Seneca Rocks, Dolly Sods

Want to see what mountain bones look like? Take a trip to Seneca Rocks West Virginia. This is a place where the backbone of the mountain has worn through. Sort of a spectacular view but if you want to get good photos you need to be careful with the lighting. I'm thinking afternoon lighting will give you the views. I took my photos in the morning so the lighting was not as good.

People even like to climb up the rock faces but nope not me. I get dizzy on the top step walking down the the viewing area.

One of the nice out the way places to visit is Dolly Sods. Head north on 28 out of Seneca Rocks

and look for Jordon Pond Road. This will take up to public road 19 then FR 75. FR 75 takes you through Dolly Sods. This is definitely a wilderness area, no McDonalds. You also want to be

careful if you decide to really do some serious hiking in here. There some unexploded artillery shells left over from practice during

WWII. I mainly just stuck to driving through and checking out the overlooks. Also check out the Northern Loop Trail. Although the loop does come out down the road from the parking lot. I'm thinking loops should come where they start....

A must see is the last overlook of the area "Bear Rocks" you can see all the way to Virginia from there. Isn't that cool?

Roadside Cafes

You know when you stop at little out of the way places on little out of the way roads you can end up with a gem of a meal or maybe not.  Probably best to go with your instincts, even if they are really proud of what they are serving unless it looks like a Bar-b-que place their Bar-b-que will probably not be good.  So go with what it looks like they might be good at regardless of what they are proud of.

New River Gorge

The New River Gorge known as the grand canyon of the east.  Sort of a cool stop along highway 19.  As long as you are going by take a stop at the visitor center and check out the New River Gorge bridge from the outlook below.

 

Also as long as you are there go ahead and drive down to the bottom of the gorge to see the bridge from way way down there.

You can see the old bridge that has been replaced.

And take a look at the gorge framed by the new bridge.

This area is sort of famous for white water rafting.  Ummm Yeah you're not going to be seeing any pictures of that :-)

Babcock

Babcock State Park, home to probably the most photographed grist mill in the world.  The Glade Creek Grist Mill.  Here take a look.

 

Took these pictures today.  I've visited this park several times, the have some cool cabins you can rent but you really need to reserve them ahead of time.  I've only gotten lucky once and that was because someone had canceled.  Really a must see in South West Central West Virginia.

Definition of Morning

How come every time you go on a vacation you just can't sleep the night before.  So the next morning instead of getting your clothes together and car packed you are just wanting to sleep.  Well 11:30 is still morning right?

 

Needless to say we did get a late start this morning but we are now in a Quality Inn in West Huntington West Virginia.  Yeah I know we were supposed to be camping but hey it is nicer in the hotel and it will give us the chance to get up and out in the morning and hit some of the cool areas in West Virginia.

A simple camping trip

Amazing what it takes to go on a simple camping trip....  Oh yeah and we still need to stop at WalMart.

Vacation.

Getting ready.  The air smells right.  Clothes are being washed.  All electronics are charged and all the camping gear is in a closet waiting to be tackled.  Yep it a vacation.  More to come.

iPhone and terms of service

Most people have heard about the iPhone "update" that bricked (technical term meaning it is broke) any iPhone which had been manipulated to unlock it from the AT&T carrier. This reaction and remedy by the combined legal, technical power known as Apple, AT&T causes one to ponder when did terms of service start allowing a company to come into your home (virtually) and destroy your personal property.

Now a lot of people on the net have been proclaiming loud and long that you bought it you agreed to the terms and you got what you deserve nah nah nah. Okay I'm game what subsection of the terms of service allowed Apple, AT&T to destroy equipment (virtually). Yes I know they had a warning "oh thank you mighty Apple, AT&T". Where is Apple, AT&T's proof that everyone who had equipment destroyed agreed to those terms. Say they did not activate through iTunes and used Tmobile as a phone carrier would they have ever agreed to those terms. Is it okay to sell a device that has such terms of services if the consumer can not view and agree to said terms prior to plunking down cash and walking out of the store. When did it become okay for a company to provide a "software patch" that destroys a device and not have responsibility for said destruction. And so what if the software patch did have terms of service as well what the heck gives a vendor the right to destroy things. Is there a clause that goes

i Blah da Blah
ii. Oh and hey if you have fiddled with this thing in a way we don't like we reserve the right to kill it.

This is where it leads folks. Microsoft has terms that states Vista home can not run under a Virtual environment. So say they detect they are in a virtual environment and if they are say the running Vista zaps the hard drive of the Operating System running the Virtual environment. Or if Sony had its way when you tried to rip a CD little spikes would come out and turn the inside of your CD drive to shreds. Actually they might even be happy if some of the little spikes flew out and did bodily harm just to teach you not to steal.

Consumers need to wake up and take a look around realize this goes way beyond cows and cheese (Read Leo Laport's blog) it goes to the heart of ownership and what it means to "have" things. If we don't pay attention some of the Sci/Fi stories about consumers existing only to support large companies might come true. Where ownership is taboo and all you are allowed to do is lease items for a "reasonable" rate and if you are not willing to lease things, well there is a van down by the river for "those" type of people.