West Virginia - May 2012

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Hello Again (finally!) ~

I'm sitting here studying the map I have for West Virginia so I can report about the route we took from Virginia into W. Virginia, for those who might care (since there are others besides our friends & family who may wish to glean some travel info from this post). This leg of our journey was at the end of April last year which was a beautiful time to travel in W. Virginia. I'm still catching up on blogging for last year's trip... and some of you may be thinking "why bother now"? Well, it's a fair question, & there may come a point (very soon) in which I decide I must let it go & simply move on. I have not crossed that threshold yet (& probably won't with only Pennsylvania left to write about), and frankly transmitting these experiences, even no matter how mundane they are sometimes, really helps me to process it all in another, perhaps deeper way. But, it is true for sure that a lot of life happens everyday, and this hasn't been my highest priority, thus the months keep rolling on and all the adventures of 2012 not yet published. On top of that I'm not a speedy writer!... Even though you know this is old news we hope you still find it worth reading, & that there is somthing in it for you!

We had a couple of route options, but once again some time restraint due to a gig William had to make in Philadelphia. Our main purpose for going in to West Virginia was to check out a specific town & county so we decided to go there directly, though this eliminated visiting a town farther south in Virginia famous for its music scene which was of interest to William. Celavie! there is always "next time" (or not!). As it was, we visited a lot of cool places in the eastern part of W. Virginia, and everywhere was beautiful!

We heard there are some 'ugly' parts of W. Virginia where the people are very poor and coal mining is the main industry but we did not have time to travel there. The part of Eastern W. Virginia that we explored is a low to middle income area with economies based mainly on recreation and agriculture. We spent most of our time in Pocahontas Co. and a few spots in neighboring Greenbrier county where the hip, and charming small town Lewisburg is located. Lewisburg's claim to fame is that it was voted (forget by what now) the best small town to live in the U.S. in 2011. We found it to be a cute town a little smaller than Sebastopol with a nice natural food store, renovated older buildings along the main street, a hilly terrain and small farms in the surrounding countryside, many which are organic or becoming so. From that more southern location we later exited W. Virginia & zipped up an interstate back in Virginia to head north for Pennsylvania and Philly.

But meanwhile, exiting the Shenandoah River State park in Virginia we went through Harrisonburg VA where we stocked our larder at a good natural food store. From there we chose to try the smaller highway 33 to 28 winding over a high summit of the Appalacian mountians into West Virginia (I recall the summit being around 8,000 ft which is pretty lofty for this generally low, but very long range). This more rural route was well worth the extra time it may have taken as it had some pretty views coming down from the summit. And though winding, it was very do-able in our 40' motor home, at a leisurly pace of course. Most of the Appalacian chain is not really mountainous to us far-"westerners", averaging in the 4,000 ft range, but they are geologically unique. There were no cell towers and no cell reception in West Virginia along this road until much farther south in the town of Marlington. Half an hour north of there was where we mainly wanted to visit in order to explore the area of Greenbank - a very small town - and its surrounds. After about 4 to 5 hours of driving we landed near this destination around dusk, parking at a family owned RV park and old hotel. The temperature around 8 p.m. was very pleasant, and no bugs in this hilly green area.

This family RV park we stayed at about 5 miles north of Green Bank, was right off the highway, but quiet at night. We parked on the grass and had water and power for a very reasonable price (I think it was around $20. per night). The older couple also had a restaurant there which wasn't open. They were very friendly and hospitable and allowed me to use their phone the first night when I couldn't find the public phone that was somewhere on the property. They told us that it's very hard to get help for running their restaurant because when they call the county Unemployment Dept. the candidates sent basically tell them "I don't need/want the (damn) job cause I'd rather stay home, watch T.V. and live off the welfare check". Yep, that's "entitlement" for ya!

We had a week to be in West Virginia and we spent only half of our nights near Greenbank which is somewhat infamous for being a radio & wireless free zone (also called the National Quiet Zone). It has been that way here for at least four decades due to the radio telescopes in Greenbank, probably the only thing that puts this tiny town on the map. Back then, the radio free zone was a hellava lot bigger by hundreds of square miles. Now, only an area of 10 square miles around Greenbank is actually protected by law to be kept wireless free. That's right - that means there are no cell towers, no cell phone use, and no wireless devices of any kind allowed there. We heard that there are periodic checks with detectors for wireless devices in these parts. The reason for all this has to do with the sensitivity of the radio telescopes which only receive signals from space, never send them. The photo of the telescope you see here is the only one we could take with William's digital cell phone camera as it was the only telescope visible from within the science center (there are actually about 10 in all). This telescope is the largest one (called the Green Bank telescope or 'GBT'😉. It 'learns' about stars, galaxies & other objects in the Universe (hmmm, & what else, we might only guess our gov does with the technology!) by collecting the radio waves they emit. Its surface is over 2 acres in diameter but can be pointed with the accuracy of "one arcsecond" or the width of a human hair seen from 66 ft away! Can you grasp that??

Photographing near the other telescopes along the road with anything other than a simple film camera is prohibited due to the fact that they are so sensitive. "Digital cameras and other electronics create radio pollution which can ruin astronomers' data" said the brochure ("radio pollution" what else might it 'ruin'??). Radio astronomers from around the world come here and have made many discoveries about how the universe works with the aid of these telescopes. This place with its new looking science center offers tours and various programs year round, though I've heard some programs for the public have been cut due to removal of government funding. We chose not to take the guided tour but learned about the telescopes in the science center and several times enjoyed walking or biking along the snaking road where the telescopes of various sizes are situated in a way that demonstrates a model of our solar system using a scale of 1 foot = 3 billion feet! We did take the self guided walking tour instead. With the handout for this we learned that the observatory is self sufficient so that everything there ~ "the most sensitive receivers in the world as well as state of the art data collection systems were all invented and built onsite, in the area of the Jansky Lab". Wow!

A 2011 brochure detailed special events and featured a different theme each month in activites like Star lab fridays, High Tech thursdays, and Star partys. For example: "Tackle the concepts of dark matter with the enlightening work of Vera Rubin". For what is offered currently, or other info on the National Radio Astronomy Observatory see: nrao.edu It's quite a unique and special place for such a remote location! And honestly, what drew us (well really, me Christina) here was my curiosity and desire to check out this rare place left in our country where one can escape the invasion of cell towers and wireless. If you have been reading these blogs on our 2012 U.S. tour then you may recall that I have a big thing about cell towers, and other wireless technologies such as "WiFi" as I have found that I have some sensitivity to them. There are individuals who have sought refuge here upon finding they were so sensitive as to not be able to function in our world, now so innundated with radio frequency radiation of all types. Our own naturopathic doctor has relocated here, and we met a few other individuals who have moved here simply in order to be able to function more normally and without constant pain, or other physical constraints. This area, and literally only a few other places on planet earth remain free of invasive radio frequencies. Sweden is one, if not the only country that recognizes the needs of sensitive individuals, and they have a designated part of their country where there are no cell towers and the rest. This might sound really stupid to some of you, but the fact is, whether an individual is "sensitive" (feeling negative physical & other effects) or not, whether we know it, or not, we are all experiencing the impacts of radio frequency radiation today as it can break DNA and has many other harmful effects. To understand this I strongly urge everyone to watch the excellent new science documentary about man made radiation and its effects on living things called: "Resonance - Beings of Frequency" which you can find here:

/>An important scientific finding discussed in the film is the Shumann Resonance - discovered decades ago to be the natural frequency of the earth, and the fact that the human brain functions at EXACTLY this same frequency. This is what our bodies are adapted to and function best in at every level, so the introduction of so many different man made frequencies is not friendly to us at all. The film is so well done, I know you will enjoy watching it and learning more about this topic.

On our first full day in the area we rode our bikes into Green Bank, up and down a few good size hills. It was a bit chilly and breezy that day with some big puffy clouds in the sky. We rode past the Observatory on the hiway, where one or two of the telescopes are visible from. Around the corner, at the library we went to use the computers/internet. Not far from the back of the library building and down the hill the monsterously huge Green Bank telescope loomed large, and that was our first real look at it. At the library I picked up a real estate book and looked at a few places online. Green Bank also has an elementary school, a post office, gas station and small general type of store... that's about it!

I'm always curious what the RE market is like in various places. The next day we drove in the motor home (remember we didn't have a car or motorcycle in tow) down the hill into Marlington to look around and also find a realtor willing to show us some properties. And we ended up parking for three or four nights in Marlington near a part of the Greenbriar River trail passing through it. I didn't spot any cell towers in town, but there were a few 'repeaters' making it possible to pick up cell towers elsewhere & thus enabling cell phone use here. A biking trail brochure for the county notes: "Due to the National Quiet Zone, cell phone coverage in Pocahontas Co. is limited to the town of Hillsboro, Marlington and the base of Snowshoe Mountain. Only GSM carriers like AT&T have service in the area". That seems pretty unusual for a whole county to have such sparse coverage. However, in our travels around this area we did note some RF 'pollution' due to private residences that have put up WiFi repeaters on their property. So, except for the places protected by law there is no guarantee of the absence of radio frequencies for those who are extremely sensitive. I tolerated staying in Marlington but did not sleep well. And when people ask me if I noticed a difference the few nights we stayed in Green Bank it was hard for me to confirm that. I had wanted to stay only there for the entire week to be able to evaluate it, but it didn't work out that way.

Marlington had about 3 or 4 major streets, and some residential neighborhoods with some nice large old homes. But, overall it was more run down looking than perky & well kept. We spent three full days driving around with a wonderful realtor we found named Tiki whose family business is called Red Oak Realty. We were a great match personality wise and enjoyed each others company very much. She showed us acreage and acreage with homes all over the place. There were a couple of smaller pieces with newer houses on them. Other homes that were older were generally in the category of manufactured or mobile homes, none of which appealed to us. But we got a very good sense of the place, and the people - all who we met were very friendly and all had roots in the county for generations. There were a few different parcels that we spent a little time walking around and trying to imagine building or living there. But nothing grabbed us, and all had something that was not 'right' with us. But prices of land there are pretty appealing, as is the fact that this county (probably due to it's low population and minimal develpment) has no established codes for building, less restrictive zoning, and no permits required to build. Well for those interested in building from scratch with natural building methods (like us) that is pretty appealing!

Here, you are either in a town, in the woods, or next to the woods with open space where you can garden and have animals. The obvious drawback of the area for people like us from the fast and edgy west coast is the lack of the type of "culture" we are accustomed to. Life here is much slower, less stimulating and more family & outdoor oriented, even with the cultural activities and entertainment in Marlington at the beautifully renovated century old Opera House or the upscale restaurants in Lewisburg at least an hour away. William was playing along with all this, but not at all interested in the idea of living in the hill country of West Virginia where none of his favorite activities in Sonoma Co. happen. However, personally, I didn't find it hard to imagine that over time there could be more people drawn to this area who favor, even require a radiation free environment to live in, and a community being built up in the Green Bank area. Indeed I know plenty of people around Sonoma Co. CA who would love to be able to live in such a place and also envision living in a community of people with this value - building &/or living in natural housing and creating a place for natural healing and wellness promotion. There are people transplanted here from California, and I found for different, likely more "political" reasons people in the state of Virginia who had also moved out from California. So, in my mind it was not an impossible thing to consider at all, and even today continues to have some appeal.

In between our jaunts around in the car with Tiki we rode our bikes on & along the GB River trail which was really pleasant, and took shorter walks along it also. A trend we are seeing around the country is turning old railroad tracks into bike/walking trails, which seems like a great idea for the most part, though removing tens of thousands ofmiles of tracks around the country that could conceivably still be utilized for moving goods or people is somewhat questionable in my mind. What a waste of the work of those who labored & toiled to create the railways in the 19th & 20th centuries!

Pocahontas county indeed has some great things to offer those who are looking for a peaceful place to retreat, or recreate though there seemed to be little in the way of 'upscale' lodging or B&Bs. It's all more rustic and historic for the persons who want to come fishing in the summer, hunting in the fall, mountain biking or skiing at Snowshoe Mtn. or perhaps bird watching, camping, & hiking in the various (quite interesting) parks. Some of the parks include: Droop Mtn Battlefield State Park, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, Watoga State Park and Beartown State Park... That seems like a lot of state parks in one county for such a small state! Of those we only went into two (Watoga & Beartown) but drove through the Cass area (a historic old town) one day. We also visited the Cranberry Glades Wilderness Area which is a very unique ecosystem. My favorite by far was the Beartown park. Very shady, and green with moss on the amazing rocks which looked like they had just dropped out of the sky to form these interesting juxtapositions on the hills there!

Beartown is a natural area of 107 acres "located on the eastern summit of Droop Mtn" (named for the type of rock its made of). It's minimally developed, except for bathrooms and the boardwalk to make walking around safer, and entrance is free. Noted for its unusual rock formations it was named Beartown "because local residents claimed that the many cave-like openings in the rocks made ideal winter dens for the black bears of the area, and the many deep, narrow crevasses were formed in a somewhat regular criss-cross pattern to appear from above like the streets of a small town". This would be a fun place to explore with kids who would love all the little nooks and crannies to peer into, and make up stories about.

The end of our week in West Virginia brought us back up to Green Bank for 2 or 3 more nights - maybe just two - Friday and Saturday or, Saturday and Sunday. We parked the motorhome in the Observatory parking lot, and wondered if we might be able to stay there the night (I guess we were thinking - a free place to park maybe). There was something going on there as we saw cars parked and some people going in and out of the Science Center building. It seemed like an odd time for all that activity at dusk. William went in to see what was happening and ask about parking. A little later when he didn't come out, I had to venture in myself. There was a HS graduation party going on, and all kinds of family members of all ages in attendance. I would say the graduating class was pretty small, at least those who were from Green Bank, but you would think that we were also guests of honor there, as they so readily and happily invited us in to join the festivity. One family in particular was very friendly and interested in us - two sisters in their 40's to 50's and their mother, and the graduate was also a girl. We talked with all of them, and since we apparently mentioned something about looking for property we were introduced to a male cousin who had a 5 acre parcel he wanted to sell only 5 minutes away on the other side of a hill across the way. From what he told us it sounded interesting so we decided to drive over there with him to have a look. As fate would have it, it was after dusk, and getting pretty dark, but the full moon was rising and we had a stunning experience standing on top of the parcel looking east toward the view of another hill and the full moon above! It was such great timing! though we couldn't see the property in full detail, we thought it would be worthwhile to go there again the next day. The young man had partially developed the 5 acre piece by putting a road in, and being in a hilly area the road curved round toward a more or less level upper area which through the trees could see the Observatory and the GBT to the west.

We returned to the party exilarated. Perhaps it was actually before we went off that we were having some discussions with a young family who had recently moved to a neighboring community and were concerned about the power lines and other sources of emf or radiation that their children might be getting exposed to. That's when we met Mark, a 40ish gentleman (looked more like 30) also talking with them. He had already caught my attention before, in part because he didn't seem like he fit in quite like everyone else. As it turned out he had only been residing in Green Bank a few months and was seeking refuge from all the emf and radiation of Boston where he had been living. His story was that he had been 'sick' from unknown causes for many years, as I recall over a decade, and it took him almost that long to find out why... to realize that it was the cell towers, phones, wifi, power lines etc. that were the cause. And he was just beginning to feel better being out of all that for several months. He had been offered a room to stay in with a local older couple who apparently provided it purely out of the goodness of their generous hearts. And indeed, people in this community are very kind and generous! William and I felt a certain affinity and kinship with Mark for some reason. He was an attractive guy in an odd position here by himself, with no plans to leave anytime soon, though we wanted to take him on an adventure with us! He was determined to work on in some way (which he did explain to me) and hopefully find a way to get over the severe sensitivity to EMFs that he had somehow developed. But for the time being this was his home, and it was going o.k. except for the small detail of having few ways to make a living.

I thought I knew a lot, and have been pretty well educated about EMF issues and related things but Mark could write a book about it. We invited him out to the motorhome to hang out with us for the rest of the evening. Oh, and yes, we hadn't found any opposition to our simply staying parked by the Science center, so we did. By that time it was already around 9 p.m. Mark and I had a lot to talk about - well past the time when William turned in for the night, probably around 11. We ended up chatting the night away till the sun came up! First time I've done that in I cannot remember when! Of course, I did finally let Mark out (!), and went to bed for 4 or 5 hours. The good thing about our motorhome bedroom is that it can easily be kept very dark in the event I need to be able to "sleep in".

That was the last we saw of Mark around Green Bank, though we've stayed in touch a bit via e-mail. I haven't heard recently though of his whereabouts or the outcome of his hopeful cure for that sensitivity, that can make life so difficult and painful. Which reminds me now, its time to write him and see how that goes.

I'm going to have to say that of all the places we traveled in 2012, this is the one where we made new friends and have maintained some contact with them (excepting of course that William has also maintained some business contacts at RV parks and other places he performed at, and well you know, everyone becomes friends with William after they meet him or hear his music!). But I think I can say that this was a place that, by the end, felt good, and loving, and welcoming in a more personal way (even though our own life experiences may be vastly different than some of these country folk). The family that we connected with at the graduation party liked us so much that they invited us over the next day. We weren't positive that we would take them up on this, but it was a consideration. That afternoon (& I think another day too) we explored a lot of the surrounding area on our bicycles. We went back to the property we saw by moon light and looked much more closely at it. He only wanted $40,000. for the 5 acres which seemed very reasonable to us! We imagined how we would use it, what we would plant and grow, how a house would fit on the land, and where smaller cabins could be placed.... we walked all around it, looked all around & let our minds go wild. We really liked it, and there were many possibilities there. It had some nice views. Then we rode north of there to see where that road went, and how the neighborhood was.

By around 4 p.m. we rode up into the beautiful neighborhood where our friendly family was gathering. Since we were on our bikes William did not have his guitar to play any music for them. But, they cheerily welcomed us in and invited us to eat. (Not for the most part food that appealed to us or was up to our unprocessed, basic, organic "clean food", standard but we managed to find a few things that were o.k.). They were all lovely and we got this fun group picture with them before we went on our way again. We also learned that the mother of the grandmother - whose house we stand in front of in the picture, was in her nineties and still lived across the street in her own house on many acres, and she still went out and mowed her own lawn with the push mower! For some reason though, we didn't get to meet her that day. A little later down the hill we all ran into each other again walking the winding road through the observatory past the telescopes, and had more time to talk with them on this sunset walk/ride (we still had our bikes with us, and yes the motorhome was still in the Science center parking lot).

Once again at dusk, we drove a few miles north to camp in the family RV resort we had stayed 5 days or so before. And the next day which was monday, we drove out of this verdant little hamlet in West Virginia.

Did we buy the pretty 5 acres that charmed us in the moonlight? No, but I still think about this place sometimes. I guess the final verdict ended up being the kids response which was something like "well that's pretty far away, and all our family is out here in California" so, while those country roads do call, and the bosom of the mountain mama in West Virginia still becons us home, it does seem like a long way away! "Country Roads, take me home, to the place I belong, West Virginia, Mountain Mama, take me home, country roads" has never made more sense or had more meaning!

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Photos

At the Greenbank Science Center
in scenic Pocahontas Co. W. Virginia... I'm pretty sure this is the biggest, & fully "steerable" radio telescope on these premises.

Cute old barn
This is farm country in these hills

The hills around Greenbank
a very small town, its only real claim to fame being the National Radio Astronomy Observatory here.

Near Marlington
this trail goes for miles & miles

And one day we rode it a long,
long way. The weather was PERFECTLY pleasant this late April day.

Green pastures & hills
are abundant in this northeast corner of West Virginia

Round the bend, over the bridge
crossing the Greenbriar River, into the old train tunnel & through the mountain we go!

I see the light now ~
but for a while it was pretty dark & damp in here!

Along the trail somewhere
or perhaps in another area we rode (?)

Another nice backside of me...
what else can I say?

Awesomely beautiful W. Virginia,
Mountain Mama, take me home, down
country roads!

I don't remember this little dog...
but I do remember that we rode our bikes a lot round Marlington & Greenbank, up some pretty big hills too.

Isn't that an eye popping cloud!
These big fluffy ones are my favs! And plenty of them around here.

Big family, incredible hospitality!
Nicer people I have never met. Grandma was up in age & her 90+ yr old mother still lived across the street on her farm.

"Beartown" State Park
in Southeast West Virginia was great fun to explore!

Parked by the cemetary
in downtown Lewisburg

A main street in Lewisburg
well it doesn't look that cute here, but it is. It's an up & coming mid-size town w/lots of small farms surrounding it.