1/17/2010

3 weeks in West Virginia

Work called and i left for West Virginia, for a 3 week trip, on December 27th. So for the 2nd year in a row i was working out of town on New Years. Luckily during the time i was down there, West Virginia was having unseasonably cold weather, with lots of snow. And i found out that down there when it snows 3" school is usually canceled. But as always it was lots of walking, around 100 miles, and during that time i saw lots of cool stuff. I really enjoyed the mountain views, they were everywhere and looked great covered in snow.

Here's what i looked like most days, trying to stay warm.
david wirth, dressed to stay warm in west virginia, ski mask, googles
I also learned that there are TONS of deer in that state. In fact West Virginia has led the US in number of car/deer accidents; Michigan is number 2. They were everywhere and unlike Michigan where they could walk around in farm fields, it was either stand in the road or on the side of the mountain.
small west virginia deer
Not lots of farms or cattle but there was the occasional cow with an itchy nose.

cow with tongue in nose, licking nose
Measuring out the linemeasuring wheel, road, west virginia
After a couple of weeks in the Super 8, my clothes pile did get a bit messy.

typical Super 8 hotel room, microwave, fridge
A cold early morning
rost on tree branch in the early morning sun
Apparently where people in this town paid for water. No it was not a double wide.
pay water bill, west virginia house, trailer home
Instead of burying pipes like gas lines they sometimes just laid them on the ground. Here's their hi-tech solution to crossing a river. Screwing a wire to 2 trees.

gas line strung in the air over a river
Scary land owner that definitely had lots of guns. And had no problems telling the DNR how things were gonna work.
posted, DNR sign, warning
The coolest guy in West Virginia.
dwight snodgrass, west virginia
And of course he lived on...
funny road sign, snodgrass rd, west virginia
Incase you can't read it, the hand painted sign says "Neurosurgical Assoc" on "Knawl Creek Rd" I'm not joking this place was out in the middle of nowhere. If you hadn't already guessed, Knawl Creek road isn't a major highway. It isn't even paved, its gravel. I didn't want to even think about what kind of equipment they used to use in their redneck neurosurgery that got performed in that place before it collapsed.

"Honey my central nervous system's still hurtin' me" "Well time to go down to that neuro-something-or-other down on Knawl Creek"
neuroeurgical association, building, west virginia
Typical road names were either "lick", "hole" or "hallow" (pronounced "haller") It took me about 4 months to realize what people were talking about when giving directions and said "ya ya'll want to turn left down at the second haller off a Mud Lick road"
funny sign, mud lick road, west virginia
This was a burned down house. But after offering a big reward like that i'm thinking any day now they'll have their suspect. You could have bought the house for around $400.
100 dollar reward, sign, property, arson
Fresh bear tracks crossing the road we were walking. We guessed they couldn't have been more then 3 or 4 hours old since it just snowed that morning. That's my boot print next to it, just to give a sense of their size.
black bear tracks next to my footprint
Straightforward sign
no huntin sign


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Brain surgery - backwoods style. Love it!