I was hoping to go to the Italian Festival, but the temperature was in the 90’s, and the dew point was around 70.  I decided I didn’t want to travel 30 miles to Wheeling, look for a parking place amidst construction and a high profile funeral procession then die alone of heat stroke. 

 
So I decided to check out some local roads off of Route 40, Historic National Road.  Rt. 40 runs through the heart of this area, beginning in Cumberland, Maryland and ending in Illinois.  Today’s little assignment started when I saw a sign for Warnock.  “What would Warnock look like?,” I wondered.  Oddly enough, when I got to the end of the road, I’d BEEN THERE BEFORE!  Hah—just by way of a different road.   It’s the home of Bob’s Transmission and a church where someone always seems to be mowing the lawn.   I remember someone mowing the lawn when I was there last year, as were two people today.

Then I checked out the Lloydsville Road that really just looped off of and paralleled Rt. 40.  Another coincidence:  as I pulled up to photograph the church (pretty much the only landmark in Lloydsville,) and I read the sign in front, the ‘70’s song “Are You Ready?” began playing on the radio.  I’m just sayin’…

 
Farther west, I took a left onto Town Hall Road.  Did not see a town hall anywhere, but I was pretty glad that I have an SUV to gear down on steep gravel roads like this.  

 
My last stop was in historic Morristown.  I found two cemeteries.  The first was the town cemetery behind a church on a hill.  One of the grave stones had the name of Gaston, and said that one of the brothers resided in Portland, Oregon.  There is actually a small town outside of Portland CALLED Gaston that was settled in the 1800’s by a Joseph Gaston—yet another coincidence.  Who knew? The other cemetery was two blocks down the hill and is called the Pioneer Cemetery and is on the National Registry.  Several graves, bearing flags, were  Revolutionary War soldiers’ graves. 

Since I was travelling off the beaten path today, I decided to shoot in black & white for a change.   Here’s a little glimpse of the back roads.