Travel The World

Another beautiful sunrise in West Virginia.  The snow has melted,  and it's supposed to be in the fifties today!

A young, White Siberian Husky has been visiting my house lately.  She belongs to one of my neighbors who's tried everything to keep her at home.  Yet, she just roams and roams and roams!  Anyway, she visits me roughly every other day and apparently the rest of the neighbors, too, as everyone seems to know her.  I don't mind, though, because she has a sweet disposition and never stays for very long. P.S. Her name is Sasha and she has deep blue eyes.  

I had a great drive yesterday!  On Friday, I received my E-Z Pass transponder which permits me to travel the WV toll roads for free after paying just one annual fee.  I wanted to take advantage of that immediately, so I drove southeast to Beckley, WV, yesterday morning.  Once I arrived there, though, I realized it was too cold to get out of the car and explore so I decided to continue on.  I then drove south to Bluefield which is right on the Virginia border.  After arriving there, I thought why not continue to Tazewell, VA, where several of my ancestors had lived.  In Tazewell, I decided to drive west to the town of Pikeville, KY, a town I'd already visited numerous times.  Finally, I headed back north through Eastern Kentucky and ended up back where I started in Barboursville, WV.  I was on the road for six hours total and essentially made a circle from WV to VA to KY and back.   I did have a chance to take a few pictures despite the weather and have included two here.  The first

I visited the Tamarack Marketplace near Beckley on the same day that I visited Thurmond.  This marketplace sells arts and crafts created by over 2,800 artists from all 55 counties in West Virginia.  Granted, I'm not really interested in such things but even I was impressed with the variety of items and quality of the workmanship.  Here's a selection of pictures showing various crafts from the region; the first one is a picture of the structure that contains the marketplace.  Interesting architecture.   

More pictures of Queretaro coming soon!  Until then, let me catch everyone up. I retired from my job on 31 May and spent Jun-Sep prepping for the sale of my house.  I listed the house on 23 Sep and got an offer for asking price only three days later.  I closed the sell a month after that and then moved back to West Virginia where my mother currently lives.  Retirement is wonderful since it gives me more time to do what I love to do, travel! Back to the present.  Yesterday, I decided to take a day trip to Thurmond, West Virginia, an abandoned mining town.  It's in the "New River Gorge National Park and Preserve" and has a population of only five people.  I met two of them, a husband-and-wife team, that were doing some repairs on the old Town Hall.  They were incredibly friendly and answered all my questions about the town and its history.  I hope to return there in the summer; it was frigid yesterday!  Anyway, here are a few pictures of the town and surrounding area: 1) Th