Drove from State College, PA to Watkins Glen, NY today. Not a new state by any stretch of the imagination for either of us (Doug went to school in NY for 2 years, and Jen lived here for 25 years!) but we still had our "new state ceremony" with the RV map. Once we got settled, we drove down to Corning to a brewery (shocking, I know) and had lunch. Not great, but good enough. It's been raining all day here, so there's not much outdoors to enjoy here.
This morning, we needed a leisurely morning with our coffee in the campground. Once we recharged, we took the pups for a beautiful 5.5 mile hike in the same forest that we rode in yesterday. Different area/trails though. The whole hike ran alongside a creek, so there were lots of good smells and squirrels for them to chase. Fun was had by all.
Rode at Black Moshannon State Forest today. Nice mix of singletrack and fire roads, mostly in the shade, and a nice little stretch of a rooty trail alongside a bog that evoked memories of NH. Weather is beautiful - dry, cool, almost fall-like. We even started the ride in long sleeved shirts. LONG SLEEVES!!!
After the ride, we were very very thirsty, so we explored the State College brewery scene. First one was called Robin Hood, which was conveniently located inside a pizza place (we were very very hungry too!). Beer wasn't anything to write home about, but it was good enough. Next, we fought the Friday afternoon college town traffic to get across town, via the center of the Penn State campus, to the next brewery on our list, Ottos. Huge college crowd and very noisy, so we only had one. They had a local cider on tap, so Jen was happy.
Made the drive through the rolling green hills of Pennsylvania to State College. The weather is gorgeous - sunny and cool. This is the first time we've been able to sit outside since we left Ft Huachuca - not humid , no biting bugs, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Lots of breweries in State College, and we discovered our first one today - the Happy Valley Brewing Company. Gotta love the name (especially since it's what the locals also call the Mt Washington Valley, where we live in NH). Food was phenomenal - local, fresh, innovative. Beer was decent too. Definitely not the college bar we feared it would be.
Tomorrow: Riding trails where the local legend is that the elves come out every night to sharpen the rocks. Should be interesting for our crash tally.
Nothing much to report today. Drove to Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Because of the holiday weekend coming up, our travel plans are odd, due to non-availability of campgrounds amd/or 2 & 3 day minimums at a lot of places.
No good mtn biking here, but the campground is right on the C & O rail trail, so that was good for a long pup walk and some good ball throwing for Sunday. Jen was happy that we passed a farm stand on the way here, so she loaded up on local zucchini, tomatoes, corn, melon and peppers (and Doug is relieved to not have to hear her whine about needing vegetables any more!)
Had another "new state" ceremony on our map when we got here. Nothing much else to report from sleepy PA.
Tried mtn biking in West Virginia today, but wouldn't put it up there with our list of favorite places. Weather was beautiful, but it must have rained a lot here this summer because the trails were just slick slick mud and slimy roots. Add that to the ginormous spiders across the trail every few feet, and I'd say we did more walking than riding. We both kept whining "I wanna go back to Arizona!" We didn't even do the whole trail - bailed out after only 4 miles.
Then we went to check out the downtown area, and of course visit the much-hyped Tap Room (not a brewery, but they purported to have over 100 beers from around the world on tap). Well, after wandering around for far too long, we finally found it, but it was closed and locked up, out of business! Bust #2 for the day. So we bought some cupcakes from a cute little bakery and went back to the RV.
Tomorrow: Pennsylvania.
We were supposed to stay in Knox one more day, but when we woke up to more rain, we decided to move on. Of course, we had no cell or Internet service at Knox, so we had to drive into town for a signal. Lucky for Doug, we found a signal at J-Bobs diner, so we did our research and made reservations over a breakfast of diner food. Doug reached far back to his southern roots and had some kind of meat and hash-brown filled omelet smothered in gravy (See photo). Something tells me it's going to be a long trip in the truck today.........
Arrived in West Virginia this afternoon, to a cute little campground in between Huntington and Charleston. Weather is better - still humid , but temps are back down to the 80s. The pups immediately found a green slime covered pond and dove in, which meant Jen had to give them both baths. They were not happy. 😞
Since it was never dry enough in KY to do our new state ceremony on our map, we did a double-new state ceremony here tonight. We've both been here before, but first time in the RV.
Tomorrow checking out some MTB trails, and well, you know, if a brewery just happens to pop up, we'll be obligated to support the local business. 😉
Left STL long before the sun came up to head east to Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Even at 0400, opening the door of the RV was like entering a sauna. Blech.
Stayed at Camp Carlson, another Army MWR area just outside of Ft Knox. It was beautiful - acres of the greenest lawns, huge green trees and a lake. The pups had a blast running around on the grass - much softer than desert rocks. Unfortunately, the weather still sucked - a little cooler than STL, but still miserable. So we just ran some errands and then sat in the air conditioning. Saturday evening, we went over to Jen's old boss's house, COL Cody, who is now the SJA here at Knox. By that time it was a torrential downpour (See photo below) so we sat inside and drank beer and complained about the Army. 😆
Drove to St. Louis this morning. Staying at a KOA just west of the city - less than a mile from Six Flags. We thought about spending a day at Six Flags, but it's still in the 90s with over 60% humidity, and schools not in session yet here, so we figured it would be packed with screaming children (remember, Jen gets hives). So we'll save that for another trip. BTW, remind us that the next time we decide to move across the country (of course there will be a next time), to do it in the spring or fall!
First stop in the STL was White Castle for Doug. He's been planning for this for several states now, so it was an important stop. The truck now smells like onions and grease, and he keeps holding his stomach saying "I don't feel so good" but apparently that's a sign that everything met his expectations. Even the pups got in on the WC action, chowing down on the French fries Doug saved for them.
Right behind the WC was a sign for a store named "Dickey Bub Farm & Home" . How do you NOT go into a store named "Dickey Bub"? Turned out to be like a CalRanch, and Doug even found the screws he needed to fix something on the RV. I guess that makes us honorary hillbillies.
Since we hadn't been to any middle-america brewpubs, we had to find one here. Surprisingly, we found one in a little industrial town called Pacific - looked like a dive from the outside, but they had good beer, great food, cold air conditioning, and excellent service. Of course, Doug didn't need to eat because he was still holding his stomach from all the WC.
Not a bad stopover, all things considered. O'dark-thirty departure tomorrow morning, headed to Kentucky.
Out early to beat the "record breaking heat wave" and sample some Ozarks trails. It was still hotter than hell, even at 0730, and with the humidity, we were, again, soaked before we even left the parking lot. We are not going to fare so well back in DC... ugh.
Ride was a lot of fun. Swoopy single-track, a lite bit of up, and a whole lotta down. Not too many spiders, but we did have to "brake for turtles" and turkeys and squirrels.
In the afternoon, we rented a pontoon boat here at the Lake camp and tooled around on the Lake for a few hours. Pups were so funny - these desert dogs have never been on a boat and had no idea why the ground under them kept moving. Once they realized how good the breeze felt, they both had their heads hanging over the railing. We finally got them off and into the water with us. Just. Like yesterday, Sunday was a swimmin fool, and Finn was terrified. Once we got them back in the boat, they both passed out in the sun. Good day to be a Norvell dog!
Tomorrow off to St. Louis, where Doug already has his first White Castle mapped out.
