Into and Down the Mountains - Spring Break Day 6

Happy Spring!

It decided to snow last night. Carrie wasn't pleased. We knew it was coming, but snow in April was still discombobulating. The scraper logged one more use.

Shane wouldn't shut up about it. "Look! It's a blizzard!" He needs more practice on how to read a room.

The Spring Break Special included a buffet breakfast. It's hard to get Shane to stay in his seat. He ran all around except for an art break with Carrie.

Which he then ran to share with our server.

There were two conferences at the resort that weekend. Carrie had trouble catching her breath from laughing when she heard what one of them was.

The snow continued unabated, so Shane and I checked out every nook and cranny of the main building.

Carrie talked to the front desk people about a trail ride later in the day.

She quickly changed her mind when she saw there would be 20+mph winds with a wind chill of 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

There was some debate on whether or not to extend our stay (weather and "why not?" related). In the end, we decided to move on. We packed our bags and headed into the city.

West Virginia and it's mountains do a nice job of reminding you how large nature is. It's not Rocky Mountain huge, but it's fun to look at.

Carrie wasted no time in running inside our first stop. Shane and I had to chase after.

I discovered there was a coal mine museum and tour online. Fun and educational for a little boy who loves Mighty Machines, right?

There was a mining simulator in the museum. Carrie helped Shane figure out how to play.

He would have stayed there the rest of the afternoon if I didn't force him to move.

For the moment, though, the video game let me look around and read some.

Our tour started at 11:30 AM. Our tour guide, Leroy, was a miner for 28 years. His dad before him started in the mines at 13 during the Great Depression. He worked in the mines for 49 years.

Leroy drove our mine cars into the tunnels. He said they went back 8 miles into the mountain. The miners would have been working in the coal seams and unable to stand up most of the time. We got to ride on the mule road.

He showed us different tools like the kettle light that miners used. The mine we were in had been worked only with hand tools.

Lerogy turned off all the lights. Then the loud, sudden pop of the carbine head lamp surprised us.

Shane got to hear the origins of the "canary in a coal mine" idiom, too.

The whole time, Shane wanted to mine. He wanted to mine really, really badly. Leroy let him get out at one stop and hold a pick. He had to carefully take the pick back when Shane went to work!

Most of the equipment we saw was man-powered.

Leroy said miners were amused when scooters started to show up as kid toys.

The mighty machines we started to see were all much lower to the ground than you would expect. However, it makes sense when you realize how small the tunnels were everyone was crawling around in. Rock removal came out of a miner's pay.

Deaths increased with the introduction of large machines, but later inventions and breakthroughs saved lives.

I wondered aloud about Dwarven mining practices. That got a smile from Carrie.

The technology made mines safer, but not without fail. A kettle bottom fell and made the first female miner death in the US up in Pennsylvania in 1979. (A kettle bottom is part of a long buried tree. The bark turned to coal and the trunk turned to stone.)

After the tour, Shane wanted to run right back to the mining simulator. I forced him to check out the children's museum with me.

He protested at first. But then...

The children's museum was really cool. It was Wizard of Oz themed.

Shane has not watched the Wizard of Oz yet, but Carrie and I sure enjoyed it.

Then, I found a bunch of logic puzzles.

Challenge accepted!

...and passed!

Carrie's very competitive, so it's easy to goad her into a little fun. Shane likes to play around, but he didn't have the endurance/determination to do more than play.

There was one puzzle that vexed my wife. She refused to leave without learning the answer! I didn't notice she'd snuck off to ask for help, at first.

Problem solved!

Shane would have stayed all day. I wouldn't mind visiting the children's museum again, either. Our next stop was in search of food and novelty: The Tamarack.

The Tamarack is something of a craft and art center for Southern West Virginia. There was moonshine jelly, arts, and a glass blowing demonstration.

Shane and I scouted out the food court while Carrie shopped. She surprised us with locally made ice cream for desert. Carrie's a brave woman to give me ice cream before trapping herself in car the next three hours.

Note: Shane still points at things with his pointer finger. I haven't explained the concept of "the bird" to him, yet. 

He wasn't sure about the Superman ice cream; It wasn't chocolate.

He decided it was his SECOND favorite ever. That's still high praise.

We jumped in the car for the ride home a little after 2:00 PM. We try to time road trips for Shane's nap to make it easier on everyone. 

The beginning of our drive home looked like this:

Then this:

And then back to this;

I liked this shot from off a bridge 900 feet above a river:

We made one stop at a tack store in Crozet on the way home. Carrie needed a protective vest to go schooling/hilltoping with Jenny on Sunday. Plus, she enjoys playing around.

We were back home and unloaded by 6:00 PM. Life resumed it's normal pace. It seemed a lot warmer at 400 feet above sea level than it did before (~14 degrees!).

We had a quiet night to calm down and rest!