Talk about taking the road less traveled! I think we took the road never traveled to Bridgeport. Thanks to our Garmin, we ended up on a winding little track through the mountains. It was a very pretty drive, but the road began to get narrower and narrower, windier and windier, and steeper, until we were on a one car track through overhanging jungle.
We had no idea how long this track was going to be, and no idea where it was going to come out. I was driving at the time. I couldn't turn around. My only choice was to keep driving until we got to... somewhere.
Somewhere turned out to be behind the shops and other buildings at Bridgeport. We literally were spat out of the tiny track onto the main street. I had to slam the brakes on to stop from shooting right across the road in front of the other traffic. We had no idea what town we were in nor what state we were in.
We were in Bridgeport, Ohio. Just across the Ohio River was Wheeling, West Virginia, our intended destination.
We drove over the bridge into Wheeling but didn't like what we saw. Nowhere is the downturn in the economy more noticeable than here.
All those once-grand old buildings look shabby. Many of them are empty with broken windows and peeling paint. This is still a working river port coal town. Many huge flat barges push or pull coal piles up and down the river. Some teenage boys were fishing there. We asked them about what they caught and whether they ate the fish. They told us the water was too poluted for them to eat anything that came out of it.
We decided not to stay right in Wheeling. We stayed out of town in a nice hotel.
I'm having my first martini - a chocolate one.
Geoff had a beer with Dean Martin.
The next morning we went to Moundsville, like a suburb of Wheeling.
This is an Indian burial mound. It's a bit like an Egyptian pyramid in internal structure.
The people who lived in this area and built these mounds were the Adena people.
We walked up the path that spiraled around the mound. I could imagine what it must have been like back in those days. It was peaceful and beautiful. Apparently it had once been a lot higher, but time and many archaeological excavations, plus the pounding of many tourist feet, had worn it down to its present height, which was quite impressive.
I was not comfortable walking up the mound. I felt like an intruder. The energy was not welcoming here. I didn't stay at the top very long. I felt like it was very disrespectful to the Adena people to be treading all over their sacred place. I felt the energy of the ancestors bearing down on me with thier sorrow over their mound being desecrated and trampled all over by strangers.
We were in Bridgeport, Ohio. Just across the Ohio River was Wheeling, West Virginia, our intended destination.
We drove over the bridge into Wheeling but didn't like what we saw. Nowhere is the downturn in the economy more noticeable than here.
All those once-grand old buildings look shabby. Many of them are empty with broken windows and peeling paint. This is still a working river port coal town. Many huge flat barges push or pull coal piles up and down the river. Some teenage boys were fishing there. We asked them about what they caught and whether they ate the fish. They told us the water was too poluted for them to eat anything that came out of it.
We decided not to stay right in Wheeling. We stayed out of town in a nice hotel.
I'm having my first martini - a chocolate one.
Geoff had a beer with Dean Martin.
The next morning we went to Moundsville, like a suburb of Wheeling.
The people who lived in this area and built these mounds were the Adena people.
We walked up the path that spiraled around the mound. I could imagine what it must have been like back in those days. It was peaceful and beautiful. Apparently it had once been a lot higher, but time and many archaeological excavations, plus the pounding of many tourist feet, had worn it down to its present height, which was quite impressive.
I was not comfortable walking up the mound. I felt like an intruder. The energy was not welcoming here. I didn't stay at the top very long. I felt like it was very disrespectful to the Adena people to be treading all over their sacred place. I felt the energy of the ancestors bearing down on me with thier sorrow over their mound being desecrated and trampled all over by strangers.
Great views of the town but I got off there as quickly as possible.
