River Town

Yes, Charleston is a River Town. When I was out riding my bike I rode over the South Side Bridge and paused to watch the river traffic.

Tunnel Vision

New River Gorge Bridge - Part 2

Here's a slightly unusual view of the New River Gorge Bridge. I took this on Mother's Day from the deck at Smokey's On The Gorge.

Produce Blogging #85

Because Thursday night is grocery night!

Maggie Valley

I'm in Maggie Valley, NC shooting more log homes. I had several cool shots I wanted to share tonight but the hotel wi-fi is only working sporadically so I'm going to upload this one shot and go to bed. More tomorrow.

Smokey Mountains!

Tonight I'm in the Smokey Mountains near Franklin, NC photographing log homes for Appalachian Log Structures. If you're interested in a log home, that's the company to use! I'm not biased at all... really!


These are the Shaffer's, who can sit on their deck and look at that view whenever they want to!

Mothers Day 2007

I always spend the day with my Mom on Mother's Day. We usually find some fun place to drive to. Today we went to the Class VI whitewater facility on the New River near Fayetteville, WV. No, we didn't go rafting, we had lunch at the fabulous "Smokey's On The Gorge" restaurant where you can get a wonderful gourmet meal in a very fun and relaxed atmosphere. The view is really something. After that we went to the farmer's market in Charleston to buy some flowers.

Bike Blogging #2

Welcome to another Saturday and another Bike Blogging. Today I took a slightly shorter ride (27 miles) than last week. I went through downtown Charleston and rode east up to Dry Branch near Campbell's Creek.


Below is a railroad trestle over Dry Branch.



Below are a couple of shots of Walnut Gap Road, which goes right up the mountain from Dry Branch. It's exactly a mile to the top of the hill... which rises about three hundred feet (give or take, not sure). The pavement is new since the last time I've been here and that is new guardrail too. It's welcome because that's almost straight down on the left side.



At the top of Walnut Gap is a loooong downhill run to Valley Grove. I turn left off of Valley Grove Road onto Rutledge Road. This little bridge across Twomile Creek is on Rutledge Road.


I stopped at the Coonskin Go-Mart to suck down a Gatorade.


When I passed the recycling center on Barlow Drive, I noticed what looked like a large pile of gravel but it was sparkling. There were several huge piles of the stuff. Closer inspection revealed that it was broken glass. Huh.


Through town and up Louden Heights Road to Newton Road. This so-called "private drive" is what an old friend of mine called "the Beverly Hills of Charleston". Beautiful stately homes set in impeccable park-like gardens. (Click the photo for a larger view. This panorama is put together from 3 photos. UPDATE, I just replaced this photo with a much larger one.)

It's a nice route to take to get back up on the hill. From there it's an easy ride back to Hunters Ridge.

Rhododendrons in my yard

The rhododendron in my yard is not doing well this year at all. There are much fewer blooms on it. We had such a cold spring, lots of flowering plants were hard hit. I got a few nice shots from it though.

Produce Blogging #84

Because Thursday night is grocery night!

Yellow Tulips

From the Air

I went for a plane ride to various parts of the state to shoot some aerials for a client. The weather was unbelievable. We were seeing power plants over one hundred miles away. Below is some typical West Virginia scenery, as seen from the air. Very typical.


Here's some atypical West Virginia scenery... in that it has, err, some actual development on it. This is the Stonewall Jackson Lake and Golf Resort.


Here's the plane we took. Just kidding. This is a privately owned Folland Gnat we saw at the airport. Looks like fun!

Bike Blogging

See the updated previous post for more photos.

Bike Blogging #1

I went for a long-ish bicycle ride out into the country today. I rode to Tornado, WV and back for a total of 38 miles. I've decided to start photoblogging these trips. I took one of my older cameras with me. I had several photos to share but I don't have time to get them all presentable so here is one. This is from Longbranch Road. The scenery is so beautiful on this little stretch of road that it's like riding in a state park... except for all the trailers and shacks of course.

BTW... if you want to see where I do my road riding, there is a map here.

UPDATE: Here are a few more photos. This is another photo of Longbranch Road. This panorama of the road and creek was stitched together from two photos. Click on the photo for a much larger version.


On Longbranch, there are two stands of bamboo. Now where the heck did that come from? The bamboo is as big around as a man's arm and about 20 feet high.


Just before the halfway point I got chased by a St. Bernard. I've been cycling for a long time and I've been chased by a lot of dogs, but this is the first time I've been chased by a dog that could've bit me on the hand if he wanted to. No photos, I was busy pedaling.

This is the halfway point at Aker's Store in Tornado, WV.


You can't tell from this photo but this road leads very steeply up to the top where the camera position is. It's a gut-busting hill.

Utah Hiking