After setting up at the Babcock State Park we were astonished to see Richard at our camper door. He needed to be in Atlanta next week so he decided to take a little detour for the weekend. Rich did not want to be alone for Father’s Day! We all thought this was a wonderful idea. Rich had driven 5 hours to reach us and he was hungry, so we soon had the grill fired up and steaks cooking. This campground was pretty full with campers and their noisy dogs. Quite different from the previous places we had stayed. Rich, Mike and I went for a nice long walk, while Rob and Ant played yet another game of monopoly.
After reading the Park information brochure we discovered there was a working mill nearby. It was built in 1975 using parts from many abandoned mills in the area. It is next to a stream and has a large water wheel. We hung around until the volunteer was ready to grind some corn, but alas, the grinding stone was jammed. They had done some maintenance the day before and incorrectly positioned something – there are a lot of moving parts in a grist mill. We did purchase some corn that had been ground before the maintenance chaps got there. I am looking forward to cooking some corn bread.
While we were exploring the rain moved in so we took shelter under some rocks down by the river. It is lovely to watch the rain coming down on the water and be huddled under an overhang.
Out next port-of-call was the bridge over the New River Gorge. It is the bridge you see on the West Virginia quarter. It was built 35 years ago and is an impressive sight. Mist and cloud kept moving through the valley while we watched rafters coming down the river through some rapids. We decided to take the old road to the bottom of the valley. We crossed over the river and looked up at the new bridge from way below.
After reading the Park information brochure we discovered there was a working mill nearby. It was built in 1975 using parts from many abandoned mills in the area. It is next to a stream and has a large water wheel. We hung around until the volunteer was ready to grind some corn, but alas, the grinding stone was jammed. They had done some maintenance the day before and incorrectly positioned something – there are a lot of moving parts in a grist mill. We did purchase some corn that had been ground before the maintenance chaps got there. I am looking forward to cooking some corn bread.
While we were exploring the rain moved in so we took shelter under some rocks down by the river. It is lovely to watch the rain coming down on the water and be huddled under an overhang.
Out next port-of-call was the bridge over the New River Gorge. It is the bridge you see on the West Virginia quarter. It was built 35 years ago and is an impressive sight. Mist and cloud kept moving through the valley while we watched rafters coming down the river through some rapids. We decided to take the old road to the bottom of the valley. We crossed over the river and looked up at the new bridge from way below.
We took a bit of a detour back to camp and almost missed the group campfire. The boys still managed to make s’mores, though. During the night a heavy rainstorm passed through. It was nice to know that we would wake up in a dry camper and not have a flooded tent.
No comments:
Post a Comment