I call this “leftovers”, because I really didn’t get to show you everything I saw on my last trip – to Galax, Virginia. I enjoy these trips; I think I may have said earlier that the delight of finding some of these things is much harder work than it seems. It lengthens the day. Yeah, I think I’m satisfied with what I have seen; I suppose I have to be! I’m going to show you a place called Tamarack another day. Meanwhile, for all the fun little things I can find, there are some big things as well … like this bridge.

This is the New River Bridge a major bridge not too far north of Beckley, West Virginia, on US Highway 19. Now, 19 is a highway that starts in Erie, Pennsylvania, and winds its way south all the way to Central Florida. It is one of the great old original highways in the system created in the 1920s. I think earlier I had showed you a Great Lakes to Florida museum site celebrating those midway points for travellers headed to the sun. That was also on Highway 19 further south.

Today, travellers use Highway 19 to cut off about 65 miles of interstate highway that would take you on two sides of a triangle. In effect, 19 takes you across the base. But what if also does is take you across this bridge spanning the New River. And at this particular point you find a National Park Service operation celebrating both the bridge and the gorge you see in the second picture. You cannot see it in this picture, but there are some people rafting down on the river – it is very popular for that. In October, they actually close the bridge to traffic and have what they call Bridge Day. Travellers are surprised! People have bungee jumped; back in the 70s or 80s, the Ford motor company had a TV commercial of a Ford Bronco being pushed off this bridge on a bungee cord! You may remember. This is just one of those places I like to stop when I’m in the neighborhood.

I mentioned earlier that vestiges of the coal industry pop up here and there, especially on the back roads in southern Pennsylvania and in West Virginia. This miners monument is at a Pennsylvania welcome centre on the interstate coming north out of West Virginia. I am old enough to remember John L Lewis; not old enough to have understood much about him, but the great union leaders like him were headline makers when I was a child. I just found this a nice monument and you may note that this monument is directly above the site where 37 miners lost their lives in an explosion.

This is just outside Wheeling, West Virginia. I had to detour here just so I could make some comment about Gumby and Pokey. Remember them? I don’t think Pokey would be too happy about this.

Now…5 pictures follow. Look closely…….

What you are looking at is a garden & a wall mural created entirely out of highway signs in the state of Pennsylvania. This is at the PennDOT or Pennsylvania department of transportation station in Meadville, not far south of Erie, PA. Everything you see in the garden – the flowers, etc., is made from various road signs…I mean traffic signs; directional signs; warning signs; speed signs; and some signs I couldn’t figure out. In the second last picture from the bottom, look at the length of the thing!

PennDOT calls it a road sign sculpture garden. It was created by students at nearby Allegheny College, who actually call it “Read Between The Signs”. In the third picture from the bottom, the students have been able to create what I am told is a very accurate rendition of the main building on campus, Bentley Hall.

This was a fun trip, and there’s one more thing I want to show you… in a few days, I think. Because you know what? Next week, another trip begins – bigger and better!