Today we start the trek home via ‘the stick’, the northern panhandle of West Virginia. We still have one more Fallout 76 location to visit, the Giant Teapot. We decided to take Hwy 7 north through the Upper Ohio Valley along the Ohio River in Ohio thinking it would be more scenic than the West Virginia route. Well it was a route along the river but the scenery was not exactly pastoral.
Centered around the Ohio River, the Upper Ohio Valley was historically a manufacturing center of the United States due to its strategic transportation location. We passed coal burning power plants, steel mills, petroleum fuel installations and other assortments of heavy industry. Just 30 or so miles south of Pittsburgh, these towns strung along the river on both sides are now struggling economically with the downturn in steel manufacturing.
Having grown up in a city dependant on heavy industry, I can only imagine what the air quality would have been like along the river and in the valley between the hills during the heyday of these industries.
The World’s largest Teapot, Chester WV
The Teapot stands on a manicured lawn between elevated US 30 and its Chester exit ramp. It is 12 feet high, 44 feet wide, and was originally built as a giant keg by Hires Root Beer. It was originally brought to Chester in 1938 to represent the largest pottery industry in the world at that time. The teapot was originally a Hires Root Beer sign in the shape of a large barrel and was converted into a teapot upon its arrival in Chester. The teapot underwent restorations in 1990 and 2007 by the citizens of Chester. By coincidence Charles Elmer Hires‘ root beer may also have had its inspiration in a kind of herbal tea.
The Giant Teapot FO 76
It is one of the Locations found in The Forest of Appalachia, and is the site of the Daily Quest Strange Brew and the Event Quest Tea Time. I spend a lot of time here in the game. It is one of my favorite daily quests. It’s curator is Sweetwater, a delightful robot with a British accent who exchanges honey for Sweetwater tea (ans caps).
The Lincoln Highway, Rte 30, PA
Part of our trip today takes us along Hwy 30 in Pennsylvania, the Lincoln Highway.
The Lincoln Highway is the first road for automobiles across the United States. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913, the Lincoln Highway runs coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City west to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. In 1915, the “Colorado Loop” was removed, and in 1928, a realignment relocated the Lincoln Highway through the northern tip of West Virginia. Thus, there are a total of 14 states, 128 counties, and more than 700 cities, towns and villages through which the highway passed at some time in its history.
Cowan’s Gap State Park
This was the first campground we camped in on our way to Yellowstone last September and the last one on this trip from West Virginia. We are about 4 hours from home. Today was a 3-state day: West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
We have gotten into the habit on this trip of putting everything inside at night. There are two reasons for this: we have only been spending single nights in campgrounds so not having to pack up in the morning gives us more time to do the touring we want to do the next day and; everything gets put away dry. Many nights we have had rain. Last night was no exception with a thunderstorm at 4 am. Last night’s pack up included disassembling the back-packable portable chairs we use and storing them away.
All the changes we made for the van for this trip were definite improvements chief of which is the round butcher block table in the front and placing the support pole in an accessible location. This gave us a place to put things while we were in camp and I can get rid of one of the cutting blocks we carry separately. My cloth charging basket worked better than expected. I could keep everything charging in one place and not cluttering up otherwise valuable counter top space. I also knew where everything was.
I am going to write my takeaways from what we have learned on this trip since it basically took place in a single state minus the Frank Lloyd Wright portion. I
Louise and Brian McLeod Travel Blog 
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