Abraham Studios

West Virginia

Left At The Tracks
24 x 30"
acrylic on canvas
Fayette Gallery, Lexington, KY

On December 31st, New Years Eve, at 11:12 a.m., we entered West Virginia looking for what the map called River Underground . We found a sign for the Lost River, and asked several people in the area. We stopped to talk to a woman on the side of the road, who's husband had climbed up onto the cliff above. She said it wasn't anything special, but that we could look for fossils like her husband is!	Poncho trying to find this River Underground.
Seneca Rocks	Making our way through Monongahela National Forest, we realized how beautiful the Eastern part of West Virginia is. We were surrounded by mountain, river and rock.
At Blackwater Falls, the walkway to the falls were closed due to ice.	We came across these huge generators on the mountain side.
Making our way to the highest point in WV, we made several stops to admire the view. It was a perfectly clear day to make the climb.	The higher we got, the more snow covered the road. Poncho got out to make the smallest snowman that ever was.
After getting stuck, driving through about a foot of snow, on the narrow road to the top, we climbed the viewing tower. The two of us were higher than the entire state of West Virginia. A winter wonderland!
	We realized that climbing the mountain was the easy part when we slid off the road on the way down. We also faced a dilemma when we came upon a car going in the opposite direction. After helping the family in the car (who had gotten stuck in the snow as well), we drove a mile in reverse in order to find a turnaround. Eventually, we made it off the mountain, and decided that we both had a new respect for the snow.
We learned about Pearl S. Buck, and visited NRAO. Afterward, we made our way into what turned out to by our favorite WV town.	Lewisberg, West Virginia. A very creative place filled with shops and local artisan's. Unfortunately, for us, it was rainy and most of the businesses were closed due to the holiday season. We still consider it the nicest town that we visited in WV.
We had the opportunity to meet Steve, owner of the "Lost World Caverns, who happened to be from Fort Lauderdale, FL. He shared with us a little about the history of Lewisberg.	At the New River Gorge, we met Jimmy and Bob, who sent us to Sandstone Falls. Then, we went to a the New River Bridge, the longest single arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere.
New River Bridge, Fayetteville, WV	There really is a lot of natural beauty in WV.
Throughout the entire time in WV, we were pretty much able to camp for free at rec. areas. It was pretty much "camp at your own risk." We also visited the Tamarack. It is filled with crafts from West Virginia artisans. It was a bit disappointing because we expected more fine art. Still worth visiting, though.
We went to Charleston, expecting to finally find a city. The state capital was beautiful, but we were only able to find one gallery, and it was closed. We also went to the Blinko glass factory, but no one was blowing glass. Again, the holiday.