Eye Opening

 My mini vacation was so much fun.  I laughed and we had a great time.   But there were three very real sobering truths that I had to face.   Luckily I was with a good friend who didn't let me get sucked down into the pits as I discovered these sobering truths.

The first truth was pictures.  I typically do anything I can to avoid being in a picture.  Don't get me wrong, I love photographs.  But I enjoy being behind the camera.  But me in the picture....are you crazy?  Yet Linda wanted pictures of the two of us.  She wanted pictures of herself at certain landmarks that we visited and yes, she wanted pictures of me at the same place.  I had my picture taken more times last weekend than I have had in the last years.   OK, maybe I exaggerate but it was a whole bunch! 

 Let me tell you, there were tons of pictures of me.  And let me be very clear.......I didn't like what I saw in the pictures.    I wasn't living under a log, I know that I am overweight.   I know that I had gained a significant amount of weight in the last year.  I knew it....in my head.   But these pictures made me SEE it with my eyes. How in the world did I not see this?????

The second thing was my fitness level.  I did the 75 hard back earlier this year and I started to get myself in line.  I was doing great until I got the flu....I had just finished the 75 hard and getting sick caused me to lose my momentum.  I stopped exercising when I was sick and when I was well enough I never picked it back up.   Before I got sick I NEVER turned on the tv during the day.  When I was recovering from the stomach virus I started watching TV.  I have watched TV almost if not every day since then.  Bad habits.    This past weekend I had to face the truth that the 'good' that I had done for myself with the 75 hard had started to wash away in the last 3 months of inactivity.  I was struggling to breathe when we walked up inclines.  It was ugly!  (Luckily for me....unluckily for her, my friend was also struggling so we were evenly matched....but that's no excuse.)    I fought hard during the 75 hard to strengthen my fitness and I let it all fall away. How sad is that?

The other truth was that there were activities that I couldn't participate in because of my weight.   I have ALWAYS wanted to do the Bridge Walk.  Linda wanted to do it....but it turns out that my waist was too big for the harness.  (Luckily for me I read the small print online so I wasn't embarrassed to get there and be turned away).  Likewise, the canopy/zipline tour......I exceeded the weight limit.   NOT cool, I only exceeded the weight limit and the waist size by small amounts, but regardless, my weight limited me!   

As sobering as the truths are, what makes me me is what I chose to do with the information.   Will I settle back on the couch and allow another three months to pass with no exercise and more weight gained?  Or will I say enough is enough and change the trajectory that I have been on.

I am choosing to change the trajectory.   I have tracked my food every day thus far this week. I'm not aiming for perfection with my food.  Right now I am tracking every bite.  I know for me when I track I tend to automatically clean up my eating habits....so right now I'm just tracking.    I have also gotten some exercise in each day.   I'm not aiming for two or three hours.  I"m not even aiming for 1 hour. I'm aiming for at least 20 minutes.  I am not making earth shattering changes right now. But I am making changes that will carry me through a weight loss journey.    I am making changes that can help me get this weight off once and for all!  So look close at the picture from my recent weekend because I want it to be the last you see of me at that weight!

 

Just What the Doctor Ordered

 This past weekend I experienced 'just what the doctor ordered'.  In my last post I talked about the last few years and how it has been really difficult on me emotionally and how it has really drug me down. I am hoping my new job that I start next week is the turning point and I am moving forward with that belief.  But I decided to kick  off this 'new era' with a bang.  I went on a girls weekend! (OK, the plans were made before I got this job.....at that time it was planned as a pick me up, it then turned into a celebration!)

It was about 4.5 years ago when I met Linda.  I was leading a training class of new hires for the team that I worked on.  We talked a bit on breaks and at the end of the work days during the training and I recognized immediately that we meshed as humans and our friendship was born.  When the training class was over our managers assigned Linda to the region that I was responsible for and I couldn't have been happier to work more closely with her and the friendship quickly segued to phone calls and texts on our own time.  For four years we have talked hours upon hours on the phone , worked virtually side by side and got laid off together.  However, we never met in person as she lives in Indiana and I am in Pennsylvania.  Finally, this past weekend we got to meet each other face to face on our own girls weekend........and it was a blast!

 We decided to go to New River Gorge as she had never been to West Virginia and I obviously love the New River Gorge area.  This has been evident over and over such as in  this post about my first trip when I clearly said "I will be back".  I also wrote this post about another visit.   Heck, I even got married there on yet another visit!  I couldn't wait!  Little did I know how much we would pack into our weekend!

We arrived on Friday mid afternoon.  I don't have many pictures from that day as it was a low key day.  We walked all around downtown and checked out the shops.  We went to the visitor center to give her the first glimpse of the gorge and the bridge.  We also stopped at a few shops to pick up a few things for Jason that I know he loves from the area.  It was low key but laden with laughter.

We were up early for our first full day.  The fog was hanging low so we headed straight to the visitor center to walk to the overlook on the Canyon Rim Trail.   Let me tell you, early in the morning is fabulous!  We didn't have to deal with the any crowds and of course the view was fabulous!

From there we headed to the abandoned town of Thurmond.  It doesn't matter how many times I go to this town, it never fails to charm!  What is the charm?  Is it the abundantly beautiful nature that surrounds the town?  Does the charm come from from the old buildings?  Does the fascination come from knowing that this abandoned town and the empty buildings were once a thriving town.  I don't know, but it charms me each and every time!    

After roaming around Thurmond we headed to Hawks Nest State Park.  While it is a great state park and we did enjoy our visit and the views, the main reason we were going was because that is where the Jet Boat Marina rides are.  Yes, we took a boat ride on the river!  It was awesome!  We went down to the dam and the whole way back up to the New River Gorge Bridge on the water.....on the only still water in that area.   

 

 

 We were so close, so we headed to Cathedral Falls after we were done at Hawks Nest.  Of course I had to go there, because that was where I got married!  This waterfall is absolutely gorgeous.  The water was flowing quite a bit more than when we got married.  Absolutely beautiful!

Our first full day was amazing but could we top it for our second full day?   Absolutely!   We again started early, but this time we had a bit of a drive before we reached our first destination.   For our first destination we decided to drive the hour to view the Sandstone Falls on the river. Sandstone Falls is also part of the New River Gorge National Park. On the drive to the falls we stopped to admire the beauty which was splendid and served as a prelude to the awesome views we got when we reached the waterfall.

 

We explored a bit in the town of Hinton and then decided to drive back to Beckley via a different route on the opposite side of the river.  We stopped at the Sandstone Falls Visitor center and then headed back to Beckley.   Once in Beckley we headed to the Exhibition Mine.  The highlight of this attraction is the tour into a coal mine.  The guides are ex-mine workers and are fabulous!   But even though the mine tour is the main attraction, the site also has a recreated mine camp so that visitors can walk through the buildings and see how people would live in a coal camp.   Nearby and also included is the homestead tour.  This is a recreated village that predated the coal camp village.   Also fascinating! 

 

It was so hot but we weren't done yet.  After we were done with the Beckley Exhibition Mine we headed to Grandview.  Grandview is another area within the National Park.  The main overlook at Grandview is ....well....grand.   The river bends and the overlook clearly displays the bend!   We stood there for a while and watched some rafters go down the river and navigate the rapids, but it was so stinkin' hot that it became a bit unbearable.  I actually said "I think the sun is roasting my internal organs".  Even with the heat, it was still worth it to see it!

 One might think that we were done for the day, but we were still going strong.  Just maybe not strong enough to deal with the heat for long periods of time.  What better than to go for a drive down the Fayette Station Road!  This is honestly a must do when you go to New River Gorge.  Jason and I do it at least once each visit and many times at least twice with each of us driving once so that the other person can enjoy the views also.  Since I had previously experienced it, I drove to allow Linda to have the full experience!  I still enjoyed it immensely!   

We had a lazy evening at are accommodations and the next morning we were up early and ready to head home.  I had one more thing to do though.  I had always seen the various locations for the restaurant Tudors Biscuit World and I had always wanted to go, but had never been there.  This visit I was determined to satisfy my curiosity.   So we headed out for breakfast before we said our goodbyes.   This is a West Virginia chain restaurant, although there appear to be a few locations in Ohio and a few in Kentucky.  It is basically a fast food restaurant...but they do serve it to you (at least at our location) and used baskets, real silverware and real cups....so a cross between sit down restaurant and fast food.  The food WAS good.  For being kinda like a fast food joint, it tasted fresh!  We sat and talked for a while after we finished our breakfast but we both had a 5 hour drive ahead of us. We said our goodbyes and headed out.

The weekend was just what I needed.  We laughed so hard that we cried......it's been a long time since I laughed that hard.   Even more important, it was the perfect start to my new happier less sadness era! (I am choosing to believe that!) 

Vacation Recap

So vacation 2021 is behind us.   That is so sad!   We struggled with getting back to real life.  Ok, we were ok with returning to our life and our apartment…we struggled with getting back to work!   But we did what we needed to do!  However, I’m not ready to let vacation go yet!   So l am going to relive vacation through this blog by recapping our vacation!

Day 1

We arrived in the New River Gorge area after traveling for about 5 hours.   We had left Mertz the cat at home but we were traveling with the bird, so we checked  into our Airbnb as soon as we could.   While kiwi settled in, we unpacked and got ourselves situated.  It was a lazy day.  We ran a few errands, such as going to the grocery store to get the perishable items that we needed for our home cooked breakfasts.  We also drove to Cathedral Falls.  We had chosen that as our spot for our elopement but had never even been there in person!  So we went to check it out!!

It was a pretty chill day.  And even though we were both 100% sure of our plans, we were both full of nervousness about the huge step we were taking the next day.

Vacation Day 2

We got married!!!!  I shared this the other day in Post….but if you missed it…on October 3, 2021 I got married at Cathedral Falls!

It was the first full day of our time there so after our nuptials, we changed our clothes and we headed out to see the sights!!!  One of the first things we always do is to go to the visitor center and check out the Canyon Rim overlook and check in with the park rangers about any closures or whatnot!  The view from the overlook is always a good one!

We next headed to Thurmond, WV.  This is an abandoned coal town.  We have been there before but I had found information about an abandoned church that we had missed..so of course we went back and hit up that trail!  And since we were in Thurmond, we walked through the town and explored it again!   (We always see new things on each visit!!). You can see a video of this visit to Thurmond here.

We did a few smaller things…stuff like checking out the location that commemorates where Hank Williams was found dead. (Hey…I was there…may as well visit it!!).  I also stopped and picked up a surprise.   We got married…so we needed a wedding cake right??

Day 3

On this day our main activity was in finally visiting the abandoned coal mine of Nuttalburg.   The road to the lower area had been closed on all of our recent visits and we had always said ‘we will wait’.  Before we went this year I vowed to hike in, even if it took me all day!   Luckily for us the road was unofficially open!  So we hiked to the top buildings and then drove to the lower trails and buildings!   It was still a full day of activity as we hit all the trials and explored it fully!

Day 4

The weather was supposed to be a bit warm this day, so we headed to Beckley, WV!   What was the attraction in Beckley?  The Coal Mine Exhibition is what drew us to Beckley!  This was a fabulous visit…well worth every penny that we spent!!  The exhibition can be broken into three parts.  The museum section which displayed all kinds of artifacts from coal mines.  The second aspect is the coal mine village that shows the buildings and life in a coal mine town/village.  And the third is the actual tour that takes you into an old coal mine on a coal tram.  The guides were excellent and it was such a neat experience!

Whilst in Beckley we decided to drive out to see Grandview.  This is another area of the National Park…and we had never visited!  The main overlook afforded great views!  But we also found the trails to be neat and full of awesome nature!!!

Day 5

On this day we headed out to hike again.  We decided to explore the abandoned Brooklyn mine.  So we laced on our hiking boots and started to hike.  Because like most of these abandoned mines to get to them (at least parts of them) you will be hiking a few miles!  It was a pretty hike…and we did reach the actual mine.  The buildings at this level were in total ruins and there wasn’t too much to explore as they were fenced off because they were in that bad of shape.  But it was a great hike and still a fun exploration!

When we were done with the Brooklyn mine Trail Hike and exploration we headed down to the nearby river access….there were more trails down there…and there were more remnants of the Brooklyn Mine!  So more exploring!!!

Day 6

We encountered rain on this day.   But we were lucky. It would pour while we were hiking and under tree cover, but would literally clear up almost each and every time we stepped out from under the tree cover to view an overlook!  It was amazing!   We hiked the endless wall trail.  This is an amazing trail!  Neat trail…awesome views!!

On this day we also picked up a few shorter trails that we had not previously completed!  And of course we stopped to view any available overlook and small thing that caught our attention!

Day 7

This was our last full day in the area.  We had a lot of smaller things that we wanted to complete.  We also had a few places that we wanted to go.  So this day was full of small stops.  It rained off an on…but once again, most of the rain occurred whilst driving and we honestly only had to wear rain jackets at one stop!

we stopped at Kanawah Falls.

We stopped on last time at Cathedral Falls (for this trip…I’m sure we will visit this canyon waterfall each tim we are in the area since it is where we got married!)

We stopped at Hawknest State Park and checked out the overview, area and gift shop.

Wr stopped back at the Canyon Rim at the visitor center to see the amazing fog that had descended

We drive the Fayetteville Station Road again (we had already driven it once or twice earlier in the week)

And we stopped at a variety of stores and places.  We vowed to enjoy every minute on this last full day and to not think about vacation ending!!!

We spent our last night in the area and the next morning we packed up and drove home.  Kiwi did great with traveling but was happy to get home to his big sister Mertz!    We unpacked on Saturday evening and then on Sunday we made the rounds and had a fun day surprising and shocking our families when we told them that we had eloped!!!   It was an amazing week!!!!  From the first minute to the last we had fun!!!

Vacation

Where did vacation go?   I swear it was just yesterday that I was so excited to leave for vacation!   Yet here I am back at home and already halfway through a work week!   Ahhhhhhh...such is life!    Even with it flying by, we had a great time on our vacation to the wilds of West Virginia!   We hiked a ton and saw some amazing things!!!!!   So here is a brief overview of what we did!

We hiked to quite a few different overlooks.  The overlooks here are pretty spectacular.  They all sit on the edge of a huge steep gorge, many on rock ledge ledges that jug out over the precipice that is the gorge! The views....incredible!

There are remnants of life in a bustling coal mine area everywhere.  We hiked rail trails and saw numerous abandoned mines and went back to Thurmond a complete abandoned town.  

 

We went to Babcock state park and took in the beauty of the grist mill. (And hiked the trails)

And we went to Hawks Nest State park and ride the aerial tram (and hiked the trails!)

The big success is the kaymoor miners trail.  I had attempted that back in June when we were there and gave up because I was honestly terrified!    I came home and pondered and went out and purchased trekking poles ...and have used them since that terrifying hike. So the very first place we headed on our vacation was that trail....I wanted to see the abandoned mine!!    I went down that trail lickety split!  I won’t say it was easy...but with the trekking poles to add in my descent I was able to navigate it with ease (and with no fear)

We got to the shelf on the side of the mountain and enjoyed exploring the ruins there. But then we headed down .  When I say down I mean down 821 steps!   (That is the equivalent of about a 42 story building!)  

Down at the bottom are more ruins!  Well worth it!   After we explored it was time to go UP those 821 steps and then back up the trail with the steep rock scramble!   It was one heck of a hard hike!  That day I only felt ‘tired’ but after the next day of hiking I couldn’t even touch my legs without feeling pain!  My muscles were toast!   (I kept hiking through the muscle aches...there was too much to see!!!) But you know what?  That was the best hike of the week!  We toyed with hiking it again on our last day there!   And I can assure you that if/when we are back in that area that we will definitely hike that again!!!!

So you can see that we had a fabulous and active time!!!!!!!   

I

Bucket list:

Jason has been called back to work  after a three month furlough.  We wanted to do something special before he went back so we started to talk about what to do.  Our first inclination was to go to the beach since our spring visit to the ocean had been delayed due to the pandemic shut down. However, it was super expensive, packed and well...where we were going to go is having some really bad outbursts of violence. No thanks.  We have our fall trip booked and we will go then.  But that left us with no idea where to go.  We debated and pondered and we just had no clue.  And then less than a week before our mini vacation (my days off of work) was to begin I heard Jason make a remark as I drifted off to sleep.  He said ‘there is so much in this world that I want to see’.   I fell asleep on the couch seconds later... but upon waking, I knew what the plan for the weekend was going to be.

We were going to the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum!  Why?  Because I had ALWAYS wanted to go and just never took the time! His words made me realize that there is so much to see but if we never take the bull by the horns and DO IT, we will never see anything!   Once I mentioned Weston, VA and the asylum he innocently asked how far it was to the New River Gorge...which was something that HE had always wanted to see.  Well it was only one hour further southwest!  Bingo!  Plans made!  Two bucket list items taken care of in one trip!    We have also decided to be more open to keeping our bucket list current and to really commit to knocking items off!!

But that's for the future.  Let’s talk about this trip!!!  We had a great time!   I took tons and tons of pictures!  I was religious about dumping my pictures to my computer.  Less than one day after getting home my computer died!  I have a new one on the way...and I know that the hard drove is intact on my old laptop, so the pictures are not totally gone.  But it’s frustrating, I have so many pictures to share and can’t get to them!  (I have a plan that hopefully will get me to the pictures by the end of Wednesday!).    So here is a recap of the mini vacation and what pictures I do have on my phone (I used my good camera and only snapped a few pics with my phone here and there!).  When I get the good pics, I plan on doing some more videos to highlight certain aspects of the trip.  Right now I just have one video made that I finished one morning in the hotel when I woke up early.  I will include the link!!!

So here we go...buckle up!

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum:  Weston, Wv.  This is a insane asylum that was built in around 1860 and closed in 1994. It is the largest hand cut stone building in the states...and the second largest in the world..second only to the Kremlin.  It is partially restored and just amazing!  This was soooo worth it!  I don’t know why I waited so long to go!!!

Here is the video with a lot of my footage (and a wee bit of its history). 

Museum of American Glass:  Weston, Wv

While in Weston, I found a museum called the Museum of American Glass.  I was only remotely interested in it.  And I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance except that the admission price was free!  (Hey, what can I say, I like free!)  I was still debating about going even up to the last minutes in town and happened to look at the website and noticed that they had a collection of  oil lamps.  Hey hey...Jason collects oil lamps, I was sure he would be interested in seeing them.   And then I saw it...the holy grail!  A stained glass dollhouse!  What???  I almost missed that!   There was no question at that point!  Off we went to that museum!!

It was ok...without the draw of lamps and a dollhouse it wouldn’t have been my thing though!!

And of course you know I took pictures of the dollhouse too!!!  

We left Weston and drove toward the New River gorge.  Along the way we saw a sign for the Gauley River And Summersville Reservoir and Jason was like ‘I’ve heard about that’. So hey, why not, we took a detour and checked it out!!!

Gauley River and Summersville Reservoir

This river is well known for its white water...as in world championships have been held in this river.

We explored a bit then hopped back into the car to finish driving the last few miles to the New River Bridge.  

New River Gorge Bridge

First stop, the visitor center.  We knew that the National Park Service visitor center was closed due to the Covid shutdown, but that the trails and overlook were open.  We wanted our first glimpse of the bridge!

From there we headed to an abandoned town....yes a real life abandoned town!

Thurmond, WV

This town was once a boom town due to coal and the railroad.  But as the coal mines stopped producing as much and people turned to automobiles versus train travel, the town began to die out.  The NPS owns most of the properties and you can walk through what is left of the commercial area and you can walk the roads along the hillside and pass house after house...all abandoned.  

(Sorry, the commerce area of town pictures are all locked on my dead and sick computer at the moment! But stay tuned for links to that video when my computer woes are fixed!)

Fayette Station Road

Before the new river bridge was built, it took someone 40 minutes to traverse the small narrow road that snaked down through switchbacks to the bottom of the gorge, across a small bridge at the bottom of the gorge and then back up the other side.  The new bridge shaved 39 minutes off that trip! Of course we had to drive down into the gorge!

We stopped and saw the sights along the way!

Kaymoor Miners Trail

We attempted to hike the Kaymoor Miners trail.  It was gorgeous...and steep!  And of course we saw another waterfall!  (Seriously, if we saw one waterfall we saw 20...each just as gorgeous as the previous one!)

Right at the waterfall, the trail became extremely sketchy and I was honestly terrified!  Lately, I’ve been falling way too much while hiking to attempt something that was risky to begin with.  So we traversed back up the hill.  (Sad because the ruins are supposed to be well worth the hike!) we spent a bit of time on another trial before retreating.

Fayetteville, Wv

We spent some time exploring the town of Fayetteville. It is a really neat little town with lots of quaint shops!

At this point we were out of time...it was time to head home.  But we weren’t done just yet!   While driving home we happened to notice a sign for a monster museum.  I quickly checked it out and it was free.  Why not!  How could anyone pass up a free Monster Museum!

The Monster Museum: Sutton, WV

This was just a little hole in the wall museum.  More a visitor center.  The monster in question was the town alien/monster.  It was free and amused us!!

And that finished up our trip. We still had some time in a car but we were on the way home.   We had a great time!!!  And we will be returning to the New River Gorge Area!!!!