West Virginia

Morgantown

8/29/2003
Janet Pope
They take a trip through West Virginia into Appalachia and discover a world hidden among the mountains: a college bigger then most cities, clean air and friendly people with hearts big enough to love it all and still have room for visitors.

Morgantown, West Virginia

For weeks before our trip, all I kept humming was John Denver's, "Country Roads take me home, to the place I belong

Lewisburg

8/29/2003
Janet Pope
A small town with big city attitudes: night-life, dinner theatre and a history to match.


We're on our way south from Morgantown to Lewisburg, West Virginia, and to break up our ride, we drove to the Tamarack in Beckley, and discovered the largest rest stop in the country. Though, I'm sure they think of themselves as a destination not a rest stop. Our friends in Morgantown told us we couldn't miss the Tamarack . "It's a bright color and it looks like the crown on the Statue of Liberty". With Lady Liberty in mind we picked it out, over one of West Virginia's many green mountains in the distance.

Greenbrier

8/29/2003
Janet Pope
Janet and Donald are introduced to 'The Greenbrier' a hotel with a 300 year old reputation for quality and elegance that 'meet or exceeds' the best of Europe. In fact it's, a hotel that could have you asking the questioning, 'what is in your basement?'

The Greenbrier is a story and a destination unto itself. Once you hand your keys over to the valet and the porter takes your bags, you are transported to a world of elegance, style and comfort. As the name suggests, Greenbrier is lush with greenery and seems to be separated from the outside world by garden briers, leaving you into a total fantasy vacation retreat.

Similar to the Grand Canyon or Niagara falls, words about the Greenbrier truly fall short of an accurate description.

Pocahontas County

8/29/2003
Janet Pope
Adventure starts here: Droop Mountain, a scat exhibit, road kill cooking, and the mountaintop phenomenon of 'Snowshoe Mountain' and attend a Mountain Stage concert. Don utilizes his professional eating skills to become a judge at a chili contest.

Again we had well laid out plans, but Mother Nature told us that she was the boss not us. We met Park Superintendent Mike Smith for a tour of Beartown State Park about an hour from Lewisburg, but were greeted by garden hose rains. When traveling we've learned rule number one- always be flexible, and have an alternative plan. We drove a short distance to Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park for a tour of the park museum. Mike is extremely knowledgeable and after giving us the background of the Civil War in this area and a brief history of the park, the rain clouds parted and the sun came out.

Parkersburg

5/8/2002
Janet Pope
Touring the northern section of West Virginia involves, biking, glass factories, historic mansions, and even a side trip to Ohio.

The slogan for West Virginia is "Wild and Wonderful", and that's what our last travel destination proved to be! OK, I admit the wildest height we reached was when we went mountain biking on the North Bend Rail/Trail. OK, so maybe I wouldn't even call it wild, but it was definitely wonderful. But wait, I'm jumping ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning of our latest adventure.

After taking a plane from New York to Pittsburgh, we boarded a much smaller propeller plane to Charleston, West Virginia. We then rented a car and drove another hour to Parkersburg.

Syndicate content