November 27th, 2009 (06:27 pm)
current mood: busy
So
rigelkitty and I met up with Renfield yesterday and explored Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Plenty of abandoned buildings and stuff out his way. Our first stop was the abandoned Paw Paw railroad station.

The abandoned Paw Paw railroad station
Then we went across the Potomac to check out
Paw Paw Tunnel on the
C&O Canal. Someone's cows has escaped from a nearby farm and were wandering around in the parking lot. We went to the dark and scary Paw Paw tunnel, but had left the flashlights in the car so we couldn't go too far in. Then I went to check out the abandoned railroad bridge and tripped over some barbed wire. Ouch.

Someone's cows escaped and were wandering around the C&O Canal
We took a break for lunch at
Grandma's County Kitchen and Inn (103 Winchester Street, Paw Paw, WV 25434). The food was quite good and reasonable priced, fed the three of us for about $20.
After lunch, we attempted to drive down the abandoned railroad grade to our next destination, but had to turn around after the NO TRESPASSING signs and Rigel's advice that it wasn't exactly suitable terrain for a Prius. Instead, we took a long, winding, single-lane road called "Detour" that led us to our next stop, Magnolia, WV. Magnolia was quite a bustling town back in the day. We stopped just north of Magnolia and wandered down an abandoned railroad grade to an old bridge over the Potomac. Renfield found a broken insulator that said "HEMI" on it, so he was happy.

Abandoned railroad bridge, one of many
We made a brief stop at Cherry Orchard Cemetery. I couldn't find a lot of information on it on the internets, other than
Elijah Shambaugh was buried there. We found his grave, as well as a really old handcarved one nearby that read "MARGRET ATHY DIE MAY THE 10TH THE YER OF 1859."
Our next stop was going to be
Jerome. I had read on Wikipedia that Jerome was an uninhabited community and there was an abandoned train order office leftover from when the
Western Maryland Railway was abandoned. Eventually the road we were on ended, so I started cautiously driving down the abandoned right-of-way over ballast stones. As we reached our destination, Rigel expressed concerns we might actually be on someone's driveway. It looked like the path ended up ahead, so I figured it might be a good time to turn around.
I started backing up to a little side path, but apparently we had attracted the attention of whoever lived at the end of the driveway. They started yelling at us. Not a good sign...
bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!"
They're shooting at us!" said Rigel, and we made a hasty retreat back down the driveway as fast as my Prius could safely go on railroad ballast.
So that was our excitement for the day. We stopped again in Magnolia and consulted maps. I wanted to go to another abandoned railroad bridge further out, but we gave up on it and turned around about halfway there. Instead, we unexpectedly found yet another abandoned house right on the side of the road. While I was taking pictures, a guy in a pickup truck pulled up alongside.
"Ya thinking of renting it?" he asked.
"It is cheap?" I replied.
He told me it was his buddy's place and there were deer in the backyard in case I wanted pictures, but after our previous encounter with the locals I thought it best to stay on the road.

Another abandoned house...
We made it back to the main road and then off onto another winding dirt road up a hill. Sitting in the middle of absolutely nowhah was an old abandoned church, with a little graveyard behind it.

An abandoned church in the middle of nowhah...
We dropped off Renfield and played a bit with his dog, Hemi, and then headed out, stopping for more pictures of some of the abandoned buildings we say on the way in. All in all, it was a pretty full day and the best part was we made it back alive! -:)

So many abandoned houses...

Renfield says this was an old general store