West Virginia and North Carolina Vacation 2015

Posts tagged ‘West Virginia and North Carolina Vacation 2015’

West Virginia and North Carolina Vacation – Day 4 of 9

On the morning of Tuesday, May 12th, Bob awakened about 4:30 am and read the newspaper. I slept for another 45 minutes or so. We had showered, dressed and eaten breakfast by 6:30 am.

We talked about heading out for Maggie Valley, NC the day before. We had seen all we planned to see in the New River Gorge area by mid morning. Because of the strong possibility that we would hit rain if we departed West Virginia on Monday, we stayed put for a day. It was a good call! I read Jim “Skid” Robinson’s blog post about his and Sandy’s trip yesterday from Grove City, PA to Maggie Valley (They arrived in Maggie Valley a little after 6:00 pm.). “Skid” and Sandy drove through torrential downpours, thunder and lightning. “Skid” wrote he was happy to be trailering the motorcycle.

There was threat of rain, along our route, but only in the early morning hours. We departed the Comfort Inn Oak Hill (West Virginia) at 7:30 am, en route Maggie Valley, NC. We arrived at A Holiday Motel in Maggie Valley around 1:15 pm. We didn’t see any rain during our trip!

Welcome SEVROC 10th Year in Maggie Valley

A Holiday Motel is headquarters for this year’s Southeast Vulcan Riders and Owners Club (SEVROC) motorcycle rally, which begins officially on Thursday and lasts through Sunday. Our reservation was for 4 nights, Wednesday through Sunday. Rob and Gabi, motel proprietors, were able to accommodate us a day early. We did the same thing last year. We reserved a room for 3 nights and arrived a day early. We have the same room as last year, room 5, next door to the motel office.

We weren’t the first rally attendees to arrive at A Holiday Motel. Several VROC friends arrived ahead of us.

Across the street from our motel is a country wedding chapel that I didn’t notice the previous two times we have attended SEVROC. I walked across the street and took a few pictures of the chapel and the waterfall behind it.

Miss Carolines Country Wedding Chapel

Miss Carolines Country Wedding Chapel is a nice setup for a wedding!

We ate dinner at Sagebrush Steakhouse in Waynesville. Besides the two of us, fifteen others ate dinner with us.

Dinner with friends (some of the 17 of us who ate together) at Sagebrush of Waynesville.

Bob and I chose to order from the 2 for $28 meal selections, which included several full-meal entree selections with an appetizer to start. For an appetizer we ordered Blossom Petals, crisp onion petals served with a tangy dipping sauce. Bob’s main entree was an 8 oz NY Strip Steak with Sauteed Mushrooms and Broccoli. My main entree was Tenderloin Tips with sauteed peppers and onions and a Side House Salad and a Loaded Sweet Potato topped with Cinnamon Sugar, Butter and Toasted Marshmallows. Service was very slow. Our meals arrived hot, whereas some other peoples’ meals arrived cold. No one sent back their meals, as no one wanted to wait any longer to eat.

Upon returning back to A Holiday Motel, we stood around talking about a variety of subjects with our friends for a while. Bob and I went to bed at 10:30 pm.

West Virginia and North Carolina Vacation – Day 3 of 9: Mount Hope

As I wrote in my last vacation blog post, when we returned to the Canyon Rim Visitor Center parking lot, after viewing the New River Bridge from two observation decks, it was still early morning. We discussed the possibility of checking out of our hotel a day early, as we had seen all we hoped to see during our stay in the Fayetteville, WV area. We checked the weather report and saw that we would encounter rain en route Maggie Valley, NC (our final destination). Travel on our scheduled departure day, though, looked rain free. We decided to stay the night.

In the early afternoon of May 11th we drove to Beckley, WV to eat lunch at The Outback. I ordered a 6 oz. Sirloin Steak with a loaded baked potato and side salad. Bob ordered a 9 oz Sirloin Steak with a grilled lobster tail, served with broccoli and a side salad. We ordered a Bloomin’ Onion as an appetizer. Lunch was delicious and very filling.

After lunch we stopped at Tamarack, which was located very near to The Outback. Tamarack features a red peaked roof and landscaped grounds that internet sources say draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. This large arts and crafts facility sells West Virginia craft products, such as wood, glass, textiles, pottery, metal, jewelry, as well as specialty food items, fine art, and West Virginia books and recordings. We visited only to see what was inside the building with the red peaked roof that we pass whenever traveling in this direction. The craft products, etc. were all nice, and we oohed and ahhed over a few items. Willpower stopped us from making any purchases.

We stopped in Mount Hope on our way back to the hotel. Mount Hope is located on the Coal Heritage Trail.

New River Smokeless Coal Portal

Ornate fountain and a large block of the once famous New River smokeless coal

The houses along Main Street were lovely.

Mount Hope looks pretty much as it did in the early 1900’s.

A man who was at a business establishment called Peggy Sue’s made a point of coming out of the bar to tell us about the gas station in town at which Hank Williams died. He said the station was blocked in by trucks now. We drove through town but didn’t see the blocked-in station to which this man referred. I did read an account of Hank Williams’ ghostly night ride, and Mount Hope is mentioned in the account.

Upon returning to the Fayetteville area, we stopped at Dairy Queen for a peanut buster parfait (me) and a butterscotch dilly bar (Bob) before returning to the hotel.

I kept seeing Facebook posts from family and friends in Pennsylvania who wrote about rain and thunderstorms. Up to this point we had been experiencing beautiful weather on vacation, not one drop of rain.

Our luck was about to run out.

All was good, though, because we were in for rest of the afternoon and evening. We even ate dinner in our hotel room. Dinner was light, after the hearty lunch we ate earlier in the day. We ate a picnic lunch – chicken salad with crackers, pineapple and cookies. According to the weather report, we will probably travel in rain for a short time on our way to North Carolina.

In my next vacation blog post, we arrive at our final destination — Maggie Valley, NC.

West Virginia and North Carolina Vacation – Day 3 of 9: New River Gorge Revisited

On our third day of vacation (May 11th) we were showered and dressed and had eaten breakfast by 6:30 am, at which time we left for another drive to the bottom of New River Gorge near Fayetteville WV. Yesterday morning, as we crossed over the New River Bridge en route Babcock State Park, there was fog rising up from the bottom of the gorge. I hoped conditions would be the same this morning because it would be quite impressive seeing the bridge rising out of the fog. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any fog this morning.

Still, the view at the bottom was once again worth the trip!

We stopped at three small waterfalls, as we were climbing up the other side.

First Waterfall

Second Waterfall

Third Waterfall

Our next stop was at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. The views of the gorge and bridge are the main attraction at the visitor center.

A short hiking trail descends into the gorge on a wooden boardwalk.

The boardwalk has two observation decks which offer unobstructed views of the longest steel arch span in the western hemisphere and the mile wide gorge it spans. We walked the trail to the bottom-most observation deck. We have made this hike several times over the years. The view took on new meaning for us, as we saw where we had been when we were at the bottom of the gorge.

First Observation Deck View

View from Bottom Observation Deck

See that bridge at the bottom of the gorge?
I stood on that bridge, when we drove to the bottom of the gorge!

Bob and I on the bottom observation deck

It was not yet 8:30 am, when we walked back up the wooden boardwalk to the visitor center. We discussed the possibility of checking out of our hotel a day early, as we had seen all we hoped to see during our stay in the Fayetteville, WV area. We checked the weather report and saw that we would encounter rain en route Maggie Valley, NC (our final destination). Travel on our scheduled departure day, though, looked rain free. We decided to stay the night. In my next vacation blog post, I will share what we did on the rest of our third day of vacation.

West Virginia and North Carolina Vacation – Day 2 of 9: Babcock State Park

We visited Babcock State Park on May 10th, our second day of vacation. Located in Fayette County in south central West Virginia, Babcock State Park was easily accessible from our Oak Hill hotel by following US 19 north. At the US Rt. 60 exit we traveled east 10 miles to State Rt. 41 South. The main park entrance is 4 miles south, near Clifftop.

If I had a bucket list of places I want to see, Babcock State Park would be on that list. The highlight of our visit to Babcock State Park was seeing, in person, the much-photographed grist mill located near the park’s administration building.

Please click on the black square displayed below. A short video, with sound, that Bob created will play!

According to the Babcock State Park website, the Glade Creek Grist Mill was completed in 1976.

The mill was built as a re-creation of Cooper’s Mill, which stood on the present location.

The Glade Creek Mill is a living monument to the over 500 mills which thrived in West Virginia at the turn of the century. The Glade Creek Grist Mill provides freshly ground cornmeal, which park guests may purchase.

Other noteworthy stops in the park included two scenic overlooks along the road to the Manns Creek Picnic Area, Boley Lake and hiking the Island in the Sky trail.

Manns Creek Gorge

Picturesque Boley Lake

Island in the Sky

We had hoped to enjoy a scenic overlook of Glade Creek on the Island in the Sky trail. Unfortunately, the creek was not visible because there were trees in every direction.

I will be sharing more of vacation day 2 in my next blog post about our West Virginia and North Carolina vacation.

West Virginia and North Carolina Vacation – Day 1 of 9

Our 9-day West Virginia and North Carolina vacation began on Saturday, May 9th. We traveled in separate vehicles. Bob rode the motorcycle, and I traveled by car. The amount of traveling planned for our vacation was more than I could do on the back of a motorcycle.

Our first day of vacation was a traveling day. We departed home (Warren, PA) en route West Virginia at 6:00 am and arrived at the Comfort Inn New River in Oak Hill, WV at approximately 1:45 pm. Saturday’s travel was uneventful. We made 4 stops along the way. We ate breakfast in Franklin, PA at Eat ‘n Park; we stopped for lunch at a rest stop along Interstate 79 a little ways north of Burnsville, WV; and we made two fuel and bathroom stops.

The first hotel room that we were checked into was unsatisfactory. As soon as we walked into the room, we heard running water. The bathtub hot water spigot would not shut off. We returned to the lobby and indicated that the room was not suitable. A new room was found quickly for us. Our hotel room and bath were generously sized. Our room included a king bed with two night stands, a chair with ottoman, a desk and chair, a wardrobe, a dresser, microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker, and flat-screen TV.

Our hotel room was on the second floor and faced the front.
Our view was Route 19.

This would be our home away from home for 3 nights.

We relaxed in our room until 5:00 pm, after checking in. Bob took a 2-hour nap, while I caught up with Facebook and updated my personal journal. At 5:00 pm we went in search of a restaurant for dinner. There are several eateries in the area. We chose to eat at Bob Evans.

We returned to our room, after dinner. We spent rest of the evening relaxing and planning the next day’s activities. By the way, our sleep was not disturbed by the Route 19 traffic.

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