After my pit stop in Pittsburgh where I picked up my new boots, tent, and a new phone (all of which have been crucial upgrades), I pointed my headlight south for Morgantown, WV.
In Morgantown, I met up with Tommy. Tommy and I were in the same class for pre-calculus and physics in high school. He's now a medical resident, and I'm unemployed.
Tommy & I at Cooper's Rock State Park - The angle is deceptive, he's not actually that much taller than me
Tommy likes that the residency program in Morgantown generally allows for reasonable work life balance and an easy commute back to Pittsburgh to see family and friends. In the past few years, these factors have become more important to Tommy. He's seen a lot of professionals in the medical field with very limited or unfulfilled personal lives due to prioritizing their career goals above their personal life. Seeing the full life cycle from birth to death on a daily basis at the hospital, Tommy's come to the realization that maximizing your personal life is much more important than maximizing your career - your coworkers and customers won't be around when you're old, but your family will be as long as you make them the priority throughout your life. Tommy's currently leaning towards specializing in gastrointestinal medicine, but said that will ultimately depend on whether he's able to find a fellowship program that fits with his personal life goals.
Tommy and I started with dinner at Apple Annie's, a home style eatery famous for their desserts.
After a full meal, the Reese's Cookie Dough Slab almost killed me, but it was worth the risk
The next day Tommy, gave me the tour of WVU's campus and the hospital he works at. I thought I knew hills growing up in Pittsburgh, but Morgantown takes it to a whole new level. I'm not sure there's any level ground in the entire town - the whole campus of WVU is built into terraces on the hillside.
The view of Morgantown from Tommy's place
The view of Morgantown from the Monongahela River - the trees and the buildings hide it, but there be some gnarly hills in the background
WVU is famed for the PRT - a new age method of transportation that never caught on anywhere else due to the high installation and maintenance costs. I couldn't get a picture of the cars/pods in action as they don't run them after the school year ends, but here's a picture of the tracks crossing over the roads of Morgantown. Here's a link for those interested in learning more. Milan Puskar Stadium, home of the 2024 Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl Runners-Up
The hospital where Tommy works. They keep adding new wings (oldest on left, newest on right), but are still working on adding enough parking - we gave up on parking after driving around the lot for 5 minutes.
A Morgantown Delicacy
After breakfast at the hospital, we went out to Cooper's Rock State Park, one of the most scenic vistas in northern West Virginia.
Lest you forget, West Virginia is "Almost Heaven"
On a clear day you can see all the way down to Cheat Lake
Fog over the Cheat River
Originally, I planned to head east from Morgantown towards Shenandoah, VA, but the radar looked frightening, so I headed south instead. Originally I didn't have much of a plan beyond avoiding rain, so I just took backroads due south to Elkins, WV where I had Taco Bell #3 of the trip:
Atmosphere: They went for a modern lounge type feel with bench seats and low tables that didn't quite achieve the desired effect (see picture above). While I appreciated the effort at creating a vibe, the low table was kind of hard to eat off of. While not gross, I wouldn't describe the facilities as sparkling clean either.
Staff: Another kiosk ordering experience, so I had no interaction with the staff.
Food: I got the cantina chicken taco again (gotta minimize variables for comparison's sake). Was middle of the road compared to the other Taco Bell's I've been to.
After a nutritious lunch, I realized I ought to figure out where I was going to spend the night. Using a camping app, I found a free campground near Summersville Lake that seemed within reach (about 2.5 hours away). The radar did show one cell, but the sun was out so I decided to chance it.
That proved to be a mistake as within 30 minutes I found myself in the midst of a torrential downpour and windstorm that was so heavy that it waterlogged my "waterproof" gore-tex boots. I took cover at a gas station in Buckhannon,WV, home of the annual West Virginia Strawberry Festival. The staff was kind enough to give me a free coffee while I waited out the worst of the storm and explained that the Strawberry Festival was cursed as it stormed every year during it. When the rain lightened, I headed back out for Summersville. I had to duck into another gas station when another cell hit, but by the time I made it to Summersville, the weather had actually gotten quite nice.
A highway overlook on the way to Summersville
Golden Hour on the Lake
Turbine from the Summersville Dam
The Summersville Dam - the second largest earthen dam in the US - and the headwaters of the Gauley River. My campground was on the far side of the dam.
The campground was pretty bare bones (which is my preference). The new tent worked great and the Gauley flowing next to me lulled me to sleep, but the extreme humidity meant most of my wet gear didn't dry much.
The next morning, drove through New River Gorge National Park on my way down to Blacksburg, VA. I had been to the New River Gorge Bridge before, but before it was a national park. I ended up spending most of the day in the national park, and it did not disappoint. I spent the morning in the area of the park near the bridge.
The view of the New River from the Canyon Rim Visitor Center
The Bridge - when it was built it turned a 45 minute trip into a 1 minute one
The Bridge, from slightly lower in the canyon
The Bridge from ... Wait for it ... Below
A bridge (not the bridge) on a hike near an old mine town
A Waterfall
The Bridge - from the other side of the river
I had lunch in Fayetteville, an artsy town on the other side of the river, at The Secret Sandwich Society. It'd been over a decade since I'd been to The Secret Sandwich Society, and I was happy to find it lived up to the lofty memories I had of it.
At The Secret Sandwich Society, I ordered The Truman: turkey, peach jam, blue cheese spread & crispy onions on a toasted potato roll
After lunch I headed to the Grandview and Sandstone Falls areas of the park. The Grandview area was definitely worth the stop. The Sandstone Falls area was not as impressive as the pictures made me believe it would be, but the drive from there to Blacksburg was perhaps the prettiest I've ever seen.
The Grandview Overlook
The view from the southern edge of Hinton, WV. The photo doesn't do it justice - the road hugged the New River for miles as it ran through the mountains of southern West Virginia. The small town of Hinton was full of fishing shops and had a lost in time kind of charm to it - it'll be a place I might have to take another look at when I decide where to live once the odyssey ends.
Southern West Virginia
Southern West Virginia
Another small town in southern West Virginia
In Blacksburg, VA I stayed with Joe, a buddy from undergrad.
Me and Joe - if you squint you can see the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background
Joe is a post-doc researcher at Virginia Tech studying hypersonic collisions and another aerospace topic that is evading my memory right now but that I do recall requires him to program a lot of machine learning involving linear algebra. In undergrad, I took 3 years of advanced mathematics and (for a brief moment in time) was able to solve systems of differential equations using linear algebra - I say this for context, as Joe has forgotten more about math than I'll ever know. Joe explained some of the research he's doing and introduced me to types of math I didn't even know existed, like fractional calculus and real algebra. For all of his advanced research though, Joe's still a very down to earth guy - he is as at home discussing hiking trails as he is when talking about quantum mechanics, loves exploring the culinary scene in Blacksburg, and he gives a riveting tour of Virginia Tech.
Sugar Magnolia, the top ice cream parlor in Blacksburg. Joe and I stopped here after dinner. Joe explained that the ice cream is so good because it's made from milk from local dairy farms.
The Pylons at Virginia Tech (notice how much better the new phone camera is at night). Behind this monument is the Drillfield, the central greenspace on campus. At the first big snow of the year, the Corps of Cadets (apparently ROTC is not a kosher term at VT) takes on the rest of the student body in a massive snowball fight. The Cadets are greatly outnumbered, but come out in full riot gear, have premade snowballs, and employ strategic flanking maneuvers, which usually leads them to victory in the end.
Statues near the duck pond on campus. These are super creepy at night. From a distance they look like real people, then as you get closer they look like clay, then as you get even closer you realize they are wood.
The main administration building on VT's campus. It's no golden dome, but the castle look is still pretty cool. All buildings on VT's campus are made of this proprietary type of limestone mined from a quarry owned by Virginia Tech.
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ReplyDeleteGonzo!
ReplyDeleteThe man, the myth, the legend! He told me about using a crossbow to simulate freezing rain at hypersonic speeds and I decided I want to be him when I grow up.
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