West Virginia: Part 2

This should be a more interesting post than West Virginia: Part 1, but will still be mostly photos. Who wants to read a lot of words, anyway? Remember, words can only hurt you if you try to read them. I had some time off one day and decided to check out some interesting architecture in West Virginia. I was living in Moundsville, and took a few photos downtown:

Typical row of houses in the northeast.

A Methodist church in Moundsville.

A Catholic church right across the street.

An Indian burial mound. This is why it's called Moundsville.

Sign for the former West Virginia Penitentiary.

West Virginia Penitentiary.

Not the best day ever for this guy.

I had done an internet search for interesting things near Moundsville, and there weren't many. There was one very unexpected thing, though; apparently West Virginia is where the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), an offshoot of Hindu if I understand correctly, got started. Okay, it started in New York, but the guy responsible lived in a simple house in West Virginia, and they built a Krishna temple and shrine there as a memorial to him. The turn-off to get there was on the way to the rig site from my hotel, so I drove down the road, and sure enough, right in the middle of nowhere in the hills of West Virginia is a little Krishna community, temple and Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. I took a little hike around the grounds, and then went into the temple. It's not like LDS temples, anyone can go in as long as you're respectful and take off your shoes. I asked, and they said photos were fine, so I took a few even though there wasn't much light. It's ironic that working 12 hours a day 7 days a week I haven't been to my own church for over three months, but I managed to make it to a Krishna temple. I think it's kind of funny.

This is the first thing you see when you go into the parking lot. I love elephants!

This guy was just wandering around.

Is that an albino peacock?

Swans are cool, too.

Cool enclosed dock.

This boat is supposed to house the Deity as it floats on the lake.

I'm not sure who these are, but they're huge so they must be significant.

The entrance to the temple.

Very cool gold-plated peacock.

This stained glass provided most of the light when I was there.

Shrine to Krishna.

Shrine to a lesser deity, I'm not sure who.

Wax figure of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON.

I bought a copy of the "Bhagavad Gita As It Is", Prabhupada's definitive translation and commentary on that volume of Hindu scripture. Who knows if I'll ever read any of it, but hey, I spent two years pushing my book, I can be open-minded.

This was a cool carriage with impressive wood work.

I saved the best for last: photos of Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. This was built entirely with volunteer labor and cost $600,000 in materials. Sadly, it has fallen into disrepair in the last ten years, but is still impressive. I took a bunch of photos outside, but there was no one available inside, so I didn't take the tour. Maybe another time. I was the only one there outside, and it was very quiet and peaceful. Enjoy:

And that was the most interesting thing I did in West Virginia. More photos coming in the somewhat near future. Now I need some sleep.