Road Trip: South - Capitals Tour
Day 11: Saturday, May 27, 2017 - Charleston, WV
Weather: 77, partly cloudy
Steps: 13,537 (Steve); 12,985 (Linda)
Drove: 283 miles
This is our seventh and final capital visit on this trip. I was considering taking a crazy route from our last stop (not this one, but the next one) to Philly (we had to pick up our car) that would have had us going through both Annapolis (capital #8) and Dover (capital #9), but after all that driving, that route would really have put us too far out of the way, so we passed. Plus we pretty much would have driven right past our house with the thought of having to drive an hour and a half round trip, to Philly and back, before we could be home for good. And wasn't seven enough anyway?!!?
Today's breakfast was a light continental. With microwaveabe eggs (the eggs were similar to what we had at the other Days Inn, just not preheated and there was no sausage).
There was an overnight rain and it was still a little light in the morning. Behind the hotel was the Kanawha River.
Our friends were viewing this site and saw these pictures - and discovered that they stayed at this hotel once too!
It turned out that there was an Art and Music Festival taking place around the capitol. We did not know about this either.
But we had our sights set on the capitol anyway. We parked and shoveled some quaters into the meter - which we later found
out we didn't have to do because of the festival. We headed toward the capitol and came across a war momument, simultaneously
highlighting the four major military conflicts as well as the four branches of the military. On the inside were the names of
the West Virginian fallen.
We arrived at the East entrance to find it closed. So we walked toward the river in order to walk
completely around the building toward the West entrance.
When we arrived at the West entrance, we were happy to find it open. We went through security to find out, due to the
festival, the building, save for the security guards, was essentially empty. But we were free to roam about. We
found the information desk and there was a sign that indicated the stamp was available in the Cultural Arts Center (CAC) -
where we were heading after the capital anyway. We took some pictures of the area and even went to the second floor.
On the second floor, I saw a couple come out of a room at the end of a hall and start to walk toward us. When they got
closer, I asked "is there anything interesting down there?" The gentleman, who shall remain anonymous, replied
"Well, yes. The house chamber is down there. Would you like to see it?" I said "Sure, is it open?"
He said "No, but I [may or may not be] a delegate and I can show you." Jackpot! We got a brief showing inside.
After the chamber, we wondered around a little more and then went across the campus to the CAC. In the middle of
the campus was a magnolia tree. They were growing along the roadside like weeds - they were everywhere.
At the Cultural Arts Center (CAC) we got the book stamp from someone who happen to have gone to school at the University of Delaware.
Here are the book pages:
Then we toured the display downstairs that dealt mostly with how West Virginia became West Virginia.
There wasn't too much of significant interest though there was a fair amount of reading. We did come
across this old telephone switchboard and some very lovely glassware.
The floor near the exit was very impressive with this inlaid wood design of the state and its counties.
By the time we were done with capital and CAC, it was lunch time. So we went to
Smokehouse. It was more of
a "diner" establishment with a menu to support. There was counter seating as well as a dining area with
tables. Linda had the fried balogna sandwich with barbeque sauce with a side of mayo-less macaroni salad. I had
the pulled pork with a side of onion rings. While the food was tasty, the pork was not up to the barbeque joint
consistancy (I guess I was becoming spoiled from the previous places we had stopped to eat).
After the day's sightseeing ended, it was time to head to Harrisonburg, VA. But it was early. Really
early. So we did on this day what we did the previous - took a detour. The first detour was at a location
called Tamarack. It was, essentially, a mall for
artists. The buillding had an artsy design.
We walked around the factility - it was a circle with a courtyard with picnic tables in the middle. There
were various shops and a couple places to buy food. We were there for thirty to fourty-five minutes.
Back in the car and off to our next detour - Lewisburg. We stopped at the visitor's center and walked around the
town a little. We were told that Lewisburg is the only town in the county that is thriviing - the others are either
struggling or worse. Lewisburg is the home to the county seat, which is perceived to be contributing to the reason.
The next, and last, detour - like I said, we left Charleston really early - was in a town called
Covington. It seemed to be mostly deserted. But we did spy this train engine.
We also stopped in Covington for dinner at a location called
San Juan which was
right off the highway. It seemed to be a family run operation. The salsa was fresh and tasted home made (if you
can have home made anything in a restaurant), and the food was really good. Linda had a vegitarian taco salad (that
had warm peppers and onions at the bottom) and I had a burritto and a soft taco with beans and rice.
Some mountain vista shots somewhere betwen Charleston and Harrisonburg. When you look at them, just sing to yourself
"West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home, country roads." At least you got that Davey Crockett song out
of your head now. Or did you?!!? :-)
Before we knew it, we were at our final hotel, a Super 8. Unfortunately, it wasn't so super. While I admit that one makes certain sacrifices when trying to save on accomodations, this one took the cake. There was no iron. While we knew that based on the listing of hotel ammenities on Travelocity, there also was no alarm clock. Barely any outlets to plug into. The coat hanger was above the table. The AC was loud. We could hear people walking in the room above us, not too loudly, but we could. There were two ceiling tiles in the hallway near our room that had mold. And while the hotel had a capacity of 50, the breakfast room had seating for 10 and one two slice toaster. Gladly we were only there for one night.
FUN FACT: West Virginia was originally going to be called Vandalia and include part of Kentucky.
FUN FACT 2: Charleston is the smallest capital city that is still the most populous city in its state.