The Trip South and the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia

Well, finally got on the road on Monday to head to Charlotte to pick up my daughter's two kitties.  I am officially in charge of them for the next ten days down at the beach!  I took two days to get to Charlotte.  The weather was gorgeous.  Without so much as glancing at a map, I let the GPS guide me and the second day it took me off the main route onto Route 19.  After about an hour of driving, I saw signs for the New River Gorge Bridge.  I had remembered someone visiting there so thought it was worth a stopover.  As Rt 19 goes over the bridge, there was not much of a detour to get to the Visitor's Center and to take a short hike to see some views of the bridge.  I couldn't resist as the sky was so blue, the temps were cool and there was a lovely breeze.    These were the flowers that greeted me at the Visitor's Center.  Don't know what they are but they were beautiful and lush.

This was the view from the top of the hill behind the Visitor's Center.  The bridge is the fifth highest in the world and the second highest in the US (it was the highest before the new bridge around Hoover Dam which wasn't finished when I was there).  It rises over 800 feet in the air.  It is surrounded by National Forest.

I saw a path heading down the side of the gorge with lots and lots of steps so asked someone about it.  I think she took one look at me and figured I wouldn't make it!!!  I decided I would climb down til my legs gave out and spotted a viewing point.  It turned out to be as far as the trail went and I only stopped twice on the way back up (it was about equivalent to about 10 flights of stairs I would guess -- I didn't count).  So it was my exercise for the day.  I did want a view of the river itself which you couldn't see from the top.  You can see the closer view of the steel bridge  here.

This was the view down the Gorge.  It was a beautiful day.  I reached Lisa's at a reasonable hour and we headed out for dinner and then spent the evening chatting.  I managed to sleep in the next morning.  Sleep has been eluding me lately and last night was no exception.

We still don't have the elevator fixed from our lightening strike so I have had to haul groceries up two steep sets of stairs.  Hurricane Irene left us unscathed thankfully.  You could see that the electricity had been off for a very short time but that was it along with a little sand in the driveway.  I live a block from the beach but there is no building between me and that beach so we didn't know what to expect.

I have taken it slowly but have managed to at least unpack the interior of the car although things will stay in the hallway until the elevator gets repaired -- I use it like a dumb waiter as I do like the exercise of going up and down those stairs.  The weather is fantastic down here and I sat outside on the porch with a lovely breeze blowing most of the day while I awaited the five loads of laundry from our last guests to be done!!