New River Gorge Bridge, West Virginia

On the weekend of November 18th we did a quick vacation get-away to West Virginia to attend a wedding of one of Tina's cousin (congratulations Stacy).  We took a side-trip down to southern West Virginia on Sunday down to see the New River Gorge Bridge.  When built in 1977 it was the worlds largest biggest arch bridge.

A Beautiful Lady and a Beautiful Bridge

It's about 800 feet from the river to the bottom of the bridge.  That's almost as high as the Eiffel Tower is in Paris.

Long Ways Down to the River

Interestingly this river flows NORTH all the way from North Carolin, into Virginia, and through West Virginia before meeting up with the Ohio River.  I had always heard that the St. Johns river down here in Florida was the only river in North America to flow north, but visiting the New River introduced me to another.

We were visiting West Virginia shortly after Super Storm Sandy blew through NY and NJ and dumped an early snow storm onto WV.  There was a lot of evidence of wind and early snow damage to tree's, as witnessed by this twisted/fallen tree trunk.

Twisted/Fallen Tree

The river gorge was developed in the late 1800's through the mid-1950's with a railroad track and numerous coal mines along it's length.  Pictures from that period were rather sad including numerous floods and a ton of land pollution, but they've done a good job of cleaning it up and turning it over to the national park system.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore the numerous hiking paths around the area, but it gives us something else to do in the future.

Looking Up At the Bottom Of The Bridge

The Ongoing Battle of the Pool

Progress is slow ... and even slower sometimes ... but it does occasionally happen.  The sign here was originally posted out front of our house but I removed it as my own small little protest over how slow things were going.  I was going to avoid putting it in any pics I posted here but I figured given how much I've posted here about the slow progress ... wellllllll ... it's probably worthwhile letting everybody know who's this slow!  :)  If anybody cares to, you can call the company and complain about how they never make a schedule.  Tina and I do so about 3 times a week.

Pool Plumbed and Back-filled

You can see the 2nd floor addition going on at our neighbors house.  Between the 2 of us we have succeeded in making quite a mess of the neighborhood.

Filling-up For a Thanksgiving Swim

Ready for a Bonfire in the Shallow End

Dirt Mound Slowly Going Down

Yayyyyy!!! We've been SHOT!

Having waited patiently (and NOT so patiently at times) since mid-September, we finally progressed to the point of getting the pool shot with gunite.  It's been a rather frustrating wait, particularly since the backyards still a HUGE mess and we've been without any power to the back garage which also contains the sprinkler system.  Fortunately the weathers been getting cooler and a calm little storm named Sandy dropped a fair amount of rain on us, so the lawns holding in there pretty well.  Errrr ... wellllll ... at least the parts that not's covered with dirt right now seems to be doing ok.

The crew doing the shoot actually consisted of 5 workers and, of course, the always present supervisor.

In the Midst of the Shoot

 Three full-time pumps running to keep the water out of the hole ... adding even more of a mess to our already flooded backyard.

Our Lovely Backyard

 Two trucks running full time.  The front one holds and mixes the gunite while the back one has the pumps and hoses to shoot it onto the structure.

The Gunite Equipment

 And ... FINALLY ... a fully shot pool.  This is looking at the side away from the house.  The center portion at the back is the fountain area which includes 3 overflow water flows into the main pool.   On either side of that are raised rock garden areas which will have fire pits in them.

The Final Product

Looking back towards the deep-end with the house on the left.  The perimeter-overflow gutter is formed out of 2x6's which will be removed once the coping is installed.   By this time we were back down to 1 pump running which quickly allows the water to flow back in.  It's not quite ready for swimming yet.

The Deep End Already Filling Back In

So at least we made it this far.  At this rate of progress, we might have this project done by next summer.

...

Or maybe not! 

Until Next Time