West Virginia

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tell me about...west virginia

assuming we were starting from washington, what would you recommend.

or, anywhere in the appalachians, from dc? what would be a good suggestion...

― charlestonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

Isn't it all truckstops and trucktop hookers?

I drove through it but that's because I was lost.

Why don't you just go to St. Kitts or something Gareth? You know, sip a few pina coladas on the beach, read some Jackie Collins?

― Senior Executive/CEO (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

he's goin to West Virginia, this ain't gon stop so he jus gon continya

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

mountain momma

― lukey (Lukey G), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

the first rule about West Virginia is don't talk about West Virginia

― Aaron A., Wednesday, 9 March 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

It's got some fucked-up borders.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

I would enter by one of these routes:
1) go down the Blue Ridge and then turn West through White Sulphur Springs on the Midland Trail,
2) go further down the Blue Ridge towards Bristol, and then turn North through Bluefield and Beckley
3) go West to Harper's Ferry/Martinsburg/Charlestown, then turn Southwest along the Monongahela

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

I remember West Virginia as having beautiful mountains and amazing run-down mining towns. Also that little narrow bit of Maryland up there is very nice.

― sgs (sgs), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

yes. I've (been) driven through a lovely area near the MD panhandle. I think it may have actually been in Southern PA. I can't recall where it was precisely, which is frustrating.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

(I was indirectly named after that bit of Maryland [Garrett County]. Yes my middle name is Panhandle.)

Martinsburg is near my mom's old house. Also very nice--has a great antique/junk shop whose name I'm blanking on.

― sgs (sgs), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

http://www.wvtourguide.com/images/map_small_regional.jpg

No, really. The Northern Panhandle needs to just be ceded to Ohio (or Pennsylvania). The Eastern one just needs to be handed over to Maryland.

Maryland. Another state with fucked-up borders.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

the only part i really know is around fairmont and morgantown, but that's actually very pretty so check it out. oh, and the new river gorge is awesome, you should check out that bridge.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

http://www.braddavidge.com/images/west%20virgina,%20new%20river%20gorge%20bridge%20copy.jpg

ihttp://filebox.vt.edu/users/rkoors/Bcmpr.jpg

i think it's the second longest span bridge in the world? something like that.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

Seneca Rocks / Smoke-Hole Caverns area is nice,
Canaan Valley / Blackwater Falls too,
Cranberry Glades is interesting, if a bit out of the way.

If you see any jars of cherry butter, get them. YUM.

Do NOT, under any circumstances, go to Pineville.

― theophilus jones (theophilus), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

I'm from that narrow part of Maryland out near West Virginia. It's very pretty. Property values in Garrett County near Deep Creek Lake are through the roof b/c of all the Washingtonians retiring out there..! If you take I-68 through MD, try stopping in downtown Cumberland (exit 43C) and walking around a bit, it's worth a visit - there's a historic downtown area and the old railroad station which runs a scenic train. There is an absolutely stellar homemade ice cream/coffee/sandwich shop called the Queen City Creamery in downtown just off the exit.

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

I was in Wheeling, WV a couple weeks ago and liked it very much

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

http://www.wvcalendar.com/
You're guranteed* to love George Washington's Bathtub.

We're going to the Maple Syrup festival in Pickens next weekend .. Long drive, but I'm hoping that the "Pancake Feed" pays off.

(*not guaranteed.)

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

You could go walk through the Paw Paw Tunnel on the old C&O Canal, it's spooky as hell, but definitely worth a visit. Bring a flashlight. Biking along the C&O Canal is quite popular too..

http://www.mcmullans.org/canal/paw_paw_tunnel.htm

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

The only time I drove through, we were out in ten minutes. Northern panhandle, I guess.

― andy --, Wednesday, 9 March 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Gee, forgot to mention Danny J.'s "Wild West Virginia":

"God is an artist, and he painted a pretty picture,
and he called it West Virginia with those rolling hills."

-also from the song, watch out for those potholes.

― theophilus jones (theophilus), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

That's a great bridge.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

gareth, if you dare, see if you can watch "The Dancing Outlaw" series.. it's based on a dancer named Jethro who lives in Boone County. Then visit Boone county, and tell us what you saw.

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

the dancing outlaw rulez, but i don't remember his name being jethro.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

yeah that's right, his name is jesco.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

lets talk more about Wheeling, WV

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

what's harder than flushing new york?

― g e o f f (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

sorry.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 08:51 (twenty years ago)

gareth you should go to this famous railway station that i think is on the border of west virginia and maryland, it was in this old 40s tune i think, my parents went there, (tehy went round west virginia) and said it wa pretty weird. they staying in some creepy hotel liek in psycho too. but west viringia does look realyl beautiful from their photos. maybe i should try and put them on the web some time?

they wanted to go to west virgina becasue, and i quote, "no-one goes to west virginia"

bloody hipsters.

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 09:07 (twenty years ago)

use flickr!

i'll have a look, investigate that station. we might be near there, maybe

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 09:15 (twenty years ago)

I haven't thought of it much as a destination, but maybe that is error on my part. I'd be more interested in what's on the way, collectively - Frederick, Catoctin Mountain Park, the C&O Canal, Charles Town/Shepherdstown/Martinburg), Antietam/Sharpsburg, Cumberland, the Laurel and Potomac Highlands, and the backroads of "Mountaineer Country"

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

went west along 68 through maryland (stopped at cumberland on the way back, and the scary whitebread frostburg).

http://photos15.flickr.com/19035466_6a8a06349a.jpg

stopped at morgantown, which has the worlds weirdest tiny little railway/subway. ONE CARRIAGE???

http://photos14.flickr.com/19035564_82d046a025.jpg

wished id got a better picture of it. there were a few of them zipping about too

then to new vrindiban

http://photos13.flickr.com/19119191_3a6fa99a62.jpg

http://photos12.flickr.com/19118945_36ed847c96.jpg

http://photos13.flickr.com/19120141_cde4350188.jpg

then onto wheeling...

― charltonlido (gareth), Monday, 13 June 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

famous railway station that i think is on the border of west virginia and maryland,

i wonder what this was

― -- (688), Wednesday, 26 July 2006 10:18 (nineteen years ago)

http://photos14.flickr.com/19035564_82d046a025.jpg

Monorail! Monorail!! MONORAIL!!!

― Earwig oh! (Mark C), Wednesday, 26 July 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

Harper's Ferry, probably?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 26 July 2006 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

six months pass...

I married a gal from WV in 1999. Jeez...she was such a Bunny Boiler. Steer clear of those WV gals. PSYCHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― lestat, Thursday, 22 February 2007 15:22 (eighteen years ago)

http://europe.cnn.com/2000/WEATHER/02/20/kentucky.flood.03/west.virginia.jpg http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation/maps/afghanistan.gif

i always like to point out how i believe that political maps of west virginia and afghanistan share more than a mere passing resemblance.

― iiiijjjj, Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

Sometimes, WV looks like a silhouette of Abraham Lincoln with the top of the president's head pointed at seven o'clock.

Sometimes, not so much.

― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 22 February 2007 17:00 (eighteen years ago)

dude u trippin it is a stuffed turkey layin on its back if anything

― iiiijjjj, Thursday, 22 February 2007 17:42 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

The little 'monorails' as you called them in Morgantown are called PRT.. and help students get back and forth between the Evansdale campus and the actual Morgantown Campus

― bemyfriendjess, Sunday, 15 April 2007 00:39 (eighteen years ago)

My ex lived in Wheeling for a summer about 15 years ago. There was a restaurant there whose famous dish as a chicken sandwich called "The Fat Chick." They had a radio ad that said, "Come on down to ______. It's the only place where you can eat a fat chick and not get made fun of by your friends." !!!

― ENBB, Sunday, 15 April 2007 00:45 (eighteen years ago)

when we were in wheeling it was raining really hard and we crossed one of the bridges across the river out of wv and into ohio

it was only later looking at the map that i realised there was an island in the middle of the river which is still in wv

which means ive still never been to ohio

― 600, Sunday, 15 April 2007 01:10 (eighteen years ago)

I just don't get that little strip that Wheeling is in.

I really would love for someone to write a book, divided into fifty chapters, about how each state got its boundaries defined. I'd never leave the toilet if I had a book like that.

― Pleasant Plains, Sunday, 15 April 2007 04:07 (eighteen years ago)

i have a dream to one day go to bridge day on the new river. have been rafting on the new river and now i really want to try the gauley as i've heard it's better. i have driven through wv sooo many times in my life, but really only spent time in the fayetteville area (during the rafting trip) and for quick overnight rests in summersville or clarksburg. oh yeah and i was stuck in flatwoods once for a few days when our car broke down. that was a little bit strange but still kind of cool in a way. still, i think it's kind of an amazing state! i could probably never live there but it's great to visit.

― tehresa, Sunday, 15 April 2007 04:35 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

I just don't get that little strip that Wheeling is in.

I really would love for someone to write a book, divided into fifty chapters, about how each state got its boundaries defined. I'd never leave the toilet if I had a book like that.

-- Pleasant Plains, Saturday, April 14, 2007 11:07 PM (Saturday, April 14, 2007 11:07 PM) Bookmark Link

And someone did write that book finally.

In case you were wondering, West Virginia's northern panhandle goes back to the days when England won the French & Indian War and told the colonists that they could settle anywhere up to the Ohio River. So Virginians did. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania gets this Mason/Dixon trio to come up with its southern border. Before you know it, Virginia and Pennsylvania get into it over who gets Pittsburgh.

The argument was decided by letting Pennsylvania get Pittsburgh while Virginia got to keep its settlements along the Ohio River. And when West Virginia seceded from Virginia, the border remained the same.

― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 24 July 2008 20:47 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

So i'm going to West Virginia tomorrow, for a little weekend mini-vacation! i have rented a ford focus and i have absolutely no plans, other than attempting to hit an obscure waterhole and possibly visit a few of the sites mentioned in this thread (huge tunnel, huge bridge, coffee/ice cream in Cumberland).

anyone have any other suggestions? scenic/nature destinations are cool, but i don't think i'll have any problem locating those. i'm more interested in recommendations for unique places in small towns, stuff like that.

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 15:31 (thirteen years ago)

This sign is located somewhere near Terra Alta.

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/82/209495695_9fe5c2421b_z.jpg

John Brown Wax Museum in Harpers Ferry.

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/090421/GAL-09Apr21-1916/media/PHO-09Apr21-158889.jpg

Statue of Mothman in Point Pleasant (damn near Ohio, so never mind.)

https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/8929074.jpg

― pplains, Wednesday, 11 July 2012 15:45 (thirteen years ago)

YES, these are exactly the kinds of things I'm looking for. Also, I am planning to go to....

THE MYSTERY HOLE

http://www.mysteryhole.com/home.html

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 15:56 (thirteen years ago)