Go on, finish the song. I know you know it!! "🎜🎜...Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River, life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze. Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong, West Virginia, mountain mama, country roads, take me home...🎜🎜"
Thank you John Denver, for such a lovely song.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming now, although I'm willing to bet that song will be stuck in your head and you'll catch yourself humming it occasionally.
Dear insanity, you've raised your head once again and now I have a scrawny yet fluffy kitten that weighs in at a whopping two pounds climbing around my truck. I'm aware most of you are laughing at me by this point, saying I brought it on myself and I'M AWARE OF THAT....
But come on!Could you have really left in it the rain??
Anyways, I'm pretty sure I might be banned from North Carolina at this point. I drive too slow for their tastes. We wound through back country roads, and I think the biggest town we went through was Blowing Rock. Between the constant drizzling rainfall and the fog that was as thick as pea soup, I think I reached a maximum speed of 30 miles an hour.
Once we cleared that, the smaller highway we were on took us towards Bluefield VA, and Bluefield WV. They share the state line so we headed that direction. We crossed from North Carolina to Tennessee and then into Virginia on Route 91. With the mountain backdrops, rolling foothills dotted with farms and picturesque old red barns, it was a gorgeous drive. We wound through tiny towns like Saltville and Tazewell. Somewhere between those two towns, there was road work on Route 91. So there was a detour. My phone was getting absolutely zero signal, so what the GPS had saved, was all I had. That and a single sign that said DETOUR.
Well, alrighty then. So we head off down a very steep hill, to another winding road. I don't see a single sign that says detour back to 91. Instead I find another 'ROAD CLOSED' sign. Are you kidding me?? Okay... Back the way we came. All the way back to 91, where the road is closed. There HAS to be a detour sign back on the road we just came from!
So we turn the truck around AGAIN, and please keep in mind, this is a one and a half lane road. There's no middle line and no guard rails against the edges of the hills that seem to exist out of nowhere. So we crawl back down the road, and finally see the detour sign. It's on a T-post, and about 6 inches off the ground. HUH??
I'm rolling my eyes and I'm sure I said something unfavorable about the idiot that put the sign there. Detour to 91. Turn Left. OKAY!
So we turn left, and it starts to look correct...kind of. Winding back through the forest we had been in on 91...and it turned right. We found 91! So we continue on, thinking we'll be fine. Until we see a farm, dead ahead, and a sign. 91, turn left.
...Left? You mean towards the farm and the Great Pyrenees that's now staring at my truck like it's a chew toy? Towards the gravel road?? ...Okayyy....
To say I was hesitant was an understatement. But I still had no service on my cell phone and all my trust is in this sign that says I'm good. Next sign I see, "15mph next 5 miles". I'm on a gravel road, going past driveways to farms, the dog is still chasing my truck until I get past their property and I'm so absolutely confused.
So gravel road...the road starts a gradual climb up. Not steep but enough that you notice. and then there's a hairpin turn to the left. More gradual climbing. Steep section, long curve to the right. Hairpin turn again to the right. Sharp turn to the left. I'M STILL ON GRAVEL! My ears have popped like three times due to the altitude. Sharp right, sharp left.. I'm saying its a turn, no this is straight up, mountain switchbacks and then it clicks. Oh. My. God. We're on the side of the mountain.
Love and Mercy to any gods who were listening to me pray, cause I had a death grip on my steering wheel and thanking everything above and below I had a truck that could handle this road. Long turn to the right and suddenly the climb, becomes a slant. Down. Guess we rounded the top edge of the mountain and now its switchbacks all the way down.
You know that movie scene in Return Of The King from Lord Of The Rings, where the camera pans out and you see a horse and rider ascending this super steep side of a mountain to get to the encampment of Rohan as they rode to Gondor's aid? IT WAS THAT STEEP!!!!
If my transmission could cuss me out, I'm sure it would have because Good. Gods. By the third switchback, I'm sweating and riding my brake like it's our lifeline while both Camren and Garrett have their heads practically out the windows!
"Mom I can see a road down there! It's like straight down from here!!" The boys think this is the coolest road ever, while I was probably imitating a terrified cat at this point.
And the cat...was sound asleep, on a blanket...the...entire...time...
We finally crawl off the mountain and suddenly we're back on in the foothills, and there's farms all around us again. Check the GPS. No signal. Camren is zooming in on the map as much as he can and giving me directions because there's no signs!!
I'm hoping someone doesn't start yelling at us because we accidentally cross a property line, but once I could take a deep breath again I could appreciate all the tiny cottage type houses, tucked away in the tree line.
Finally we manage to hit blacktop road again, with clear signage and other cars! We saw two other cars...the entire time from the detour to blacktop. Two. A Forest Service Truck and someone in an SUV who gave us a very strange look.
I was physically shaking from nerves and as soon as my phone beeped that there was service, I called my mother because that was a harrowing drive and I needed coffee because it's practically my security blanket. We made it to Tazewell Virginia, and West Virginia was only a few miles away.
The drive there was so much easier, and we crossed into Bluefield West Virginia within another thirty minutes. The rain had finally slackened off so I wanted to camp out. We made our way towards Gauley River and found a tiny little free campground. It was obvious the rain had been pouring recently as there were still a bunch of puddles of standing water but the higher edges of ground were clear.
The rain started drizzling down again so I let the boys stay in the car with Gypsy while I set up our tent. It took me maybe four minutes and that included putting on the rainfly? Overall we were fine. I wiped down the inside of the tent with a towel as there were some damp spots and then had the boys hand me all the stacked blankets from inside the truck. Camren hopped out and scrambled into the tent, helping me lay them out into a giant mat for sleeping. Pillows, stuffed animals, sandwiches and water, cat food and cat all made their way into the tent as well. I think were were all more eager just to not be cramped in the truck than anything.
Sandwiches were devoured, the kitten was fed and taken out to the bathroom. The rain pattered down on the rainfly but we were dry. Cool, as the temperature had shifted from a welcoming 75 degrees to a cloudy, rainy 62. I let mom know we were safe and before we really thought about it, we were all sound asleep.
xoxo
Amie, The Boys and Gypsy