500 Miles for 30 Degrees

The nice thing about being semi-retired is you can come and go pretty much as you please.  At least as the schedule you are working or not working dictates.  This week my schedule was to work Saturday. Tuesday (4 hours) and Friday.  One of the good things the world's largest retailer does is give part-time employees vacation time.  Prorated of course.  Well ol' Pops has some left over from last year and with 10+ inches of snow on the ground and free room and board AND  30 degrees difference in temperature I headed south.  This post is coming from Fayville!  My home away from home.  Yes, I know my Warrior is not here but. I did not come to see him.  I came to UN-THAW!  I know it gets colder and  snow gets deeper where some of my blogging friends are  but, folks I was so sick of snow and single digit temperatures it was come south or do drugs.  I choose the later first but the local sheriff  said NO!  So here I am.

Having explained why I am  here I have something else to report on.  Usually I hate to use the word hate.  It just seems obscene to me.  There's a lot of things I strongly dislike but only a couple I really hate to say I hate.
These two things are:

Ohio in the winter time and driving the West Virginia Turnpike.  I really love to hate those two things.  I have had a life changing experience though so to speak.  I no longer hate the West Virginia Turnpike as much as I did.  The WVT  is about 90 miles of up and down and up and down and round and round that you would ever want to drive. IMHO.  Airborne Momma  and I would count the minutes we were on that road and tried several ways to avoid it.  Most turned out to be so much longer  finally we just gave up and sucked it up. We drove it on our honeymoon to Myrtle Beach and drove it to Fayville and beyond every time we went south.

Why the sudden change you ask.  Mountains, cold weather and melting snow.  Put this together and you have icicles.  Not just icicles but huge ice falls. Yes, this old guy has a little soft spot in his heart for the beauty created by Mother Nature, aka God.  I left Ohio early Sunday morning to avoid traffic and reached the WVT  a little past daybreak.  Folks let me tell you for most of that 90+ miles of driving up and down and around and around the pageantry put on by the combination of the cold weather, mountains and melting snow was honestly indescribable. Miles and miles of crystallized melting snow with the sun shining on it provided an array of color and brilliance known to only a few travelers this past Sunday morning.

As I was driving on this nearly deserted  highway and taking in this awe of power in these mighty mountains my mind wander.  What force pushed these un-measurable tons of rock up at 45 degree angles.  The layers of different soils so easily discernible  as I drove.  This indicated at some time in the life cycle of these mountains they were most likely covered by water.  Now they pushed skyward nearly 4000 feet above the current ocean level.  What force caused these stones to crack and let the melting snow trickle down and slowly again become frozen.  Frozen to create this spectacle that I was now privileged to see.  As the brilliant glow of the sun reflected on this show  I drove and took this in. I was moved to stop and take some pictures.  I had time and  traffic was light.  Then two thoughts went through my mind.  Which ones would I take and which ones of these beautiful sites would I leave out.  How could I a lowly man choose which was to be preserved in a photo and which was left to melt slowly away unrecorded.  I would have to photo nearly 90 miles of mountains and it would take longer than this wonderful marvel would last. 

No photos I or anyone could take, nor no camera could copy the majesty of what only the Big Guy created.  I was privileged to see it and it will remain a beauty in my memories forever.

Yes, I know this is a military blog but we have a soft side too.  Besides this blog is  Mark 1:11.

God Bless our military at home and abroad.

Pops