Moving to West Virginia

After four days of rain, we weren't surprised that it was raining again when we drove to our next campground. We are in the Appalachian mountains, so we appreciated the fact that they have several highway tunnels that saved us much of the ups and downs of mountain driving.

But we didn't appreciate the fact that the only way to get through this two-hour section of highway was on a toll road. The minute we hit the West Virginia border, the turnpike started, with three toll booths before we got to our destination today. This was our first experience of paying the higher tolls of a motor home driver.

We also noticed that some of the trees at higher elevations are showing hints of fall foliage color to come. We are on the fast track north right now, trying to get north for the earlier autumn leaves.

Our destination today is in the west-central section of West Virginia at a little campground named, "Ripplin' Waters." We lucked into a lake-side spot, and this was our view from the motor home's dining table window. With the little white chapel mirrored in the rippling waters, it was a very serene place to be.

We were also introduced to the local fowl early in our stay. This is Lucy, a black swan and commander-in-chief of the lake. She is aided in her water patrol duties by a plethora of white and brown ducks. But in order to keep the messy Canadian Geese away, a group of Chinese geese were hatched and brought to live at the lake.

This campground is owned by the Church of God, and they hosted their last summer camp in their cabins just two weeks ago. We walked in this park-like setting, and scared up turkeys, a deer, and a hedge hog.

There was also a very nice swimming pool that we intended to use. But we were just too busy for a swim during our stay. We were so excited to have full-hook-ups, that we got to catch up with laundry at this park as well.

We are on the edge of the mountains in this section of West Virginia, so there were less hiking options for us. But one day we made the drive to Kanawha State Forest. We were glad to see that West Virginia doesn't charge admission to their state parks, even though they are facing severe budget cuts in this state. We took off on a nicely-shaded 7-mile loop hike this morning.

We have gotten out of the habit of applying sun screen because our hikes seem to always be in the shade now. We love to see other things that grow abundantly in this rich shade--like lime green moss and bright yellow fungus on a fallen log.

We are enjoying the glimpses of fall that we are beginning to see. If these few red leaves are any indication, this is going to be a stunning place to hike this autumn.

We hiked on the ridge, and we could see that West Virginia's budget cut-backs are probably limiting some much-needed trail maintenance. We lost the trail more than once because trees have fallen over the trail and haven't been moved. The ranger had warned us to bring hiking poles, because our descent from the ridge would be steep on the Alligator Trail. We wondered why an in-land trail would have such a curious name. But we figured it out shortly, as we got this picture of Mark inside the alligator's mouth.

As we traveled down a winding West Virginia highway, we were certainly glad we were in the car instead of the motor home today. Coming upon this one-lane short underpass is the kind of thing that gives motor home drivers nightmares.

Our next stop was the J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works company. They give factory tours of America's oldest working salt farm. Again, we were confused about where this inland operation would get the salt to farm. But on the tour we were shown the well and the tanks where the salt water is pumped.

The well goes down to 300 feet, where it taps into an ancient salt water ocean. The well water is a higher concentration of salt than usual ocean water, and it is put into shallow troughs inside a very hot green house to begin the evaporation process. It makes an interesting picture to see the green house trusses reflected in the black trays filled with salt water.

Now using the natural power of the summer's heat and sunshine, the serious water evaporation begins. This process almost stops during the winter months. But in August, they are enjoying record heat and record salt production. Once the water evaporates enough to become a 10% saline solution, it is moved to another green house with more shallow troughs. In a matter of days, salt crystals begin forming in the water.

Every morning (before the sun heats up the green houses to 150 degrees) they use wooden rakes to move the formed salt crystals to the edge of the trough so it can be gathered into wooden pans. We were surprised at the size and purity of the salt they were raking off this water.

After the water drains from the crystals, the salt comes indoors for the final drying and cleaning process. Wrapped in white towels, it spends days allowing the final moisture to dry out. The last step is cleaning the salt and then packaging it. After spending days drying out, they can't use water to clean the salt. Instead, the pure white salt is laid out on white towels where any dark impurities are obvious and can be plucked away with tweezers.

The dried salt is then sifted through various size screens to size it appropriately. The biggest crystals will be packaged into salt grinders. The medium pieces become finishing salt, and the finest powder will become products like popcorn salt. All of the packaging and labeling are done by hand here at the store. At the end of the tour we got to taste different products such as their smoked salt, their ramp salt (combined with a local wild onion plant), and their salted caramel. Who knew that salt sampling could be so delicious?

When we stopped at the West Virginia visitor's center along the interstate, we asked about good ideas of things to see while we would be camped at Ripplin' Waters. They pointed out that the eastern and southern parts of the state had the most travel brochures and points of interest. We hope to be traveling in that part of the state on our trip south, but for now we are happy with the things we are finding in this western section of West Virginia too.