Take Me Home... Country Roads

So a couple of weekends ago, Gordon and I roadtripped out to West Virginia. Not the most obvious of choices when one thinks of roadtrips, but we were looking to get out of the city one last time before I move up to Mass.

After ditching the idea of going to New York (because I dislike the place. Sorry, Joy.), we decided to head out to WV because we'd both only ever really been to Harper's Ferry with JrNYLC - every Monday. We went to Berkeley Springs, WV, because we'd heard that it was really cute. What's there to do in BS, WV? Well, not a lot. As the name implies, there are some springs - famous ones at that. George Washington liked to take in the waters in Berkeley Springs. I think that may be all it is famous for actually. But it IS a cute town.

Our first stop however was getting back to my outdoorsy roots and going hiking. Here's the odd thing about West Virginia: being close to DC (like an hour to an hour and a half), you get a lot of the "weekend warrior" types. You know the ones that think that outdoorsy is wearing rainbow flipflops and stepping outside of your car. The ones that are used to driving up to the panoramic vistas and thinking they've never seen anything better. It's one of the things I dislike about DC. Anyway, so Gordon and I went to the Cacapon State Park which was supposed to have great trails and a big lake. We thought, hey, we'll pick up a trail map at the park HQ and be on our way for a few hours. That's so NOT what happened. Somehow we ended up lost on the roads through the park... which somehow ended up at the lookout. The lookout where a platform was built to get a better look at the pretty view (seriously). A platform. Luckily the view was pretty good... though I don't think it needed an unnatural eyesore of a platform to see it:

view from the top

Gordon and I drove back down the mountain and said forget the trail map, let's just go. So we hiked for a little bit on the Ziler Loop trail. Now, I haven't been hiking in quite sometime. I'm not as young as I used to be... nor in shape. Even before I was a slow hiker, but this time I was making us stop every few minutes! We hiked up the mountain some more, however, and found a good lunch spot on some rocks. After enjoying our bought from Food Lion sandwiches (poor planning on our part), we decided we should probably head back because we didn't know how much time we'd have to check out town and make in time for our 4pm reservations at the springs. So we hiked out and went to discover town.

Gordon and I on the trail

The thing is... there's not a whole lot of town to discover! Their downtown which everyone told us was cute... WAS cute, but also only 2 blocks long. We stopped hiking for this? Now, I come from a pretty small town, too, so I was thinking cute, historic, pedestrian friendly. Berkeley Springs however was cute (and overpriced boutique shops and restaurants), historic in that Geo. Washington liked to go there, and there was all of 2 crosswalks on the main drag (which is also a state highway and busy with mack trucks). The springs? The center of town at the Berkeley Springs State Park - the smallest state park and where state park includes a public pool.

see? told you he was here.

I had my first massage experience after taking in the waters at the springs. The massage was pretty cool for being a person that does not like people touching her. The roman bath was pretty cool. The state park offers the best deal in the area on spa stuff - a 20 minute private roman bath, 30 minute full body massage, and 5 minute shower all for $45. I would do it again. What I wouldn't do again is get a pedicure. As much as I don't like people touching me, I like even less people touching my feet. I thought I'd use the pedicure as a way to get over my phobia... but no. I still don't like people touching my feet even if my toenails are now a cute silver color.

Lucky for Gordon and I for our night in town, we had reserved tickets for a local play. Lucky, I say, since there really is nothing to do in the town (you can only sit at the springs until dusk anyway). The play was The Nerd. It was hilarious!! So funny and not what I was expecting it to be.

The next day, I had that pedicure that I didn't like and then we left town. Stopped by the farmer's market on the way out -- all 6 tents. That took up like 2 minutes. With the car still our's until evening, Gordon and I headed to Charlestown Races and Slots and lost money. Seriously, a huge room with nothing but slot machines. It's like Vegas but without the high rollers. However, I did end up liking the place, because it was SO seedy, it was awesome!


We ended up going back to Charlestown this past Friday for the evening as well... and losing more money again. Gordon won some, but it doesn't count because he didn't give me any.