Thursday, September 16, 2004
Parkersburg
I left the library in Belpre late last night, and decided not to try crossing the river and going into dowtown Parkersburg that late. I backed up to a part in Belpre and stayed there, and got up early and crossed the Ohio just before sunrise. I wandered around downtown Parkersburg for a while, trying to find a visitor's center. There were a couple of museums I would have liked to see, but didn't want to wait around for them to open. I did find a place to sit by the river for a while and watched a couple of tugs pushing barges upstream. I finally found the visitor's center and convention bureau and picked up the road map I've been looking for, though it took me about four misses before I found it.
One of my readers has generously created a map of my route. The map shows the places I've reported from and my entries at each of those places.
I think, after looking at my state map, I'm going to revise my travel plans. Rather than backing across the river to Marietta, Ohio it looks like it would be faster to stay with US 50 across West Virginia to Clarksburg. There is another highway I can used instead of the freeway, so that route looks good.
I just missed the Sternwheeler festival (featuring boat races on the Ohio river) which seems to be one of the state's major tourist events, by a couple of days. It seems to have been that way all along my journey: I have come through just before, or just after the major attractions. Well...they would have been hard to enjoy, without money and being as tired and loaded down as I've been.
Now that I'm approaching the end of my journey, it's getting to be time to sit down and do some serious planning about what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it once I arrive. I'm not going to turn around and go back. It's been a worthwhile experience and a significant personal accomplishment, but not something I want to do again. I'm not certain whether I will continue this blog: I like the title, but the nature of it will be changing. Lots of things yet to decide.
One of my readers has generously created a map of my route. The map shows the places I've reported from and my entries at each of those places.
I think, after looking at my state map, I'm going to revise my travel plans. Rather than backing across the river to Marietta, Ohio it looks like it would be faster to stay with US 50 across West Virginia to Clarksburg. There is another highway I can used instead of the freeway, so that route looks good.
I just missed the Sternwheeler festival (featuring boat races on the Ohio river) which seems to be one of the state's major tourist events, by a couple of days. It seems to have been that way all along my journey: I have come through just before, or just after the major attractions. Well...they would have been hard to enjoy, without money and being as tired and loaded down as I've been.
Now that I'm approaching the end of my journey, it's getting to be time to sit down and do some serious planning about what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it once I arrive. I'm not going to turn around and go back. It's been a worthwhile experience and a significant personal accomplishment, but not something I want to do again. I'm not certain whether I will continue this blog: I like the title, but the nature of it will be changing. Lots of things yet to decide.
