Hwy. 50 -- West Virginia to Ohio (1st of 2 posts)

We left the Wapocoma Campground early this morning, about 7:25.  We had approximately an 80 mile drive to the town of Grafton.  It took us almost 3 hours.  This is what Roadtrip USA says, "the slowest part of US-50's transcontinental crossing is the 150-mile section across West Virginia, which twists and turns its way over the rugged Allegheny Mountains."  They were not kidding.  On today's leg of the trip we had at least 10 grades of 9%.  There were curves along the way that made sharp right angles with 15 or 20 mph signs posted.  Once again, Bruce took it very slow and we had no problems at all. 

We had beautiful scenery throughout the entire journey.  We drove through many areas of hardwood forests, although we saw no wildlife....save a squished possom from time to time.  Lots of farm country here, too, since this area of West Virginia is strictly rural until you get to Grafton, Clarksburg or Parkersburg.  Much of this rural area has continued to show folks living in "hard times."  There are many areas of well-kept homes and farms, but often we could see pockets of rural hardship almost like Depression times.  We passed many small roads, some dirt, that led up into the "hollers" in these mountains.  No telling what you could find if you ventured into those areas.  We will not be finding that out!   

We stopped in Grafton at the McDonald's for breakfast, barely making it before the 10:30 cut off.  After English muffins and coffee, we were on our way toward Ohio.  Between Clarksburg and Parkersburg the road smoothed out and widened to 2 lanes in each direction.  It continued that way for the rest of our drive.

The Ohio River separates West Virginia from Ohio here, and we crossed the river via this bridge.

I took a couple of quick photos of the Ohio River from the moving RV.  Not the greatest  photos, but we could not stop on the bridge for that picture-perfect shot.  You can see a barge being pushed by a tug boat in the one photo.

We drove on to Chillicothe, Ohio to get a campground for the night.  You can read my review of that in the post that follows this one.  Tomorrow morning we drive on to Cincinnati for 5 nights.  We are going to try to get tickets for a Reds baseball game on Saturday night.  We have no idea who they are playing, but we don't care.  We are trying to eventually get to all the major league baseball parks in our travels. 

Until next time......so long for now!