Moving Out
I left Floyd on the morning of June 28th, heading for Touchstone, after feasting on a huge biscuit from the Blue Ridge Restaurant. They make the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten! My only complaint about the restaurant is that I think that any restaurant that aspires to serve country “comfort” food should offer corn bread. The corn bread that the Blue Ridge Restaurant serves is pitifully small – a tiny, round, not-even-a-mouthful piece of corn bread. They should offer a big slab of corn bread, fresh from the oven, slathered with farm butter ….. yum!!! Maybe, one day, they will.
I took Route 8 to Christiansburg, where I got on 460 and drove to Hatcher, WV, where I picked up I-77 and then drove north on U.S. 19. Somewhere before Fayetteville, I stopped at a welcome center, where I picked up a brochure about the New River Gorge Bridge. Since I had not done any research on West Virginia before driving through, I was surprised when, not too much further on, I came to the New River Gorge Bridge! I almost kept on driving, but I said, “I really should stop here … I might not see this again.” So I stopped and parked in the lot. I walked by a Christian tour bus (what is a Christian tour bus??) and descended 200 feet on the boardwalk to the observation deck where I saw ….
My goodness!! Way down in the valley, far below, I saw the bridge that this one replaced. The bridge was built in 1977 and there is an annual Bridge Day, where crazy people jump off the bridge for fun! Yeah, I said crazy and I meant it. No way I’d do something like that! I had enough of that just jumping off a diving board into a pool 20′ below at the Navy Aviation Electrician’s Mate “A” school in Jacksonville, FL in 1968. 876 feet? Nope. No way, Jose.
After leaving the New River Gorge Bridge, I drove through the beautiful rolling hills of West Virginia to Morgantown. You would never know, by driving I-77 before its junction with U.S. 19, that mountaintop removal is spreading like a cancer through the countryside not far away. After a 6 1/2 hour and 314 mile drive, I arrived at Touchstone at 3:30 p.m.
My goodness is right – that’s quite a view.
I’m catching up with all your July posts – will be back…
It reminds me of the roller coaster I grew up with at Paragon Park.
Wow, just followed your links and saw that they do BASE jumping off the bridge, using parachutes, landing on pavement. Pretty wild, I’ve seen the bungee jumping but not BASE jumping.
When people jump off that bridge they are bungee jumping because the river there is too shallow to jump into. They do it almost all year long. The New River is one of the area’s most kayaked and rafted; a great treat for the rafters to see someone flying off the bridge! On Bridge Day the bridge is closed and filled with arts, crafts and merry making, a big bridge party. West (by God) Virginia has some of the finest parks in the country, glad you stopped!
That’s one heck of a bridge! I’m going up I-77 in August, but doubt I’ll have time for any side trips..
What a photo! Amazing view. I’m with you. Only crazy people would jump off a bridge!