West Virginia - Part Two

When Karis was visiting during the first week of our West Virginia adventure, we were on the go a lot. We had something planned every day but this week, we are resting more. We have little planned and we do just as we please each day. This is retirement.

One day we decided to drive two hours into the Shenandoah Valley (Virginia) and look for a campground for next week.

We are in the mountains here in West Virginia and it has fallen to below freezing a couple nights already. The trees turned yellow and fell and now other trees are turning red and orange! However, once over this ridge toward Virginia, the trees are all JUST beginning to turn. The Shenandoah Valley area hasn't turned yet. So, we will see two Autumns this year!

I’ve been fighting a cold so we haven’t done much hiking or active stuff. We go to the Canaan Valley Resort every day to get wifi so we can plan our travels and connect up as we need. In the evening we have been watching the DVD's of The Outlander series.

One day I sat outside and worked a puzzle by myself. The birds were chirping and the campground was completely empty. For several days we could not see anyone near us. What a great feeling to be so totally alone in the woods. Deer come by every day. They get within about 30 feet but are too frightened to come closer. We had a skunk one night when Karis was still here. There are also lots of chipmunks scurrying around. It was like boondocking with full hookups! (That is RV talk for “it was like camping on federal land alone but with water, electric and sewer”). When the weekend begins to approach, the campers begin coming again. The campsites are so far apart that even when other campers are in the area, we can't see them.

No one around.

One day we drove to Oakland, Maryland to look for parts for Tom to extend the output of the generator. We did a little shopping and looked at a campground there too. It’s a pretty area with a large lake and beautiful lake houses.

I love to lay in the hammock that the kids got Tom for his birthday. What a great hammock! Quiet and peaceful. I look up at the sky through the trees. The leaves are still falling but not as much as last week. The air is crisp and clean. This is retirement.

I need to do two loads of laundry but I’ve put it off another day. The laundry is only a short walk from our campsite. It is clean and quick and cheap.

On our last day in West Virginia we decided to hike to Bald Knob. Here is a photo of what we hiked. We took the ski lift up to the Right peak and hiked to the peak on the Left and back down to the parking lot. What a beautiful hike and we were again alone in the mountains.

Hiked from the right peak to the left peak and down.

Our campsite is out past the clearing and in the woods.

The top of Bald Knob.

The turning trees as we hiked back down.

We went to the Purple Fiddle with Karis and this week, we returned for an afternoon beer and great music. The musician is Buddy Roth and plays an amazing dulcimer (sometimes playing it like a guitar!) and guitar.

And we had time to relax by the campfire with brats, corn (Horrible corn! I'm used to Kansas Sweet corn and this was like field corn!) and s'mores. This was a great campground and definitely one that I would recommend to everyone. It's so remote and wooded and with full hookups, what more could you ask. Well, there is one "downside". It has no wifi and cell service. So for two weeks we had no TV and very little ability to communicate with the outside world. Maybe not such a bad deal. But.... What I missed most was no FaceTime with Parker!!