West Virginia

From the moment we drove into this mountainous state, we were again struck by how gorgeous this area is. The cut out cliff faces of rock led to lovely views, but the mountains meant that we had to put the truck into engine-braking mode to save our brake pads.

We made a wrong turn coming off the highway and were stuck on a narrow road unable to turn around. We drove 5 miles along the one lane road (leading all the way back down the mountain we had just climbed on the highway) in a slight panic that a car would come from the other direction, we would fall into the erosion ditch on the side of the road when taking a turn, or that we might run into either a bridge that was too low to get under or too weak to drive over. We eventually got to the campground safely and only then were able to appreciate how pretty the drive had been.

Coopers Rock State Park campground was lovely and the park itself was even more wonderful. We got to check it out in detail the day after we arrived when Jerusha’s high school friend, Angela, and her son Tay came over to visit us for the day. We started with breakfast of waffles at the RV

After breakfast we went on a hike through the park. In addition to majestic rocks, huge rhododendrons and gorgeous views, we also saw lots more mushrooms.

We saw Angela’s house in Morgantown then visited an old reservoir and some falls nearby. The rocks around the falls are sedimentary - perfect for finding fossils of ferns and other ancient plants! We looked but didn’t find any that day though.

In our search to eat local flavors we tried to find pepperoni rolls. This was a common food that coal miners took into the mines for lunch as they are delicious both hot and cold. After trying multiple locations that were all sold out or closed, we finally made our own. While not as good as the ones Jerusha remembers from her childhood, they were still yummy!

The weather was perfect all three days we were there so we spent most of our time outside. One day we went to Valley Falls State Park and enjoyed crawling over boulders along the river.

Eventually we moved out of the park and drove south to visit Vicky, a middle school friend of Jerusha’s. On the way we stopped at the New River Gorge National Park and walked part way down the valley to get a great view of the New River Gorge bridge an astounding 876 feet above the river.

We spent two nights at the Fort Chiswell RV park and, unfortunately, Jerusha was too dizzy to go out and Ken was also not feeling well. Luckily, Vicky was willing to drive down to see us and we had a couple lovely visits in our RV with her. We were also quite impressed by her authentic Paul McCartney signature tattoo.