Last week’s adventure took me through some serious mountain driving to some lovely views, but also a town with a big paper mill, so it wasn’t exactly pleasant for exploring outside the car.

First, the drive. On the map, it looked like a straight north-south route of a major road that ran through a couple of old spa towns. In practice, this road skirts the side of a mountain range, so there were lots of twists and turns and going up and down hills. The scenery was spectacular, but I’ll admit the driving was a little unnerving. I was gripping the steering wheel pretty tight.

The spa towns might be good for a return visit for a spa day. One of the towns is now essentially an Omni resort. They bought the old hotel, the town is surrounded by golf courses that appear to be owned by Omni, a lot of the buildings in the town are also Omni facilities, and they own the historic baths in the adjacent town. You can go to the baths for just soaking time without being a hotel guest, and you can get a weekday day pass for the hotel spa area, but that’s outdoors so it’s closed in the off-season. If I have something really good happen (a new, big traditional publishing deal, movie option, bestseller), I may indulge myself.

After driving for some time along the side of the mountain, I reached the waterfall. It’s right there on the side of the road, and I guess they knew that would result in some traffic issues, so there’s a parking area and walkway for viewing the falls. I could hear the roaring, then I rounded a corner and the sight took my breath away. I literally gasped out loud. I’m fascinated by waterfalls, and there are apparently a number in this area, so I need to track them down.

I drove a little farther and came to the town that was my destination. It looked cute on the tourism website, but what they left out was the fact that there are several paper mills in the town. If you’ve never been around a paper mill, consider yourself fortunate. They smell awful, like the whole town has been covered in manure and they’re blowing manure scent into the air. I initially was looking for a downtown park on a riverbank that had some interesting features, but I didn’t find it while driving through town. I ended up at another park on the edge of town, where I ate my picnic lunch while sitting in my car and watching the river go by. It looked lovely, but it reeked if you were outside. I got out long enough to take a few pictures of the river and to use the park’s bathroom facilities.

Then I went to my next stop, an old covered bridge. According to the signs, the bridge was built in 1839 and stopped being used for vehicle traffic in 1929. So, probably mostly horses and wagons/carriages, with maybe a few years of early cars, and I would suspect that cars were a big reason it closed because the whole thing is wood, even the roadway part. It was later turned into a park, so the bridge is now just for getting from one side of the park to the other, crossing the creek. This is apparently a fairly unique design, with the bridge being arched (it’s called Humpback Bridge), and may be the last of its type still standing, at least in this general area.

I have a weird fascination/repulsion thing with bridges. They scare me, but I’m also drawn to them, and if there’s an interesting footbridge in a park, I have to cross it. This one was a little freaky because you’re closed in while you’re crossing, but there’s just enough of a gap between the wooden beams that you can see the water below. You can have claustrophobia and a fear of bridges at the same time! But it made for some pretty pictures.

I took the freeway to get back over the mountains because I didn’t think I could manage another mountain drive. Even the freeway had some twists and steep climbs, but not a lot of traffic. Then I got off the freeway and took another road heading north through the valley. I realized that even though the mountain driving can be harrowing, I feel a lot better when I’m nestled among hills and mountains. I felt kind of exposed and unsettled driving through the valley, even though I could see mountains on both sides. I liked it better when the road started getting closer to my town, where there are more twists and hills, while not quite as scary as the mountain driving.

I don’t know what I’ll explore this week. The forecast is for a lot of wind, and you don’t want to be driving through mountain passes when there are high gusts.