Jace Vacation Stop #1 - West Virginia

An early morning departure from our spot in Bolding Mill COE began with the requisite trip to the dump station to clear tanks before a big drive. It's always a good thing for gas mileage if you travel with tanks as empty as needs be. We typically travel with just a ¼ tank of fresh water for use in the bathroom and for any emergency stops, and empty our black and gray tanks. And for a trip over the mountains entering Virginia from North Carolina, plus our first foray into West Virginia, as little weight in the coach was a necessity! We've driven the bulk of this portion of the trip many times, but turned northeast-ward most every time before. This time, we continued straight north on I-77 into the mountains of West Virginia Not the worst elevation changes, but constant ups and downs and pretty tight turns for an RV. Plus a couple of tunnels to drive through. Beckley, WV, is a small city in the heart of coal country. Our destination was the Exhibition Coal Mine Museum. The museum has 17 full hookup spaces for RV's situated right next door, with a pathway connecting it to the museum grounds and a city park on the other side. So besides the historical attraction, there was plenty of things to keep Jace busy. The Exhibition covers the history of WV coal mining in general, and highlights the day-to-day living and working conditions coal miners experienced in the “pick and shovel” days. Needless to say, it was grueling, backbreaking and incredibly dangerous work. One feature of the visit was a tour of the now idle Beckley Coal Mine. It's a drift mine, meaning it travels horizontally into a mountain rather than being dug vertically. You get to tour the mine in a couple of wagons being pulled by an electric hauler used to drag coal cars through a mine, and your tour guide is a retired coal miner with decades of knowledge to impart. It's about a 45 minute experience which covers a lot of information, leaving you the rest of your visit to tour the various housing used, a church, a school, an outhouse and the ubiquitous visitor center's gift shop. Jace got a coal miner hardhat with light, and we continued our tradition of finding Christmas ornaments representing each state we've visited by finding a carving of Santa's face out of a piece of coal!

Jace and Mimi on the way through the mine

Our coal mining guide demonstrating an older-style lantern just before plunging us into total darkness!

Great idea . . . Let's put Jace at the controls of a mining car!

Mining hat and lump of coal. Who could ask for anything more?

While touring the on-site superintendent's house, one of the presenters gave us a great idea for our next day's travel in the area. Just about 30 minutes away is the New River Gorge Bridge, an imposing span crossing one of the oldest rivers in the world; the New River. Kind of odd to name such an old river “New” isn't it? The span is just over 875 feet above the river. Our understanding is that once a year in the Fall, one span of the bridge is closed for a base jumping festival! At the top of the gorge, there's a set of stairs you can descend to get a closer view of the bridge from the side. Grover and Jace enjoyed the 178 steps down and up, while Barbara and I enjoyed only the down portion. Jace met a new friend (Zoe) at the viewing platform, and they stayed together the rest of the way up.

New River Gorge bridge. Even Grover was impressed!

The simple way to leave New River Gorge is to just reverse direction and head back over the bridge, but being explorers, we decided to take a small, winding road down the gorge to visit Florence Station at the bottom of the gorge. The road is one way at times, narrow, and had many switch backs to navigate, but it takes you under the bridge in two places, and gives you a great view of the bridge from ground level. It also requires you to cross the New River on a reinforced wooden bridge! Train tracks run alongside the river, and Jace got to see a huge train go by, carrying what he described as “unknown tons of coal”! It was a perfect circle to see the mine, and what other mines produced being transported.

The view of New River Gorge bridge from below. Kinda scary and noisy crossing that wooden bridge, though!

One of the best views of the bridge from ground and river levels.