The Quiet Zone

Reading "The Quiet Zone" gave us a good excuse to get back to Pocahontas County, the home of the Green Bank Observatory built in 1958 to search for extraterrestrial life. We stopped in Trent's Store where Governor Jay Rockefeller once had a charge account. The weather was perfect for a fall ride and picnic at Gaudineer Knob in the Monongahela National Forest.

October 2021
 

Legacy

 

We made our reservations for Holly River-Cabin 1-when checking out September of 2020. We've been staying at Holly River every summer since retiring and last year we stayed in the fall too. We love the woods surrounding the 1 room cabin, the wildlife and seclusion of rural West Virginia. 

June and September, 2021

To celebrate our 45th Anniversary we went to Johnstown Pa, the site of the 1889 Flood that took 2200 lives. We'd been to the downtown flood museum and the historic cemetery before. This visit we went to the top of the hill, 14 miles from town, where the dam for the South Fork Hunting and Fishing club lake broke.

2021 

Ree and Me

 On a trip home to West Virginia from Colorado, we made a side trip to Pawhuska, Oklahoma to visit Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile and Bakery. I'd read that the Drummond Ranch Lodge, where the Food Network segments are filmed, was open for tours certain weeks of the year. The Drummond Ranch is huge and we enjoyed the view. The 120,000 acre ranch is home to wild horses. At the Lodge, the hostess told us "Ms. Ree" has just cleaned out her props and set a table of ones she was giving away. I got the very pan she used on set! I loved seeing the kitchen at the Mercantile too.  2021

For more, check my food blog: http://cindyshealthymeals.blogspot.com.

Grain & Trains

As grain and train enthusiasts. we so enjoyed our first trip through Kansas. The scenery was spectacular. Ever town had a grain elevator, train yards and (at one time) hundreds of hopper cars filled with grain.l In Wilson, we ate Sunday dinner at a packed restaurant called "Made from Scratch".

 Jim Lawson at Kansas originals asked me to select 2 songs from his playlist. I chose "Blue Moon" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" He was a grain farmer and told me about the old days.

 
 

Mile High

 

When Greg and Michelle said they’d be visiting Denver from their home in Sweden, we packed up the car to go see them. What a fun time we had. We met them at their Airbnb and walked to Rye Society for lunch. After we splurged at a fancy donut store that looked like a gift shop. They walked to our hotel for dinner and we had a nice one at a nearby Greek Restaurant.

From our motel, we walked to the capitol the next day and posed for pictures at the mile high spot. We all enjoyed the cultural center and our lunch there too. Bob and I always gave leftovers to the kids to enjoy at breakfast. We watched James May in Japan shows and YouTube videos at their place.

On day 3 we met Michelle’s sister Christina and her new baby Samuel at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal for two fun trips along the 11 mile road. While we didn’t see buffalo, we did see mule deer and prairie dogs, not native to West Virginia. Another lunch at the Rye Society where the servers treated us like friends, then a fun trip to a Butterfly Pavilion.  There Greg and I took turns holding Rosie the Tarantula. We cooled off at dinner under a tent during a rain storm while Bob and I shared a Steak N’ Shake milkshake and they tested craft beers. What a joy it was to all being together.

July 2021

 

Abraham Johnson

 

Patterson Creek is a tributary of the North Branch Potomac River in West Virginia (then Virginia). George Washington and his surveying party entered the mouth of the creek, swam their horses over, got in canoes and traveled 15 miles up the creek to the settlement of Abram Johnson where they camped overnight,. Johnsons' original home was on the site of the present Kuykendall Farm house. His grave is across the road.

Abram was an official of the Ohio Company and proprietor of the first store in Ridgeley. "America's First Chain Store Corporation", funded by wealthy London and Virginia gentlemen established a chain of heavily constructed stores, later confiscated as forts, where settlers could exchange grain, hogs and tobacco for "blankets, red shroud, half thicks, liker and ches". The road surveyed and built by the company from upper Potomac Valley to Pittsburgh was the first east to west men traveled. 

During the French and Indian War, Johnson and family returned to New Jersey for a while when a friendly Indian warned him the Indians were planning to kill him. The friendly Indian protected Abram's home from being raided and destroyed like many others in the area. Throughout his life, Abraham was a prominent figure in Public affairs.

Abraham Johnson is our 6th great-grandfather. He is the father of Elizabeth, married to Aaron Duckworth. Buried here is Abraham, and wife Rachel, their son William and wife Catharine and grandson Okey with wife Nancy. Recent ground penetrating radar tests of the cemetery sited some 30 graves. The large stone is possibly one of a slave. Great grandchildren erected the large monument.

Abraham Johnson timeline:

• 1748-granted 293 acres and a mill on Patterson Creek.
• 1750-named proprieter to Ohio Company store in Ridgeley-stays there during the week.
• 1754-Hampshire County Tax Collector.
• 1758-goes to New Jersey to avoid hostile Indians.
• 1767-Colonial Virginia Justice of Peace.
• 1772-High Sheriff.
• 1782-Census taker.
• 1790-sells 219 acres and mill to Reese.