On August 27th, we left Charlotte, NC and headed northwest towards the New River Gorge in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Bonnie had previously mentioned our desire to do a “Bridge Walk” tour under the bridge that spans the New River Gorge. Along the way, we stayed at a nice campground in Swannanoa, NC for a couple of days and visited with some great friends (Norma & Jim) who live in Asheville, NC. They hosted a wonderful dinner for us at their home and provided a delicious array of foods. Their daughter, Dale, and son-in-law, Tom, attended dinner and we all had a really nice visit together. We left Asheville on August 30th and arrived at Little Beaver State Park in Beaver, West Virginia that same day. Here are some great pictures of the campground we stayed at…

Airstream parked at our wooded campsite
Beautiful lake that we walked around
Wooded meadow with mist during a morning walk
Lots of deer lived in this park. Can you see one in this picture?
Nice roads made access to this park easy

The next morning, we got up early and headed over to the New River Gorge for our scheduled tour of the bridge. According to Wikipedia, the New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge that spans 3,030 feet long over the New River near Fayetteville, West Virginia. The arch is 1,700 feet tall and this bridge was once considered the longest single span arch bridge in the world when it opened for traffic in 1978. Today, the New River Gorge bridge is the 4th longest in the world since other larger bridge structures have been built elsewhere. Here is a Wikipedia link to more info about this bridge if you are interested: New River Gorge

Everyone in our assigned tour party of six people was a little nervous about walking underneath a long bridge on a narrow maintenance catwalk. Our tour guide, Jay, put us at ease when he pulled out safety harnesses and told us we had to wear them in order to be tethered to a steel safety line that runs above the maintenance catwalk. He led us on a very informative and exhilarating two hour walking tour under the bridge. The New River Gorge bridge is constructed of special steel beams and bolts that are designed to rust so that an even layer of rust becomes a protective covering that prevents further corrosion of the overall structure. The bridge constantly moves through the use of expansion joints and flexible supports that so that stress is distributed throughout the overall structure. Also, there is little evidence of any birds living under the bridge because very few bird droppings are seen. A pair of peregrine falcons were introduced as nesting mates under the bridge and they eat any other birds that try to live there so the only bird poop you see if any is from the falcons !!! Check out these great pictures that Bonnie took as we walked under the bridge…

Early morning fog obscures the gorge
View from our left as we walked under the bridge
View from our right as we walked under the bridge
Bonnie Bridgewalker with safety harness on
Bonnie’s view when dangling legs over edge of the catwalk
Another view looking over the river gorge
Looking back at the long catwalk and safety harness carabiners
Dan with ground level view of the bridge

Next, we headed over to hike the Grandview Area trails at the nearby New River Gorge National River Park. Bonnie and I were hiking down a well marked trail when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. I thought she had seen a bear or wolf standing in our path but soon realized that a man was laying on top of a woman in the middle of the trail about 20 feet in front of us. This couple must have heard the lust filled call of nature that day and decided to have what appeared to be consensual sex right there on a well traveled trail !!! Bonnie and I were stunned that people would be “doing it” in the middle of a national park trail but anything appears to be possible in wild, wonderful West Virginia. We immediately turned around and quickly sprinted back to the main park area to clear our minds from what we had just witnessed. Here are some pics of the spectacularly gorgeous New River Gorge National River at Grandview (no we didn’t take any photos of the couple on the trail):

Grandview information sign
Incredible view of the New River Gorge
Another view of the Gorge
The winding New River

BTW, our next posts will be about visiting the Collins side of my family in Greenville, Pennsylvania, seeing a rhinoceros herd near Columbus, OH (really – it does exist), lots of different horses near Lexington, KY plus our first Harvest Host stop.

Stay tuned for more frequent updates as we gain travel momentum and catch up on our blogging…