Miko and Me: Almost Heaven, West Virginia

I moved on to Jonesborough, Tennessee. I stayed at the Kampers of America (KOA). I normally don't like KOAs. They are expensive, they pack you in like the proverbial sardine and they are very family orientated (lots of usually very loud children). That said, I seem to be spending a lot of time in KOAs on this trip. This one wasn't too bad. It was located in the Cherokee National Forest and right on the Nolichucky River. Nolichucky is another one of those fun words to say. This river is rated 2-4 as far as rapids go. I don't know what that means but the river was roaring. I think my style is more babbling brook instead of raging river. I kept thinking I had left a fan on in the camper as the roar of the river was so loud even with all the windows shut.

I spent the night on the Nolichucky and then moved to Wytheville Virginia where I stayed at a National Forest campground called Stony Fork. It was a nice change to be surrounded by trees and not other camping people. Again, I had a hard time backing the camper into my site and again it was on the supposedly easier side to back in. That is twice now that I've had issues. It seems like things either go super easy or super hard with this camping deal.

There was a stocked trout steam running through the campground and there were many fisherpeople there, mostly older, retirement age southern boys. They were a lot of fun to talk to – I heard so many colloquialisms in almost every sentence they spoke. Interesting note: the guys with the big trout strings were all very happy. Then there were the guys who had come up empty handed and were very upset with how the trout stream was hardly stocked this year.

When you get into West Virginia, you almost have to start singing that John Denver song - Take Me Home, Country Roads - "Almost heaven, West Virginia" I made it to Gauley River to be specific. I followed my so-called friend Ms. Google to get there. Such tiny little twisty mountain roads that when I told the campground owner which way I had come, she was very impressed that I made it to the campground. This campground was right on the New River which was a nice civilized river. I think that might have been because of the dam that was a little bit downstream from me.

There was a train track right across the river.
Everytime a train went by, it sounded like it was right on top of you.
I suppose it was because of the hills sending the sound rolling around

I had to come here for the New River Gorge National Scenic River where I earned another Junior Ranger badge. The Gorge was deep with the New River running through it, but the big draw was the New River Gorge Bridge built in 1977. Before it was built, it was a 45 minute journey to get across the gorge. Now you can get across it in under two minutes. It was the longest single-span arch bridge for 26 years; it has now lost the title and is the fifth longest bridge in the world. I was more impressed with the height of the thing. When it was built, it was the highest bridge in the world with a roadway on it. Alas, another title lost as it is now only the third highest in the world. They say that two Statue of Liberties and the Washington Monument could stand end to end under it. Another way to look at it is that it is 88 stories tall. Every year they have a Bridge Day during which hundreds of people (with appropriate equipment, of course) are permitted to climb on or jump from the bridge. Nosireebob – that is not going to be me.