Day 1 On the road to Glenville and Bristol

Diane and I started this southern adventure at 2:30am on July 21 2012. This is the first day of a 9 day vacation that as of now will take us through most of West Virginia (W.V.), down through the Smokey Mountains, Savannah, South and North Carolina, Washington D.C. and finally home. Most of you that know me are probably wondering what the hell I'm doing driving a couple thousand miles (then again maybe you are not) on my vacation when I drive at times a thousand miles in a week for work. I absolutely love seeing the country, so any time I get a chance to go somewhere I do. This trip is ever more special, because it's Diane and mine first long trip together with just the two of us. 9 days, a couple thousand miles, and when we get back we move in together, now that's a test!

So as I said we started out at 2:30am. I picked Diane up at her place and started heading across 50, to 94, 23, 75, 23 through Columbus Ohio and on our way to W.V. If you have ever done that drive you know why I skipped through it, there isn't much to see. Once you get through Columbus it at least starts to get a little hilly with some better scenery. 

Once in W.V. we found our-self on a two lane road (32/50) and passed a store called the "Hillbilly Sandwich Shack" and all the sudden you realize you are in a different and very remote part of the country. We passed abandoned after abandoned barns and houses, there are plenty of trailers, and muddy pick up trucks with tires as tall as my car, all this with a few nice houses along the way.  We then come to another 2 lane road (47) where we see the "Hillbilly Inn" and cross roads with names like County Road 45 and County Road 56. As you are seeing all these things, you are also swerving back and forth on the side winding roads, with beautiful mountains on each side, wildlife all around, the fog was rolling over the hills and along side the road is the very muddy "Indian Creek" where you can see bridges like the one below every few miles.

Our destination for the morning leg of our trip was Glenville W.V. where Gilmore Federal Prison is located. One of my best friends has been there for a few years and I had not been to visit yet. When you arrive in Glenville you come to a four corner stop sign, the main street is straight ahead and consist of just a few businesses. We arrived in town about 10 and visiting hours were not until 10:45, so Diane and I went to the only restaurant we saw called "Audrey's Family Restaurant" We parked on the street and Diane asked if we needed to pay for parking, and my standard answer is no I will take my chances, she decided to walk over anyways and it was 10 cents for an hour, so we went ahead and dug deep into the pockets and paid the dime. As we walked in the door everyone looked, realized they didn't know us and then went back to their business of eating breakfast and talking. The customer base was exactly what you would expect for a small town, nice down to earth people, talking with accents (Of course so do we to them) the waitress called us hon, and was very polite, Diane got a couple pouched eggs and I got an omelet, and both were great.

We then drove a few more miles to the prison. As you walk in you hand the guard your ID, they check to see if you have received clearance for visitation and then you wait to go in. Once they let you back they check your shoes, you take off your belt and do all the other security measures, you are then escorted through a big fence with barb-wire all over it, and walk about 100 yards, were you can see inmates walking in the "Yard" you then enter a big room with chairs, vending machines, tables, and bathrooms. There were inmates visiting with their families, and I had a seat. I waited for my friend, he finally walked through the door and I waited for him to give the guard his ID and then we could hug and sit down for a visit. It's not like at the county jails or in movies were you are talking through glass, you are able to sit and talk and catch up. It was a great visit and well overdue. It did us both good to see each other. I stayed a couple hours, then we said our goodbyes and I took off.

After this Diane and I began our journey to eventually get to the Smokey Mountains the next day. We drove a few hours and came across the New River Gorge Bridge. It's the longest steel span in the western hemisphere and the second highest in the United States, you may have seen footage of people jumping off it with parachutes once a year when they allow it.

On the way to our final stop for the night (Bristol TN), we came across some crazy stuff as you do on the road, we saw a traffic jam going the other way that was backed up a good 7 or 8 miles, and then we came across a car tailgating a school bus, we thought wow that's pretty dangerous, but then when we got closer we saw that the school bus was actually pulling the car, as you will see in the two camera phone photos below. 

 So that's our adventure for today, let's see what tomorrow brings!