The Brenda Photo Challenge

I was visiting Judy of Through Squirrel Eyes a couple of weeks ago and she mentioned this photo challenge. The chosen theme was actually her suggestion. The hostess for the challenge is Donna of Made In Heaven and the challenge has its own blog page here. Challenges take place about every two weeks. The theme this week is Highways and Bi-ways. Since I live in West Virginia my inspiration for the theme was a John Denver song.

Take Me Home Country Roads

On my way out to do errands I often leave the paved roadway for a leisurely drive down a nearby one lane dirt and gravel road. Along the way a portion of the roadway is canopied by the closely lined trees along either side of the road. I feel as if I'm being sheltered by the overhanging branches. I stop and step out of the Jeep. There is a stillness and a dampness. The sun splashes brightly on the roadway behind me casting shadows.
Ahead of me the sun filters down through the trees beckoning me toward the light and my continued journey. Urban life is just out of sight.

On another day this leaf covered road lined with trees in their autumn splendor would be a welcome change of pace. It twists and turns and rises and falls across hills and hollows leading me past steep pasture land and forgotten farms and often opening up to reveal far reaching vistas stretching across mountains underneath clear blue skies here in my 'Almost Heaven.'

Though it beckons me to explore its mysteries, today there are places to be and errands to run and I must be on my way.

When the errands are done and my bones have grown weary I'll head down sun-dappled patched roads.

Soon, I'll Round The Bend and the driveway on the right will carry me home.

Welcome to West Virginia

MY WORLD MEETS RUBY TUESDAY

Today is the launch of a new meme hosted by the same wonderful folks who bring you Sky Watch Friday. This new meme is for everyone who has a photoblog! With it you become a virtual tourist guide, showing all of us your part of the world: your celebrations, your landmarks, your home and neighborhood - your world! Since it also falls on Tuesday I will be combining a Ruby Tuesday post today where participants post a little bit of red or a lot of red.

So - here goes!

What better way to welcome you to my part of the world than by beginning at a West Virginia Welcome Center. This one is on the state line between my home state of West Virginia and the adjoining state of Ohio. When I took this photos one minute the sky was bright and the next it was cloudy.
This weathervane atop the center is the outline of the state of West Virginia. Not many straight lines here folks. We definitely have distinctive boundary lines! Wild and Wonderful West Virginia will be the focus of my My World posts in the weeks to come.
Today I'll start in my own neighborhood. This is a photo of a neighbor's beautiful red wagon decorated for the Halloween season. Regular readers might recognize it from a July post when it was decorated in red, white, and blue.

I hope you've enjoyed my little part of the world today. My virtual vacation of sights and scenes from around the world is waiting. Some of them will be of things red! If you'd like to tag along be sure to click the badges at the top of my post.

Raven's Saturday Wordzzle

Each week Raven throws out groups of words for us to take and put in a short coherent paragraph. The challenge gets our creative juices rolling and we get to be writers for a day. Some of Raven's regulars are extremely good at this so I hope you'll click on the logo and head over to her place and read some REALLY good stories.
I only attempted the mini challenge this week. The words for that challenge I've highlighted in blue.

Here is my offering for the mini challenge:

Johnny drank his coffee and munched on a poppy seed muffin as he scanned his eyes over the diagram of his new car for the upcoming drag race. He was overly excited to be racing in his hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. He'd raced numerous places across the United States but was looking forward to being in front of a hometown crowd. In no uncertain terms that whole hometown boy makes good theme appealed to him. As he sat there daydreaming he imagined Take Me Home Country Roads would be playing over the loud speakers at the starting lineup and good ole John Denver would be up there in heaven swinging from a star, listening in and cheering him on!

Wind Turbines

On the way to Leesburg, Virginia to see my son I could see these wind turbines on a far off mountain. I so wanted to be close enough to get some kind of photo. However, they were many, many miles away. It was shortly after seeing them that I took the photo of the blades being hauled on the back of a truck. (posted here)

That first night in Leesburg I got on the computer after everyone had gone to bed and checked a few of my favorite blogs. Imagine my surprise to see wind turbines on b13's blog. He had been in California and had a wonderful photo of them. (see here) I was happy for him and sad for me. In truth I was just a little bit envious. Then, taking a different route back home brought me to Mount Storm, West Virginia and the turbines you see in the photos above.

To get these photos I zoomed in from the main road. As is often the case on this particular mountain range it was a cloudy hazy day over the mountains and I don't have an excellent zoom range on my camera. Leaving the main road and traveling down a rural road we were able to get much closer even though we were looking through trees.

That's when it happened. My camera battery died. Did I remember to take my charger with me that is adapted for the Jeep? That would be a resounding NO! I was never so disappointed but I got to see them and did get a couple of photographs. They aren't the greatest but they are proof I was there!

Like me, most of you do not go anywhere without your camera. If I can pass on one word of advice, ok four words, REMEMBER YOUR CHARGER TOO!!!

Skywatch FridayHappy Birthday West Virginia

West Virginia Day

Happy 145 Anniversary

(June 20, 1863 - June 20, 2008)

That first photo was taken going up the mountain. As you descend on the other side Saddle Mountain is visible from a scenic overlook. The mountain is at 1,775 feet elevation above sea level. Awesome! The next two photos I zoomed in a little each time to give you a better view.

I hope you liked your visit today to the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia Mountains!

For more Skywatch Friday participants please visit Tom at Welcome to Wiggers World.

From The Ground Up - Day TenThe Finale

Up The Mountain

What better way for me to end my From The Ground Up project with Jeremiah than to give you a West Virginia mountain! I always like to think ahead as to what my closing photo on a project will be. I had thought for a few days that a mountain from the ground up would be the perfect ending for me to share.

This past Sunday on my way home from visiting my son I had turned off the road to visit a Civil War site. (I'll share it on a later post.) When I came back out to the main road this site was in front of me and I knew this was the shot I had been waiting for. I hope you enjoy it.

I want to thank old friends and new friends who came to visit and left such wonderful comments on my efforts. I truly appreciate it. I enjoyed visiting all of you and seeing such imaginative ideas. And thank you, Jeremiah,for hosting the project - it was a great idea and a lot of fun!!!