West Virginia has many hidden treasurers. New River Gorge National River is one of them. We headed to the area on the 17th, Father's Day. We didn't know exactly where we would camp, but had a few ideas. We stayed at Gateway Gorge. We couldn't reach them by phone, so we decided to drive there to check it out. We arrived at the campground and the office was closed at mid-afternoon. We found a note on the door to call a number. That didn't work. A lady was driving a truck by the office and she said she'd help us. She drove us to a site, which worked fine and we were told to settle up with the manager in the office on Monday morning. We were hungry, so we set up the bus and head for Father's Day dinner.
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| Tim outside the rib joint for Father's Day |
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| Tim & Linda celebrating Father's Day dinner at Dirty Ernie's Rib Pit in Fayetteville, WV |
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After an early dinner at Dirty Ernie's Rib Pit, we headed south to Beckley to see the outdoor drama held at the Cliffside Amphitheatre in Grandview State Park. The original production of the Hatfields and McCoys started in 1970 and Theatre West Virginia was founded in 1952.
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| Part of the set from Hatfields & McCoys at Theatre WV |
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The show starts at dusk. We really enjoyed the drama all the way to the last 15 minutes. A storm arrived in the area with lots of lightning and a subsequent downpour. The show was postponed and later cancelled. We received rain checks with no time expiration. Hopefully, we'll come back some day.
On the 18th we decided to explore the New River Gorge. We went to the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. The exhibits were well done with lots of information. We took the short walk to the observation deck.
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| Sign explaining the bridge |
At the time of its completion in 1977, it was the world's longest steel single-span arch bridge. The use of CORE-TEN steel protects the structure with a thin layer of rust, which never needs painting.
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| From 1977 to 2004 it was the highest vehicular bridge |
Tim walked down the wooden stairs to an observation deck to get a different view.
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| Some of the steps leading to a lower observation deck |
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This is the view Tim saw.
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| Bridge view from underneath |
This sign explains more information about the bridge and shows the small bridge below.
We then took a one way road to the bottom of the gorge. We discovered the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge depicted in the sign above. All Linda could think of after taking a close look at this bridge is the Erector Set toy that was her favorite as a kid. Yes, Linda played with Erector Sets instead of dolls. The construction of this bridge was fascinating.
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| Note the triangle braces bolted for suport |
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| Closer view of the triangle brace construction |
After returning to the Visitors Center about 2 p.m., Tim was sweaty from his hike down and up the wooden stairway. An unplanned detour began. On May 29th Tim had a 6cm basal cell carcinoma spot removed from his back. It required 5 internal and 15 external stitches. The Monday before we left town he had the 15 external stitches removed. Linda had been changing the bandages everyday on the wound. The wound looked good on the 17th. When Tim had Linda change the bandages in the parking lot of the Visitor Center, she was shocked to see the wound had split open. Well, after a trip to the nearest hospital ER, 3 hours of waiting and finally seeing the doctor, who said there was no good way to stitch it closed, so the wound would have to heal the old fashion way from the inside out. After a $300 ER fee, he said to take 3 Aleve and go home. We weren't ready to waste our whole day, so we took a trip to Babcock State Park.
The park is about 15 miles east of the New River Gorge Visitor Center. We saw this interesting grist mill.
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| Grist Mill at Babcock State Park |
It was getting late, so we decided we had enough for one day, so we headed back to the bus for dinner.
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