A Roesner Family Photo Album

Northern West Virginia, day 19

White Dogwood grows everywhere in the hills. West Virginia is a wildflower state, with flowering trees at eye level and above and beautiful blooms of many colors at your feet. The birds fill the air with choruses. Waking up presents you with a symphony of song while the mist rises from the ground.

We camped at Fairmont because we have full hookups here, including a surprise -- cable tv with many channels. We didn't expect that in this little campground with only 16 camping sites. Only four sites have the hookups and we are lucky to have one of them. Behind us is a creek bed -- one of the forks of Fishing Creek. West Virginia is full of running water. There are more river roads than any other kind.

We take Route 250 out to Mannington and then cut across down to Smithfield where my mother went to school and Mom and Dad were married. Then we travel out to the Louis Wetzel area where we would have camped had it been cooler. With the heat, we were afraid our cats would cook while we roamed around.

It's Saturday, and all we do is drive and look. I can't fill my eyes enough and I want Lauren to see and understand the immense beauty of this place and some of its history. I have three days to fill him with my memories and the history of my people, to help him understand where we come from.

� 2000 RSR