Today was a travel day. We managed to get our trailer out of the mudhole we were camped in at the Rifrafters RV Park in Fayetteville. The owners were very nice folks and told me not to worry about tearing up the ground as we pulled through the thick, glutinous slop remaining from the last two days of thunderstorms.
We turned south on WV-19, a relatively good road compared with smaller West Virginia highways but not up to par with other states that have smooth, planar paving. I tried my best to avoid the really cavernous potholes but was unable to miss all of them. A couple times I thought our trailer was going to change lanes without bothering to take the truck along with it. We continued along this lumpy road until we hit I-64 where we turned northwest toward Charleston, the state capital. I-64 is a toll road in this location but it is plainly evident that the state does not use the funds it collects on road maintenance. Where there are not long, single-lane sections allegedly installed for construction in progress, the road surfaces are lousy and the highway is very serpentine. Driving straight ahead is almost unnecessary in this state.
We eventually emerged from a long, steep decline and arrived in Charleston. They have a gorgeous capital building visible from the freeway but we were preoccupied with a terrible wreck on the southbound side of I-64. Traffic going the other way was stopped in a long queue with many grumpy motorists. We also noted there is a big, steamy power plant and a nuclear reactor right close so everyone can enjoy their benefits as long as they don’t breathe or go outside.
About 30 miles further on I-64 we made it to Barbourville where we turned off into Beech Fork State Park. It has full hookups, sketchy wifi and is quite beautiful. There are lots of colorful birds here although we noted the female cardinals seem to be molting and currently look like they got the red and gray ugly disease. The facility has pull-through sites and good roads. West Virginia has gorgeous state parks although the preponderance of buildings we have seen in this state appear to be condemnible. From our furthest eastern extent of our trip this year, in Delaware a few weeks ago, we have now made it back west as far as the Ohio River which separates us from Ohio just a couple miles north of our camp spot.
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