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Lewisburg
Written by: Janet Pope
Photography by: Donald
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.
The Tamarack is advertised as the Best of West Virginia and it sits proudly on the crossroads of I 77 and I 64. It attracts so many visitors due to this central location. Opened seven years ago by the state, its mission is to promote, sell and enhance the image of West Virginia, and contribute to its economic development. The layout of the building is in a circle and is filled with an endless variety of artistic crafts and products of West Virginia. There is also a superior, yet reasonably priced, food court provided by the Greenbrier Hotel (more about them later), featuring traditional West Virginia dishes like fried green tomato sandwiches and West Virginia Trout.
With one half million visitors a year, the Tamarack houses not just food and gifts items, but an art gallery, a new conference center, a 178 seat theater (featuring West Virginia movies and live shows on Sundays), and an outdoor children’s playground. In this case, follow the crowd to Beckley and take a break from the highway.
In fact, we did take an additional break on our trip by spending a night at the Country Inn & Suites. It was just down the road from the Tamarack and lived up to its name. Our room was comfortable and spacious and we enjoyed the evening relaxing in the indoor/outdoor pool and whirlpool.
We arrived the next morning in Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, and found a busy eatery for lunch, called Food and Friends. Decorated with antiques and knickknacks, the restaurant was cozy and inviting. Our waitress approached us and said "Hi y’all doing?’ And I knew we were in the South. Anyway, I asked for a glass of water, and after I pronounced that telltale word, our waitress asked if we were from New York. That one word was a dead giveaway. It turned out that she was from Brooklyn. Ahh! A fellow Brooklynite- an instant bond. Answering what drew her to West Virginia, she replied, " It’s a little bit of heaven!" At this point I couldn’t yet attest to that statement, but the food here was heavenly.
Next on our agenda, was to experience the adventurous side of West Virginia, so our plans were to bike the Greenbrier River trail. We picked up bikes at "Free Spirit Adventures" off of route 60, and a guide drove us to the nearby trails and lead us. Well, we were enjoying the wooded serenity and about three miles out Donald heard the rumbling of thunder. Our guide said, "It usually only sprinkles lightly", so even though Don thought we should head back, we peddled onward, taking in the natural sights.
Well, as you might guess here, our guide and I were wrong and Don was right. We should have headed back. It did not sprinkle. It did not even rain. It absolutely, and unequivocally poured, right out of God’s garden hose. We tried to get to shelter under some trees, but within minutes the hailstone sized raindrops had infiltrated every article of clothing and every pore on our bodies. After ten minutes of standing in the rain, Don thought we should bicycle back to our car. At this point, nobody wanted to doubt Donald’s wisdom.
We were not wet; we were drenched, down to our underwear drenched. Drenched like the survivors of the Titanic in the Atlantic. Drenched like Sponge Bob type of drenched. At the end of the trail I realized, that from rubbing the raindrops from my eyes, I actually lost a contact lens. Our guide was so apologetic, but Mother Nature had plans all her own. We wanted adventure.
Dripping wet, our Plan B was now to see if we could check in a little earlier to our hotel for the evening. Our hotel though, was not just any hotel, it was the world famous Greenbrier! Now picture this, a white, enormous, southern mansion, elegant hotel, with manicured gardens, lush lawns, uniformed porters, standing at the ready by the front doors. Now picture me, with dripping hair, clothes sticking to me, sneakers leaving a wet trail as I walked, all the traces of makeup washing away, except a little mascara dripping down from my eyes. Add to that picture, I could only see things in a slight blur, as I was minus a contact lens.
Guests were arriving in designer clothes, perfectly coordinated and coiffed, and I looked like something the cat dragged in, or at least something the cat would avoid dragging in if given a choice. Luckily the reservation clerk gave us a room, earlier then our check in time. We were either lucky or she just wanted to get me out of the lobby. The hot shower never felt so good.
Changed and refreshed we explored the Greenbrier, and the Greenbrier is a story in itself.
Day 1 - Morgantown
Day 2 - Morgantown
Day 3 - Lewisburg
Day 3- Part 2 Greenbrier
Day 4 - Lewisburg
Day 5 - Pocahontas County
Day 6 - Part 2 - Pocahontas County
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