Time Away

Saturday July 28, 2007


Well we got up here to camp about 12:00 p.m. and got the car unloaded. Then we went out to see our normal sites and stop at the normal place. The normal place that I am talking of is Meck’s. Meck’s is a Mennonite Bakery that we come to every time that we are here. They make the most wonderful baked goods! Our normal purchase includes pepperoni rolls and sticky buns. Today we tried something new also… cream cheese pastry rolls…. YUMMO!!! They will definitely be added to our list of baked goods that we buy when we are there. It is sad that they are closed on Sunday’s and Mondays. But at least they are open more than what they used to be. When they still lived in their old farmhouse, they sold baked goods right out of their kitchen. Back then Mr. Meck only made glazed donuts, shoe fly pie and sticky buns. They were only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s. When the business became well known and very busy, they built a new house with the business downstairs and their living quarters upstairs. Sadly he no longer makes the glazed donuts. When they moved to the new house their insurance would have doubled if they would have had a deep fryer, so no more donuts. Well since then though they are open more days, Tuesday through Saturdays. So we make sure that is one of our first stops here!

I would share with everyone, but it is all gone and yummo it was sooooo good…. Are you jealous now? You should be. Maybe you need to visit Pocahontas County in West Virginia.

Another place that we visit every time that we are here is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Science Center. The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is one of the country’s most popular destinations for groups of all ages.

It is a state of the art 100 by 110 meter dish composed of 2,0004 individually hinged panels. The first one that was built collapsed during construction and had to be rebuilt. The telescope is 485 feet tall and weighs an incredible 16 million pounds.

Scientists from around the world use the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to study virtually all types of astronomical objects, from planets and comets in our own Solar System to quasars and galaxies billions of light-years away.



Sunday July 29, 2007

Well it is about 2:30 on Sunday afternoon. We came back to camp to get a bite to eat before we go out again. But I wanted to take a few minutes to write some down that we did and saw this morning that I didn’t want to forget. First off it was really nice to be able to sleep in until about 8:00 a.m. this morning. I got up and took the dogs outside and then put some biscuits in the oven and went and sat out on the porch. It was so nice and cool and quiet!!!! I love it up here. After we ate breakfast we got dressed and left. We went up to Cass, just missed seeing the 11:00 a.m. train leaving. We browsed around the general store there and then left. We took off on Back Mtn. Rd. there we found a gravel road and off we went. While going up I told Wayne that I thought that maybe the road went up to the top of the mountain, meaning Bald Knob, which is where the train goes to. We kept going and going and going. Finally we came to the top where there was a flat and two gates. One gated road went one way and the other gated road went the other. We decided to take a hike, mind you no food or water with us, lol…but we weren’t going very far anyway. Wayne said well lets take the one that looks more traveled, so off we went. We saw a lot of neat things. We found a couple of natural springs, and some of the most beautiful wildflowers I have ever seen. There was one with a butterfly on it and I did manage to get a picture of it. Cody and I were standing on the side of the trail looking at the spring and I heard something in the bushes, (Cody had already turned and started walking in the direction of his daddy. All of a sudden about 20 feet from me a doe jumps out of the bushes and runs across the trail. Scared the piss out of me, but was beautiful to see in the same token. We did see a lot of deer tracks. We kept hoping that this trail would lead to Bald Knob, but after walking about 1 ½ miles we decided to turn around and go back to the car. That is when we heard it. From the opposite direction of where we were, it was the train’s whistle. So we figured it we would have taken the other road, we would have found the train and Bald Knob. But we will save that hike for next time.

We will be off on another adventure here in just a little bit. Hmmm, I wonder where our adventurous nature will take us this afternoon.

Well no real adventures this afternoon, but I did get some pretty cool pictures on top of Snowshoe Mountain. We went to eat in Marlington and sat on the porch of the restaurant and fed the ducks corn. We love doing that when we are up here, it is one place that we stop at, at least once whenever we are at camp. It was sad to see a for sale on the restaurant, but it is still open. I hope that it stays the same if it is sold, it would be sad to see it change.

Well that is all for today. I wonder where our adventures will lead us tomorrow….

Monday July 30, 2007

Another great day!

Today we were able to so something that we have never done before! We took off on the road and went up to Allegheny Mountain to the Civil War Battle site. There are still some of the rocks of the shelters that left from that time period. Well we walk into this field and we are knee deep in wild blueberry bushes!!!! There were enough blueberries there that we could pick them for weeks and never get them all!!! I have never picked blueberries before. It was fun being able to pick berries and not get stuck by thorns. So tomorrow morning we will be having blueberry pancakes! The kids are happy. If I had my recipe book, I would make some homemade blueberry muffins!

We had to leave the patch after about an hour as it started thundering. Do you know how loud thunder can be when you are 4,000 feet above sea level? It is absolutely amazing! It is so loud and the crackle of it is like nothing I have ever heard. Can the word clean and crisp describe thunder? If so, then that is what it was like. So we left and came back to camp.

Once back we started to cook hamburgers on the grill. After we ate we had a pretty good storm here. I laid on the couch on the porch. I had to cover up because it was really chili and it was soooo relaxing listening to the thunder and hearing the rain on the roof of the porch. So of course I fell asleep for a few minutes. I woke up so rested and rejuvenated. Now we (the girls) are sitting and watching a chick flick. The movie “Because I Said So” it is really good. The guys just left to go out deer spotting, so they will be gon for a while. So once again peace and quiet.

I will be sad when tomorrow gets here, because it will all be over. The peace and quiet, the not having cable, phone or internet. Back to reality. But know this…that if Ariel did not have to go to band camp and I didn’t have to go pick up Joey, then I would be staying here for another week or two. I can’t wait to get our camper here so that I can come up here whenever I want to. It is only a three hour drive, so that is not bad to be able to escape from reality.

You know there is something to say about not have phone, radio, tv, and internet...Peace and Quiet. You should try it sometime.


Here are some of the pictures that were taken...