Mini-vacation #2

(After start of ABVD)

Episode #1

We left last Thursday evening and headed toward the banks of the Greenbrier River. Earlier Pix and Dan had asked if we would like to share their Seebert house in Pocahontas County for the weekend. Without hesitation, we said, "Sure!" Our friends were coming on Friday and we decided to go an evening earlier. Their cabin is located near the waters of the Greenbrier River and the Greenbrier River Trail.

Judy and I arrived at the cabin around 10:30 P.M. We made the beds and prepared for a great night's rest. We both awoke in the morning to the sounds of a Carolina Wren that was broadcasting its call from the back porch.


Around noon, I made a gourmet decision to walk to Jack Horner's Corner for a pizza. The Horner's convenience store sells pizza, souvenirs, ice cream, selected groceries, and rents bicycles, canoes, and floats We ate our pizza on the new porch. Forgot to mention that Horner's Corner now has a new building. It is open and Jack's son, Stewart, and his wife run the store and are continuing the construction. Here is the old building that is now closed.




The new store is great. It is spacious and full of new items.





While waitinf for Pix and Dan to arrive, I left Judy on the back porch reading her Sunday school lessons.



I decided to walk the Greenbrier River Trail and check out the wildflowers.




Here are a few of the plants that were in bloom. The composites are already blooming in full force.

The introduced species were obvious along the path. Below is Viper's Bugloss which is a showy plant covered with prickly hairs. It grows on walls, old quarries and gravel pits, and is common on calcareous soils. The name Bugloss, which is of Greek origin, signifies an Ox's Tongue, and was applied to it from the roughness and shape of the leaves.

The red berries (fruits) of Morrow's Honeysuckle are a great sight. How neat that a milkweed is starting to bloom in the middle of all the berries!




DANGER BELOW! The poison hemlock is blooming. Hemlock is known by several common names. As well as the American "Poison hemlock" and the Irish "Devil's porridge", there are also Beaver Poison, Herb Bennet (not to be confused with the geranium of that name), Musquash Root, Poison Parsley, Spotted Corobane and Spotted Hemlock. The seeds are sometimes called Kecksies or Kex.




As I was returning to the cabin, I noticed some canoers on the river.


To get a closer look, I walked down these steps. Notice how the botton steps were affected by the Greenbrier during one of its flood cycle. Episode 2 and 3 of this adventure cover our Saturday exploits.