Blogs from West Virginia, United States, North America - page 2

I had no idea that West Virginia could be reached in under 3 hours from PA. In my quest to visit all 50 states I figured it would make an easy and interesting day trip and of course I could cross another off my list. With a little light persuading I got my boyfriend and cousin to come along for a road trip on a beautiful Sunday. The scenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains was gorgeous and it took even less time to reach our destination than expected. Driving into Harpers Ferry was like driving back in time. All of the old buildings had been preserved and restored and the quaint little town was surrounded only by the natural landscape. There were no distractions and very little to no modern entities. It was sometimes easy to ... read more

Mijn eerste uitje buiten Virginia (en eigenlijk buiten Blacksburg en de regio) was een skitrip naar Winterplace in West Virginia. Ja, dat is een andere staat en ligt – wonderbaarlijk – ten westen van Virginia. Samen met een stuk of 20 klasgenoten en Daniel (Duitse vriend van me hier) reden we zo’n anderhalf uur in de auto naar het skiresort. Het is even wennen ten opzichte van de Alpen, maar aangezien ik als Nederland niet echt gewend ben aan bergen, viel het allemaal wel mee. Daniel had iets meer moeite zich aan te passen. Alle sneeuw was kunstmatig, aangezien het niet vroor. Het kwam er op neer dat je over het algemeen ongeveer 8 meter brede paden naar beneden had. Wij bevonden ons vooral op de zwarte pistes, vergelijkbaar met de rode in Europa. Steiler was ... read more

We were delighted to hear that our school had decided to lengthen our winter break from 5 to 7 weeks to save on utilities. Paid vacation weeks I might add. I had ruled out going home for the break up to this point but now that I could make it home for my birthday, Christmas and be home for one month my mind was made up. My birthday is December 23, it lasted 38 hours; began in Shanghai, checked in in Detroit and ended in my own bed in Cross Lanes, WV. With the help of a friend (Big C) I was able to surprise my parents by knocking on the front door during dinner. As expected they were ecstatic to see me and I was glad to be home. No matter where I go, even ... read more

W had work Saturday, but upon learning my plans to leave the east coast as a thing of the past, he quickly called it off as we needed a proper farewell. We had talked about checking out West Virginia's gambling scene in the past, and agreed that now was the time. After a bit of research, the horse tracks became our primary goal, a first for both of us. We took off Saturday morning. Along the way, we stopped at an old graveyard, something W has an affinity for apparantly. After walking around a bit, it looked as though most of the couple hundred stones belonged to a small handful of clans. Some of the stones, regardless of generation, had unkown or vague birth dates, while others went so far as to include the actual day ... read more

Our next adventure was to see again the world’s largest movable structure located in a ten mile radius called the “quiet zone” – no cell phones, no TV, no garage door openers, in fact. Want to guess where we might be? ___________________________________________________ We were at The Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia, part of the National Science Foundation; there’s a second observatory in New Mexico. The Green Bank site has the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope and the world’s largest land-based movable structure. Even though it’s as large as two football fields, it can be moved by increments no wider than a hair. This telescope sits in the US National Radio Quiet Zone, a ten-mile radius in which no radio transmissions are allowed so that ... read more

Jenny and I had planned to visit the Tibetan Buddhist temple in Wisconsin, where it is rumoured they have a restaurant serving Tibetan cuisine that is to die for (which may be an ironic statement for a person leading towards spiritual enlightenment of the Buddhist variety). We were unable to find the opportunity to go during my stay with her family, but had given thought to dropping in on my way to New York. It somehow didn’t seem right that I should however. Jenny and I first met on a Tibetan Buddhist forum, on facebook actually, and I had wanted to share that experience with her. As I had promised to see her again before I leave to go home, I decided, that then, would be the best opportunity to go there. As a nice alternative, ... read more