Road Trips and Hike Reports

There isn't a ton to report for the rest of the trip home.  We went to Wheeling Saturday mostly on I-64 and US-35.  It was a pleasant early morning start to the drive and the trip went well. Wheeling was all about visiting Wheeling Island Casino, someplace we used to visit once or twice a year when we lived in PA.  It was very fun and we got lots of play time.   After the casino we ate at Cheddars, one of the less common members of the Darden restaurant group of which Olive Garden is the best known.  I absolutely loved my blackened salmon meal and it was a very good value. The atmosphere was lively in the bar and the appetizer croissants were delicious.   The Hampton Inn we stayed at was very full of high school students hanging out in the lobby and the hotel had actually called earlier to see if we could go for a normal room instead of the suite I had reserved.  We were very worried that we'd be facing a long noisy night with people slamming doors and stomping up and down the

We walked to breakfast at The Omelet Shop which was just across the main road from the hotel’s access road.  West Virginian’s aren’t really used to pedestrians and we had 1 person who aggressively made sure he turned right before we could cross and on the way back somebody was totally unaware of our presence crossing a driveway.  The food was good but next time we’ll pathetically drive to avoid those situations. The state park was only 11 miles from our hotel. The hike wasn’t long but it was surprisingly rocky and had a lot of geology. Some areas had enormous sharply angled boulders similar to what we experience in NY at ‘ Little Rock City ’ and other areas followed a pleasant stream that was usually just out of view.  There was also a fair bit of climbing considering the short length of the trail. The park and the trail were super clean and well maintained and marked.  We had earlier contemplated a much longer more ambitious hike but ultimately this was more than enough, We bought a

This was the 2nd part of the family visit portion of the trip.  We had breakfast with Brian’s niece and visited a little more while our laundry washed and dried.  We also visited the casino near Gastonia NC.  After that we had a long but interesting and enjoyable drive mostly up I-77.  I think I-77 has the longest East Coast mountain pass I’ve been on yet.  There was a long truck climbing lane that went for miles, 2 tunnels and lots of curves for a freeway.  We exited about 20 miles before Bekcley to avoid having to pay a toll on the West Virginia turnpike.  Those handful of WV miles were curvy and bumpy and full of oncoming headlights.  Every time we come to West Virginia, the poor infrastructure is impossible to ignore. With our change to spend 1 less day in Charlotte we have 2 nights here in Beckley.  We will do at least some sort of hike today but I’m not sure we’re up to a big 8 miler that I had originally picked out.  It’s wet and cool out and personally I don’t really feel the n

Today is mostly family day visiting Brian’s Niece and her family here in suburban Charlotte.  Brian and I did escape for a relatively quick 6.5 mile hoof around Lake Norman at the aptly named Lake Norman State Park. The weather was warmer today than any other day of our trip to date so it felt great. I even broke out the sunscreen.  The trees are still mostly winter brown here so this 1 photo will suffice. A homemade dinner was actually a nice treat after lots of days on the road eating out.  Brian’s niece is becoming quite the bread baker so there are lots of treats around.  Brian went with the niece’s children to Wal-Mart and I’m taking advantage of the down time to complete today’s blog entry as the sun sets. We played outside with the kids a lot and we’re going to be very tired.  We decided we don’t need a 3rd night in Charlotte and we’re going to head North to West Virginia a day early tomorrow.

Our day started off by having breakfast in our hotel.  The Virginian hotel didn’t disappoint at all.  Our room was large and attractive. The enormous soaking tub was much appreciated by both of us after our long hikes.  The location was great, self parking was easy and the staff was mostly very good. We stopped near Greensboro NC for a leg stretcher hike.  The hike described on AllTrails was a 6 mile out and back but once we parked I realized that we could turn it into several different length loops.  We opted for a relatively short loop walk.  The setting was lovely and secluded despite being literally next to an Interstate for part of the trail. After some errands in Greensboro we completed our trip into busy Charlotte NC about 3:30 pm.  I was pretty excited to see the Hyatt Centric SouthPark since it is in a desirable neighborhood and is a Hyatt sub-brand I’ve never tried before.  Overall we have found the hotel underwhelming.  It’s certainly nice looking with modern finishes and u

Lynchburg VA is a gem.  The town is set on steep hills with the James River going through the middle of it.  We started out by having breakfast at Biscuitville .  We then returned to the hotel and walked up Monument Terrace which was very tall.  The landings on the flights of stairs are each dedicated to veterans from Lynchburg from a different war.  One level also has a rose garden off to one side.  At the top sits the Lynchburg Museum which is in the town’s 2nd courthouse. The original courthouse was very small and was on the same site as the museum sits now.  They have since built yet another courthouse making the 2nd one available to be a museum. We’re my mother with us she would have found the interpretive sign about PFC Desmond Thomas Doss interesting since it detailed how a conscientious objector, a Seventh Day Adventist during WWII, was able to save many lives and received high honors etc. Since it was open we went through the museum .  The exhibits were well done and the staf

I made a whole list of saved trails on AllTrails for this road trip. When I first looked at the list of the hikes we could do today I thought we’d go to Pocahontas state park for a 5.5 mile walk.     Then I looked more at my list and the photos associated with each hike and realized that Holliday Lake was both a more interesting hike and a lot closer to our destination for tonight, Lynchburg. A light snow started falling on our way to the hike and it snowed almost the entire time we were hiking.    The facilities at the park are lovely.    A very clean heated bathroom and shower building, good signage, a well maintained trail and multiple bridges on the trail.    We saw absolutely zero people walking anywhere on our walk which wasn’t a surprise for a snowy day in March.    We had a goal of doing 12 ‘wintery’ hikes this year.    We’ve done over 12 hikes this winter but a few of them we deemed ‘not wintery’.    We certainly didn’t expect to be able to nail another wintery one in Southern

We started out with a visit to a very popular and ‘hip’ bagel shop called Nate’s Bagels .  Without intending to we ended up just a block or so from The Fancy Biscuit , one of our first stops on our big road trip of 2020 which ended up being dominated by COVID shutdowns etc.  The bagel was good and they had Pork Roll, something you can’t normally find outside of New Jersey.  But they don’t toast bagels at all and there were so many people that waiting for out food was hectic and eating it anywhere but the car or maybe in the cold outside wasn’t going to happen even though we were there before 9 am on a Saturday. We parked near Brown’s Island and walked along the North Bank trail.  There are a number of trails that start in that same area and overall Richmond appears to have an above average urban trail network.  The North Bank trail gets its name because it runs along the North Bank of the beautiful James river.  The James is very wide and shallow and near downtown there are beautiful r

Brian and I both have been ready for a vacation.  I’ve had a marathon of business travel with trips to Tokyo, Memphis and San Diego.  Brian has been balancing a huge number of projects and initiatives at his day job and continues to work part time at Target. Our plan is to spend 9 days going from home to Richmond Virginia, Charlotte North Carolina and a few other stops on the way.  I got back from San Diego about 4 pm Thursday.  We spent the night in downtown Rochester to be ready for our 5:40 AM train to NYC.  We had a great dinner at a place we’d never been to called Polizzis.  Interestingly, despite being on a major well known street, Goodman, there is an entire neighborhood tucked away in a few streets we’d never explored.  There are at least 6 restaurants, 3 of which we already know we want to try, in that little 2 block stretch.  The hotel in Rochester was an interesting historic property that was converted into a Doubletree. Most Doubletree properties are spacious and modern but

This hike was part of my 4 nights in Southern California for work.  This trail isn’t one I’d heard of but it seems like it should be famous.  This is a very narrow slot canyon that leads up through some sandstone hills and has great views of some estuaries and the Pacific Ocean.  I went with some coworkers and it was an impressive after work leg stretcher.  I’d never been in a slot canyon so narrow or steep.  For a short hike it packed a lot of everything.