, we went to a drive-through pizza place and bought a couple of $5 pizzas and two liters of pop. Not the best meal, but one they could eat on the courthouse lawn and not have to worry about the dog.

So our trip was a little longer than we expected, but we were both glad to have been able to help these folks get home. Somehow, it made the whole day just a little sweeter.

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

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.

Wordless Wednesday: Swinging Bridges

Taken in Calhoun County, WV in September: footbridges over the Little Kanawha River.

Wordless Wednesday: Last Ride?

(Hearse owned by Stump Funeral Home in Arnoldsburg, WV and available on request for your last ride, so I hear)

In Calhoun County, part 2: Heritage Park

When we were wandering around Calhoun County this weekend, we saw a banner over Route 16" "Calhoun Days." And it was happening as we read. So we moseyed up to the park to see what was going on.

As it happened, it was relatively quiet when we arrived, although I'm sure that changed later on. The Heritage Park itself was one of those delightful surprises we sometimes run into on our travels--a collection of old-time, restored or being restored buildings.

There was a one-room schoolhouse, for example...

complete with desks, slate chalkboard, maps and books,

and a great potbelly stove. The desks are from all eras, from the all-wood ones to the wood and metal that we had when I was in school.

Then there was the Oka Store, which, like the schoolhouse, was moved intact and restored. I didn't get a photo of the outside, but the inside is perfect:

Many of the original fixtures came with the store--shelves and counter and cash register. What a find.

You can see in the photos in the display case how the store looked before it was moved and restored. The Calhoun County Historical Society has done a lot of work, and it's all good.

This is a roll of original wrapping paper from the store. The family had kept it stored away for years so it's in perfect condition. The store was in the family of Sybil Jarvis Pischke, who wrote Sybil's Legend of Mammy Jane. If you haven't read the book and you are into small farming, canning, gardening, homesteading or history, it's a must-read. The writing isn't the best as far as grammar and punctuation but the story is spellbinding and you soon get used to the writer's style.

The book is based on the true story of a woman who married a man with many children when she was very young (I'm thinking she was about 15). How Mammy Jane made ends meet, her hard work and dealing to become a woman of some wealth and repute in the rough country of the late 1800's-early 1900's is a truly inspiring story.

I'll have more photos from the park tomorrow. If you are traveling on the byways of West Virginia and find yourself on Route 33 or Route 16, consider a trip to Grantsville to see this little jewel of historic preservation.