Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

We're having some adventures this year now that Kent's schedule allows him to take every other Friday off.  His personal travel agent--me--has been finding fun things to do within driving distance of home. 

 At the end of April we went to West Virginia for a two-overnight trip, Thursday and Friday nights. (we're always home to go to church in our home ward on Sunday.)

 We mostly went to West Virginia to do two things:  tour the underground bunkers that were built in the late 1950's to accommodate the US congress in case of a nuclear attack, and to see the New River Gorge Bridge.

The bomb shelter bunkers were built under a very ritzy, upscale resort in White Sulpher Springs, called the Greenbrier.  

 We took a tour, but photographs weren't allowed in the bunkers.  They did NOT look like the photos below, this is just what the hotel ABOVE the bunkers looked like.  You can read a bit more about the bunkers at this link:  http://www.greenbrier.com/Activities/The-Bunker/Bunker-History.aspx

 We had lunch at one of the hotel restaurants before we went on the bunker tour.

 Then we walked through the hotel oohing and aahing over how nice it was.

 The tour of the bunkers was very fascinating.  They were practical and not at all luxurious.  The walls were made from concrete several feet thick.

The next day (Saturday) we went to see the New River Gorge Bridge.  As the sign says, it's the longest arch bridge in the western hemisphere.  I believe when it was built in the 1970's it was the longest in the world.

We drove across this bridge to get to the visitor's center, since it's a part of the National Park Service.

 On the internet I found out about a tour that allows people to walk on the cat walks UNDER the bridge, so I signed us up to do it.

 Of course we were secured with harnesses for safety, but it seemed pretty safe if you were careful.

 Here's a view down from the bridge to the New River below.

 A better shot of the harnesses, and a view of the cat walk behind us that we'd just crossed over.  Nice that they had harnesses that matched Kent's shirt.

 You can see that the trees didn't have leaves yet, but it was a perfect day weatherwise.

I took a picture of this poster in the tour company office to show the height comparison of the bridge we walked under compared with other world landmarks. 

After we walked under the bridge we drove across the river on a lower bridge to get the shot below.

 We had a good time and we're glad we spent some time in wild and wonderful West Virginia!