Morgantown, Antietam, Front Royal to Shenandoah & Luray Caverns

We left Wheeling and stayed that night just out of Morgantown. The next morning we headed for Antietam Civil War Battlefields. We then went on to Front Royal, the gateway to the spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway, and the next day went through Luray Caverns.

Remember John Denver's song? "West Virginia, mountain momma, blue ridge mountain, Shenandoah River..." Well, we did the Skyline Drive along the Blue Ridge Mountain trail. Below us in the valley was the Shenandoah River.

Spectacular. But... it just happened to be Memorial Day weekend. That's USA's version of our ANZAC day, only they have a long weekend to remember all the veterans from all their wars past and present. So... us and about 50 million others did the Skyline Drive. Even so, it wasn't too bad. 

It was a little hazy that day so the photos don't show it all off as beautiful as it really was.

Yeah, couldn't keep my hands off his muscles.

 

We stopped the night at Front Royal and drove through pretty little civil war towns out to the Antietam Battlefield. You'll have to see my next blog for details of that. 

After Antietam we stayed the night at Luray and the next day went to see the Luray Caverns.

Luray is a small town, but very pretty.

 They seem to like their murals here too.

Luray Caverns are really worth seeing. There's also motor museum there, and an American history museum where one of the volunteers gave us a demonstration of how to fire a musket.


I hoped to capture some orbs or plasma flashes inside the caves. When I put the photos onto the computer I did notice a few.

In one part of the caverns they did find some human bones. They turned out to be a native American girl of about 16 years. They think the bones were washed into the cave from an above burial.

 Wonderful formations.

Stalactites hang from the roof. Stalagmites grow from the ground. (Just in case you wanted to know.) 

Towards the bottom of the photo you can see what looks like two little bright balls. 


Those are 2 very bright energy orbs right above the place where the young girl's bones were found.

Besides the caverns, there was a great carriage and motor car museum.

When we finished looking at all the old carriages and cars, we headed over for a quick musket loading and firing demonstration.

After our history lesson, we headed on down to see the mighty Shenandoah River in person.

Yes, I did stick my toes in the water.

Couldn't help myself.

In the State Penn at Moundsville, Wheeling, WV

Yeah, you heard it right. We ended up in the State Pen at Moundsville. The old State Pen, that is. It's an imposing old building.

We did the tour, which was very interesting. Our tour guide was an ex-prison guard. He entertained us with anecdotes as well as information.

 Some of the artwork left behind by prisoners.

 Not a lot of room in there.

There was plenty of graffiti. There was also some wonderful artwork done by prisoners all over the walls. Some of the prints are for sale.

There was a section for women prisoners there too, and one of the most notable female prisoners was Charles Manson's mother. One of his uncles was also in there.

In the display room there's a letter from Charles Manson requesting to be transferred there to be closer to his family. I believe the reply went something along the lines of: not even if the Devil ice skates past my door.

 Old Smokey.

After the tour we went back down to the banks of the Ohio River.

It's not too bad down by the river. Big barges still use the river to transport coal.

 A coal barge went by.

We left Wheeling and once again ended up lost due to the GPS signals being all messed up. We found ourselves driving through the grounds of the new prison. Wow! That is some huge place.

The road we were on ended in a blockade. All our signals were jammed. It was a bit scary. We turned around and got out of there as fast as we could.

I hope that if we ever get back this way, we'll find Wheeling a renewed, grand old city once more.