Pictures 12: Fayetteville, West Virginia

On my drive from Knoxville to Pittsburgh, I took US-19 through Fayetteville, West Virginia. And here are some pics to prove it. Also included here are some images of the New River Gorge Bridge.

Click on any picture to see the larger version on Photobucket.


Downtown Fayetteville


I liked this theater. Clearly.

11 images below the jump.

older than the trees, younger than the mountains

So now that I have significantly bored you all with my a-little-too-enthusiastic babblings about US Highways and Interstates, I'll tell you about what it's like to drive them.

Last any of us cared, I was on US-19 in West Virginia. I stopped occasionally along the road to stretch my legs, but none was as enjoyable as the town of Fayetteville. In 2006, the town was named one of the Coolest Small Towns in America by Budget Travel. (Then again, one of BT's coolest "small" towns of 2010 had 110,000 people, so we kinda wonder how they define "small." Fayetteville has fewer than 3,000 people, so it is indeed small.)

Edit: See photos related to this part of this entry here (Pictures 12: Fayetteville, West Virginia).

I took a detour into Fayetteville and found a teeny little main road strip with a theater, many shops, restaurants, antique stores, historic old facades and a stately courthouse (Fayetteville is the Fayette County seat). I wandered around and took some pictures, and chatted with a few fellow travelers who were lounging in the shade outside the Fayette Theater. I drove up into the hills a bit and came across the Wild, Wonderful 24-Hour Adventure Race, where mountain bikers were emerging out of the woods to the cheers and whoops of a group of folks holding stopwatches. I wandered around the parking lot of the trailhead and it was as if I wasn't there; they were all so intent on the race that nothing else mattered. Adrenaline blinders.

US Highways versus Interstates

After spending a few days (Tuesday evening through Saturday morning) in Tennessee with Patrick (during which we went to a Neil Young concert, organized a storage area, camped, ate Subway sandwiches in a hotel room and observed a fantastic rain storm, among other things), I hit the road again - this time toward Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where my brother has been living for the last seven-ish years.

From Knoxville to Pittsburgh is a relatively easy drive, straight up north through West Virginia. After leaving Knoxville you head East a little bit on I-81, then get on I-77. You could take I-77 a little West to Charleston, West Virginia, and get on I-79 and head back East, or you can go from I-77 to US-19 to I-79 and save yourself 2 sides of a triangle. I also had a feeling that US-19 was going to be prettier than the other options, so I decided to go for it.

Now it's time for a little educational blahditty-blah from me. I didn't know the difference until this weekend between US highways and Interstate highways. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm pretty good with maps. When I was 11, my family took a road trip from New Jersey to California and back, and in the process I learned how to read a road atlas pretty well. From there, I've driven from New Mexico to New Jersey (or vice versa) 13 times, and I've made the New Mexico-to-California trip six times, so I've done my fair share of back-and-forths.

So, that being said, I had no idea what the difference was between US-22 and I-22. Naturally, my dad, who knows everything, knew.