Day 14, Friday, April 29th Mountains and hills, oh my!

It has been two weeks since this adventure of ours began, and we are still rolling along enjoying all that we have been blessed to experience!

Today we got up early, to leave the KOA Campground located in the Shenandoah Valley, headed by day's end for West Virginia and the Pipestem RV and Campground area near the Greenbrier Resort area. Greenbrier is known to some as the place where the government dug a 720 ft deep nuclear fallout shelter for members of Congress in 1958. Its location was kept secretive until 1992, when the press leaked the location and it was consequently decommissioned.

We started out with breakfast at our favorite convenience restaurant “Cracker Barrel” and then hit the road. We pulled off along the way to explore the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Museum in Staunton, Virginia, his home town. The complex involves four structures including his boyhood home. It was interesting to read about him and his rise to power. It was also interesting to note the full transparency in the complex about his racist views and his problems in general with several issues. If you ever happen to be In Staunton, VA it is worth a stopover to see.

As we were leaving the Woodrow Wilson Museum, whom did we run into? Danny and Devra (of the Shenadoah Caverns and Kathy's Cafe fame) were just arriving as we were leaving. We spent a few minutes talking to them, before departing for the last time. They are headed back to California tomorrow, as we will continue our journey to Charleston.

(Wilson Presidential Museum ticket office and guest shop)

(Side view of Woodrow Wilson's birth home)

(Front view of Wilson birth home)

(President Woodrow Wilson with his first wife, Ellen, and their three daughters. Ellen later died of "Bright's disease", which today would be called chronic nephritis or kidney disease.)

(Woodrow Wilson served as President of Princeton University, before becoming Governor of New Jersey, before being elected President of the Unites States.)

(Wilson had a strong economic record as president. He is responsible for both a strong federal reserve banking system and for the federal income tax. He had a progressive foreign policy and he was left leaning on labor issues and immigration. However, he was abysmal on civil rights. Read below.)

(W.E.B. Dubois and other black leaders urged support of Wilson for his first election. However, his policies for blacks soon proved that support to have been folly.)

(Wilson tried to remain neutral in World War I, but soon realized he had to get America into the war on the side of the Allies.)

From there we roamed around and through some of the most beautiful mountain passages which separate Virginia from West Virginia. Here are just a few glimpses of the views along the way.

When we entered into West Virginia, we officially marked our travels to 48 of the United States of Amercia. Woo Hoo!!

(West Virginia Welcome Center, shortly after crossing the border from Virginia.)

West Virginia was carved out of Virginia over the issue of slavery. In 1861, Virginia voted to secede from the Union. The residents in the western part of the state voted not to secede and to throw their support behind the Union Army. The majority of them did not own slaves and they had religious affinities with their neighbors in Pennsylvania and Ohio. They then began discussions with Washington DC about becoming their own state. They officially became a state in 1863. Initially, they wanted to name the state "Kanawha" after the Indigenous Americans who previously settled the area. However, after the 2nd Wheeling Convention, when they determined to apply to Washington, DC for statehood, the chosen official name became "West Virginia." When it was created, its constitution abolished slavery and adopted a state motto of “Mountaineers are Always Free”.

Leaving I-64 and driving along state route 20, we drove for a couple hours, along narrow mountain roads, before we arrived at our location for the evening: passing through several rural areas and small towns, where poverty was abundantly evident. However, the geography was/is undeniably beautiful. We pulled over at one scenic overlook, so that Doug could get photos of the Sandstone Falls, along a portion of the New River Gorge.

At the end of our drive, we arrived at the Pipestem RV park in Pipestem, WV. Pipestem got its name in a curious way. The early colonial settlers who came here found an abundance of a tall plant called "stickweed." The stalk of the stickweed plant was so rugged that men could use it to make stems for their pipes. And so the area, later town, took on the name Pipestem.

Here are some photos of the small private RV park in Pipestem, where we are staying for tonight.

(Pipestem RV Park)

(Pipestem RV Park)

Creek in Pipestem RV park)

(Play area in Pipestem RV park)

Tomorrow, Charleston. By the way, did you know that George Washington had two brothers who lived in the western part of Virginia? His brother Charles donated the land upon which Charleston was built and the town was named Charles Town in his honor.