Winter is Coming

Our route to the East Coast took us through Kentucky and into West Virginia by way of Lexington, which provided ample eye candy as we drove with rolling hills, trees turning golden, and blue grass fields with frolicking horses. The huge beautiful white and red barns posed on the top of the hills overlooking the green-blue fields genuinely made us jealous of the horses who lived there. In brief, I have to say Kentucky is quite a beautiful state.

West Virginia was even better.

The hills of Kentucky turn into small mountains in West Virginia, covered in trees and seemingly untouched by humans. The leaves were stunning with gold, orange, and deep, deep red painting the landscape. We stopped at the New River Gorge national river to fish for a bit (no luck) then headed to Blackwater Falls for more stunning fall color. We stopped by Snowshoe Ski Area on the way for more eye popping color, but weren’t able to mountain bike as planned. We would have been bummed, but the drive was so beautiful (part of Route 66 actually), that it was hard to complain. We also did a quick hike to the Sunrise backcountry cabin, which in the future would be a lovely place to spend a couple nights. We hover, camped at Seneca Rocks that night, a famous cliff face for climbers, and hiked to a viewpoint of the area.

Fly fishing at New River Gorge

Seneca Rocks

Blackwater Falls

While driving through the state, Ryan and I did have many ample opportunities to witness the poverty and difficulty of living in such a rural state. For instance, we needed more eggs and sausage for breakfast the following morning, and all we could find was a gas station convenience store that offered the only groceries for miles around. We were able to get eggs and bacon, but fresh produce was basically not available. This sort of dilemma for rural areas like much of West Virginia is known as “food islands” as I learned at DU, and it was interesting to experience first-hand. For the United States’ third poorest state, the challenges of living are certainly very real. 

On the last morning we were in West Virginia, we woke up to rain and 39 degree temperatures. Brrrr!!! We’ve most certainly left behind the 100 degree heat of the Southwest. To quote Game of Thrones (we’re on book four of the five), “winter is coming.” 

This is also the first time that it’s really hit us we’re not in school. The previous few months have felt like summer, and therefore part of the regular routine, but now that it’s getting cold, our brains are thinking, “wait a minute, shouldn’t I be doing something right now?” It’s definitely very surreal after sixteen years of going to school to not have the first day jitters and the new notebooks and pencils. Instead we’ve got new roads to drive and sights to see and the jitters we get are usually induced by heights or mountain biking. Life is good!