New River Gorge In West Virginia

Instead of driving straight up I-81 we detoured at Wytheville, VA and went north into West Virginia. Several years ago Nan, her mom and Pauline Wright had travelled in this area and saw the New River Gorge Bridge. They were here in the Fall and the colors were much more beautiful than today. But the views were terrific and the day was fun.

Here is a full look at the bridge followed by a picture from a sign explaining the height of the bridge. It is 876 feet high. If you stacked the Washington Monument and two Statue of Libertys one on the other, you'd still have 20 feet to go to reach the bottom of the bridge.

To give you another perspective on just how tall the bridge is, I took this photo of Julie as we stood below the bridge near the bottom of the gorge. Look at the top of the bridge and consider that there are 4 lanes of traffic up there with the equivalent of one more lane on each side for emergency stopping.

Down in the gorge we found one of several creeks that flow into the river. Rhododendrons were blooming all around and the air was fresh and clean. The humidity was high so shortly after snapping this photo of the girls we stopped for soft drinks.

It was a long day but we really enjoyed it. The girls are so much fun to be with. We're sorry that Jeff wasn't able to come along this year. Unfortunately, life is calling his name these days and he has to work.

Of course, no moose along this portion of the trip. Our first opportunity for moose probably will be in Canada since we will not get into the mountains of New York on this trip. Heather offered to take us to the Toronto Zoo to see a moose but that seems too much like claiming a sighting because we saw it on Wild Kingdom. We want to get with Heather and Dave but probably not to see a captive moose. We should end up in New Jersey tomorrow night if the Lord wills. Until then...