Friday, July 21, 2006

Take me home, country roads!


By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)
Paula and I put 750 miles on the Odyssey minivan in three days July 18-20 as I showed her some of my native state of West Virginia.

We saw Blackwater Falls, with the water tumbling as if from two separate spigots of nature.

And Seneca Caverns, with its myriad of underground formations.

We rode the 11 miles from Cass to the top of Bald Knob, the highest elevation in West Virginia at 4,700 feet, on an old logging train. It took five hours for the round trip, with several switchbacks. As all the passengers re-boarded the train after a picnic atop Bald Knob, a deer came out to check every picnic table for leavings. It was her daily 1:45 p.m. check.

We also visited
the National Radio Astronomy in Green Bank, where the Sen. Robert C. Byrd telescope, the largest in the nation, checks for sounds from outer space. WAY outer space. No. E.T. yet.

The scenery is breathtaking, as usual. Europe and West Virginia on the same break from work for Paula. Excellent combination.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey John, Good to see you are having such a good time. How about a photo of Paula. It isn't that you are not just too cute for words but, a photo of your other half might be a nice change.
Keep traveling, the more more you move, the longer you live.

Don Roese, a fellow traveler

Anonymous said...

Don:

Go to

http://www.myfamily.com/isapi.dll/c/content/f/viewproperty/siteid/4FkXAI/contentclass/PICT/contentid/ZZZZZZB3/propertyname/Original/~/Dec_2005_Mini_Reunion_5.jpg

Paula is the St. Mary's High School alumnae on the right.

By the way, where have you been lately? I keep forgetting it's the second Wednesday of the month and Papa Joe's time. The curse of dying brain cells.

Anonymous said...

MyFamily.com is a restricted website. Access denied. Why don't you just post a photo of her?

Anonymous said...

Getting it straight:

When a former Monongah (WV) High School classmate read about my trip on this blog, he corrected me. I looked it up and he's right.

Spruce Knob is 4,861 feet.
Bald Knob is 4,842 feet, 19 feet lower than Spruce Knob. It might even be the THIRD highest elevation in the state.

Until 2001, Bald Knob was thought to be the second highest point in the state, but a survey conducted by Snowshoe Ski Resort using GPS technology concluded that Thorny Flat, the highpoint of Cheat Mountain, roughly five miles south of Bald Knob, was approximately six feet higher. This has not been officially confirmed by the USGS.

Who knew?

Anonymous said...

Hey was just rolling thru wanted to let ya know ya got a cool blog here Nice Job.