OK — some sleep and back to the routine.  For the stat-minded, here’s a breakdown from this mini WV trip:  four days — 2,414 miles — maybe one-third of that death-defying hairpin turns in the mountains.  $591 on gas.  I never keep track of food & hotel costs.  About 600 photos — 98% of them for the website, the other 2% appeared here at the blog.

I took Sparkle directly to my mechanic.  The code was something like a mass intake something or other.  The exact name has fallen out of my brain.  But basically, something to do with mixing gas and air.  Also need some oil line something or others (I noticed a few drops of oil leaking once in a while) and a couple of engine mounts (I noticed a little vibration at stops).  So, about $1400 or so.  But I intend to keep Sparkle going for at least a couple more years.  My mechanic says everything else looks perfect — engine, transmission, all the big pieces (and the little ones).

 

Back to the trip — day 4 started in Gilbert.  Here’s a geodesic dome church from there.  The Promise Christian Fellowship and foggy mountains:

 

The sun, ever so briefly, and a former Burger Chef in Kenova.  Now a Stewart’s Original Hot Dogs.  More about the Burger Chef chain if you’re interested:
http://agilitynut.com/eateries/bchef.html

 

From Huntington — Wright’s Men’s Store — still in business:

 

From Milton — the Blenko Glass Visitor Center, built in 1966.  I didn’t have time to check out the museum inside.  Incredible glass pieces and you can watch them being produced.  The video on the lower left at this page shows a bit of that:
http://www.blenko.com/Photo_Album.php

 

Also in Huntington — I love these big Sunoco signs….

… this station also had an unusual concrete building.  Never seen one like this before.  Some of it might be updated (the pushed-out window on the left; maybe the brick glass) but I’m still intrigued by it:

 

The light ran out in Parkersburg.  Here’s a nice Masonic Temple sign to close out the batch:

 

And so, back to life here in the Big City.  Here’s the view of Manhattan from my gym next door to my apartment.  Lots of sun here today just to torture me about the grey I had on my trip.  Some of you might spot the Chrysler Building, the Citicorp Center Building (now Citigroup), and the Williamsburg Bridge if you click to the larger view:

 

The next “real” trip starts in just over four weeks:  April 26 – June 1.  The dogs and I will be taking on west Texas, New Mexico and Arizona — with some stops in other states to & from.  As usual, I’ll be blogging and posting to Flickr nightly.  So I hope you’ll enjoy tagging along.

In case you missed them, I posted a handful of photos each night during this trip over at Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

Or, if you just discovered this blog, you might want to check out my website which is the reason for all these obsessive trips:
http://www.agilitynut.com/roadside.html