Still A Kid At Heart - And Glad Of It

Some of my best childhood memories of growing up in northern West Virginia involve snow. I can still barely remember looking out the window as a 4 year old in Nov of 1950 when virtually everything had disappeared under a 48" snowfall. My dad used a broom to shovel a path to the basement of the garage apartment 50 feet away to get the snow shovel for the serious work. I remember all of our favorite sled riding spots when we would stay out at night until our outside pair of jeans was frozen stiff - no Gortex back then and school was never ever cancelled due to snow. I've always liked the fresh clean smell of the air when the snow was falling and still believe I can smell snow coming.

I've always loved snow and still do, but since it rarely snows around these parts, every now and then I need a snow fix. In my younger days, we were avid snow skiers and I could always get my fix that way, but we no longer ski so I have to find different ways to accomplish the goal. A couple of years ago, the urge developed in the spring, so I reserved a cabin at Blackwater State Park for mid December - if there's going to be snow in WVA, it's most likely going to be there. It is located on the same mountain plateau that runs thru Tennessee (Crossville in on it).

As we headed north, I was pretty low as I knew they had no snow. We stopped for gas in the valley at Parsons and it was snowing lightly but by the time we got up the mountain to the park, it was snowing hard with an inch or so on the ground. We were there Saturday through Wednesday and I really got my fix - it snowed 14" while we were there and this was the second time in my life this happened there.

This is our cozy little cabin. It had a nice fireplace, a good supply of wood, no TV, no phone and was plenty well equipped to live happily.


This is the main road running to the cabin area.


This is the Blackwater River, named for it's dark cedar tinted water, upstream of the falls.



Sweetie Pie loved frolicing in the snow and rooting her nose through it.


This is the park's namesake and is beautiful with so much of it frozen.


Here are my two girls showing the snow depth on the picnic table.


We saw lots of deer as we drove around the park and they all just ignored us and went about their search for food.


I came across these pictures and even though they're a couple of years old, I decided to post them in memory of one of my favorite trips. We were planning a trip there over the Christmas Holidays but had to change for a special event here at home, but - I may have to do this again soon as I feel the urge starting.