July is heavily booked, with a wedding, a bar mitzvah and a trip to California, and I wanted to get to another two-county trip, so I did my July trip in June, from the 28th - 30th. I left after lunch on the 28th, because I was having my eyes checked in the morning. For insurance purposes, I needed to go in June, and my regular guy wasn't available until mid-August, so instead of the homey, single practitioner guy in downtown Morgantown, I went to the multi-doctor, factory-like place just outside city limits, not far from home.
It's 271 miles from Morgantown To Prestonsburg, Kentucky, mostly freeway, ending on US 52, a four-lane unbusy highway. I looked around a little bit in town, then checked into the motel, from The Usual Chain, just outside Prestonsburg. I asked the clerk, a young man with those horrible rings in his ears that make your lobes bigger and tattoos, where to eat, not McDonald's, but not fancy. He laughed and said "There isn't anything fancy here", and suggested a place I had seen downtown. Just east of the motel, before the US 52 bypass, I found a little shopping center. There was a sign for a Chinese buffet, my favorite kind of place to eat on the road. The buffet was open, the first I've seen since the pandemic. I ate my fill. The center also had an independent bookstore, closed by that time. Prestonsburg is in the heart of Eastern Kentucky's Appalachian area, and I had no expectation there would be anything there, so I was already impressed. Back at the room, I plotted the next day's exploration of Floyd County, a 114 mile, two hour drive to Gallia County, Ohio, along the Ohio River, and an exploration there. My plan was ambitious.
I started with Middle Creek Battle Field, a National Historic Landmark west of the motel outside of Prestonsburg. There was a battle in 1862 between Confederate forces and Union troops under James A. Garfield, who pushed the Confederates back to Virginia. His competence as a commander led to Garfield's presidential campaign in later years.
Archer Park is on the edge of town, with a paved trail leading to the historic bridge, a symbol of the town, from West Flemingsburg, where the trail ends, over Levisa Fork of Big Sandy River into downtown Flemingsburg. I walked it. The bridge is fenced off (although someone broke the fencing) and out of use. It was starting to warm up.
I had a list of historic places in Prestonsburg. I couldn't find most of them. I think the owners didn't want them to be found and changed the addresses on Wikipedia. I can't prove that. I asked in the (modern, nice) library where the clerk had no idea, but suggested that the print shop next door had old pictures on the wall. The clerk there also knew nothing, but I learned from the pictures of a terrible flood in the 1930s, and a school bus that plunged into an icy river in 1958, killing the driver and twenty-six children. I headed out of town to a dam and reservoir built by the Army Corps of Engineers. I came back into town to try to find a few more places and a branch community college. At 11:30, I stopped at a Taco Bell, because I needed to pee. The restroom was locked, but the kind young man at the cash register unlocked it for me. I looked in the mirror and decided to get lunch right there. I was a sweaty, exhausted mess. It was 92 F. outside and I had been walking around under the southern sun for a few hours. I never eat at Taco Bell, but I got a chicken "power" bowl. It didn't look that big, but it was plenty, with chicken, rice, black beans, dollops of guacamole and sour cream, lettuce and tomato. I washed it down with mango lemonade from the fountain.
Thus fortified, I found the community college, the modern court house (too bad about the Victorian one I saw a picture of in the print office), and the 1817 Samuel Mays House. Mays' wife was born in Morgantown. He was a prominent guy who went to California during the Gold Rush and died there.
Statue of Lincoln at Middle Creek
I walked out to the square, open on one side to the Ohio River, walked around the historic part of town, snapping pictures. It was still hot, but the sun was less intense. Although the town is up on a bluff, there was a stele with a flood level marked about ten feet above ground level. They also had a plaque about Welsh settlers who came to Baltimore, then went overland to Pittsburgh and by boat to Gallipolis. Another plaque talked about a ship from Pittsburgh where the crew was infected with yellow fever, which spread through the town. Every place has its tragedies.
On the way back to the motel, I stopped at a Dairy Queen, drive-through only, and got a "Blizzard" with M&Ms and ate that back in the room. It's the most sugar I've had in month.
At breakfast, they served you in the motel, a choice of three items. I had pancakes, yoghurt and a fruit cup. I left early, had an uneventful trip back up Route 7 to US 50 through Parkersburg and Clarksburg to I-79. I noted two coal-fired power plants north of Gallipolis in Gallia County. I was home for lunch Wednesday. It was quite a lot for two and a half days. I wouldn't have minded spending an extra day in Gallia County.
I wanted to get home because my sister was planning to visit on Thursday for the July 4 holiday. There were storms predicted all day and an accident on the Capital Beltway that would have delayed her several hours, so she didn't come. We'll see her again soon, I hope.
