Friday, July 24, 2020

West Virginia Road Trip! Part 5: Summersville & Fayetteville: wine & food with a view!

Summersville Lake
West Virginia is open for business and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!
NOTE: Due to possible COVID-19 restrictions, which seem to be changing daily, before you travel or book Anything, CALL every place you want to go and make SURE they are open and operating! I have included phone numbers for almost every place we went to and enjoyed in this post. Although I have also included website hotlinks, do NOT rely on websites and online reservation sites- they are often not kept up to date! Every place we stayed at was spotlessly clean, and we had NO negative issues whatsoever! Dan and I are not kids- he is 73, and I am 61- and we had a fabulous West Virginia getaway!

 Our 9-night Road Trip loop thru West Virginia first took us from the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre in the southern mountains of Landgraff, in McDowell County, up to Romney, in Hampshire County, to ride the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train (see this post: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-come-on-down.html). Then we drove a little farther north to Berkeley Springs, in Morgan County, to "take the waters" at America's First Spa: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-2-taking.html We next drove south to Shinnston, in Harrison County,
to stay at Gillum House Bed-and-Breakfast, meet Punjab the Camel, and sip some great whiskey: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-3.html We then drove south to Cass, in Pocahontas County, to take the Cass Scenic Railroad, enjoy a Kissing Bridge, and see the Ice Age Foresthttps://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-4-cass.html
West Virginia Road Trip! Part 5: Summersville & Fayetteville for wine & food with a view!
Our final stops on this trip before heading home were Summersville and Fayetteville,  specifically to go to the Kirkwood Winery and Isaiah Morgan Distillery: https://kirkwood-wine.com/  Tel: 1-888-4WV-WINE right outside Summersville, the first winery and distillery we visited in West Virginia, back in 2002! At that time Dan was deployed to West Virginia by FEMA, following the floods that had devastated southern West Virginia, and we were staying in Beaver, WV. On Dan's days off we went and did all the fun, "touristy" things one does in West Virginia, including white water rafting, ATVing, taking train excursions, camping, fishing, and horseback riding, and although Dan was no lover of wine back then, I convinced him to "humor" me and go to the nearby Kirkwood Winery. Kirkwood is famous for their fruit and uniquely West Virginian vegetable wines, and we both fell in love with them the first time we visited, when we met the late Rodney Facemire who founded it. Among their truly unique West Virginia wines are Ramp Wine, which Chef Dan uses to marinate meat and to make reduction sauces, Ginseng, Dandelion, and Rhubarb Wines! They also have a large variety of grape and fruit wines made from the bounty of their vines and orchards. In creating the Isaiah Morgan Distillery, Rodney Facemire brought the "naughty" Appalachian tradition of the illegal moonshine still into the legal daylight, obtaining the license for the nation's smallest still in 2002. He conceived the vision of mini-distilleries, formed a team of government and business leaders, and created what has truly become a fabulous industry for the state of West Virginia, now nationally famous for our legal 'shine! Isaiah Morgan makes Moonshine, Rye Whiskey, Grappa, and now a fine, aged Bourbon, and after indulging in another yummy tasting, we bought a selection of their wines, as well as their Bourbon, and a bottle of Grappa for our Italian Inn-Sitter! We had Kirkwood wines at our wedding at the Elkhorn Inn, and our guests all loved them, and a few years ago we went to one of their fun, fall Grape Stomping Festivals, where we got in the vat and stomped grapes with our bare feet like Lucy and Ethel did on I Love Lucy! (Unfortunately the Grape Stomping Festival has been canceled for this fall, but we are trusting it will be back next year- it's truly another West Virginia "Must-Do"!)
Whine and Whiskey Tasting at Kirkwood Winery
Kirkwood Winery
Tooling around Summersville and Fayetteville, we drove across the famed New River Gorge Bridge several times: https://www.nps.gov/neri/planyourvisit/nrgbridge.htm, and at one point finally stopped to get a look at it from afar!
New River Gorge Bridge, peeking thru the trees!
The Bridge has spectacular views of the river on both sides, but it's impossible to get a good photo while driving across it, as all you can see from a car window is the darn barricade!
The Bridge is on Route 19, just north of Fayetteville, and when it was completed, in 1977, it turned a harrowing, 40-minute drive down narrow mountain roads and across one of North America's oldest rivers into a one minute drive! The Bridge is famed for being both the longest steel span in the western hemisphere, and the third highest in the United States, and it even has a day of its own: Bridge Day- the 3rd Sat. in October! On Bridge Day, the bridge is open to pedestrians and hosts a wide variety of activities, including BASE jumping, rappelling, music, and more, but unfortunately it has been cancelled this year: https://officialbridgeday.com/  You CAN, however, take a Bridge Walk, which is a guided tour of the New River Gorge Bridge from the catwalk 25’ beneath the Bridge: https://bridgewalk.com/  Tel: (304) 574-1300 - something we intend to go back and do!
We stayed in Fayetteville for two nights at The Historic Morris Harvey House:
https://www.morrisharveyhouse.com/   Tel: (304) 250-7090, a very pretty, 3-story Queen Anne-style house dating from 1902 that is on the National Register of Historic Places. We stayed in their Harvey Room, one flight up, which has a half-bath within the room, and a full bath with an antique claw-foot tub next door.
The Historic Morris Harvey House
The Harvey Room
Our first evening in Fayetteville we popped into Southside Junction Tap House for a beer: https://www.facebook.com/SouthsideJunctionTapHouse/  Tel: (304) 574-2222: 
Southside Junction Tap House
and then had dinner at Smokey's on the Gorge at Adventures on the Gorge:  https://adventuresonthegorge.com/dining/smokeys-gorge/  We remembered Smokey's from years ago when we went ziplining at TreeTops:
https://adventuresonthegorge.com/adventures/zip-line-aerial-adventures/treetops-zip-line-canopy-tour/  (totally awesome and wonderful, and an Absolute "Must-do"!), and it was still a relatively small operation; Smokey's was rather elegant, with fine dining... It's now a huge operation, and the new Smokey's is a humongous, family-style restaurant... Dan had their ribs, and I had their Brisket, with two tasty sauces, including a novel White Alabama BBQ Sauce, and we ate outside on their deck and enjoyed the beautiful sunset view over our plastic cups of wine, and it was very nice... but it wasn't as we remembered... Is anything, ever? ;-) 
Dinner at Smokey's on the Gorge
The next day we went sightseeing, driving to see beautiful Summersville Lake, and the Dam that created it, dedicated by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966: http://www.summersvillecvb.com/summersville-dam.html  
Summersville Lake
Summersville Lake
Above Summersville Lake



Summersville Dam

Above Summersville Dam
We then Had to go see the amusing Summersville Lighthouse at Summersville Lake Retreat:
http://summersvillelakeretreat.com/summersville-lake-lighthouse.html  Yes, Virginia, there is a real lighthouse in the mountains of West Virginia!
Summersville Lighthouse

A doe and her fawns!
While many of the roads we traveled were devoid of cars, and we often felt like the only people out and about, we did see a Lot of deer on this trip- basically everywhere we went! And they were fearless deer, totally unafraid of people, and several posed for photos, too!
Deer!
That afternoon we found a fun “private club” bar in Fayetteville: Jaybird and Charlie's Pub: https://www.facebook.com/jaybirdandcharliespub/  Tel: (304) 574-0822 and had drinks at their bar and outside on their patio, as well. Jaybird was really nice, and we were made to feel very welcome; his bar has pool tables and foosball, and this is definitely the place that would be our "Cheers" if we lived in Summersville! We'll definitely return if we get back to the area!
G&Ts at Jaybird & Charlie's
Our "foodie find"of this trip was that evening, when we had dinner at Wanderlust Creative Foods (formerly New River Curry): https://www.facebook.com/newrivercurry/  Tel: (304) 574-3111 in downtown Fayetteville, a charming, informal, friendly, not expensive, chef-driven restaurant serving inventive, international, gourmet-level cuisine! Dan and I shared three yummy appetizers for dinner and left stuffed: their Samosas, served with an excellent Mango Chutney, delicious Sisig, caramelized pork belly sauteed with ginger, garlic and Thai Chilies and topped with a fried egg, and scrumptious seared Gulf Shrimp in a Sherry Reduction Sauce, garnished with seasonal microgreens. I had a unique and delicious Thai fruit drink, as well, that included gelled basil seeds, which I'd never seen in West Virginia before, and it was so good that I got one to take with me! If you get to Fayetteville, THIS is where you want to eat!
Sisig - Carmelized Pork Belly
Shrimp in a Sherry Reduction Sauce
We did a leisurely drive home the next day, taking the “back roads” through the mountains, stopping to see pretty places, historic sites, and fun things along the way...
West Virginia...
The cutest playhouse!

Big Lime
Greenbrier County
Chainsaw Sculpture Adorableness!






Big Beaver Creek
Camp Jones

Napoleon Bonaparte French
Engagement at Falls Mills
...and passing through Oak Hill in Fayette County, whose claim to fame is apparently as the place where Hank Williams was pronounced dead...
Hank Williams Memorial
Hank Williams Memorial

We stopped for lunch at Kimono Japanese Seafood & Steak House in Princeton, WV in Mercer County: 
https://www.facebook.com/Kimono-Japanese-Seafood-Steak-House-157785594261594/  Tel: (304) 487-8008. Kimono is our fave local restaurant, and we ended our WV Road Trip with an epic seaweed salad-sushi-sake feast! We Love this place, still amazed, after 18 years, that our landlocked southern West Virginia mountains boasts a sushi bar that beats every place we've eaten at in the USA, including NYC, where I'm from!
Sushi-Saki feast at Kimono!
We then drove through Bramwell, also in Mercer County: https://www.bramwellwv.com/ , famed as “Home of the Coal Baron Millionaires” for its many historic mansions, and stopped to photograph the train trestle, and again to photograph a Norfolk Southern train chugging 'round the bend through Keystone... 
Train Trestle in Bramwell
NS Railroad coming thru Keystone
and before we knew it, we were back home in Landgraff, at the Elkhorn Inn: http://www.elkhorninnwv.com
Tel: 304-862-2031, and unpacking all the wine and booze and foodie treats we'd picked up along the way! :-)  
West Virginia is open for business, and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!
Our West Virginia Souvenirs!

NS Railroad coming thru Keystone

NS Railroad coming thru Keystone




Thursday, July 23, 2020

West Virginia Road Trip! Part 4: Cass Scenic Railroad & The Ice Age Forest!

Cass Scenic Railroad
Sharp's Kissing Bridge
West Virginia is open for business and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!
NOTE: Due to possible COVID-19 restrictions, which seem to be changing daily, before you travel or book Anything, CALL every place you want to go and make SURE they are open and operating! I have included phone numbers for almost every place we went to and enjoyed in this post. Although I have also included website hotlinks, do NOT rely on websites and online reservation sites- they are often not kept up to date! Every place we stayed at was spotlessly clean, and we had NO negative issues whatsoever! Dan and I are not kids- he is 73, and I am 61- and we had a fabulous West Virginia getaway!

Part 4: Cass Scenic Railroad, a Kissing Bridge, and the Ice Age Forest!
Our 9-night Road Trip loop thru West Virginia first took us from the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre in the southern mountains of Landgraff, in McDowell County, up to Romney, in Hampshire County, to ride the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train (see this post: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-come-on-down.html). Then we drove a little farther north to Berkeley Springs, in Morgan County, to "take the waters" at America's First Spa: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-2-taking.html We next drove south to Shinnston, in Harrison County,
to stay at Gillum House Bed-and-Breakfast, meet Punjab the Camel, and sip some great whiskey: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-3.html


Die-hard "railfans" (train-lovers, often called "foamers", LOL) that we obviously are, we went to Cass to ride the Cass Scenic Railroad:  https://mountainrail.com/tour/CassScenicRailroad/  Tel: (304) 636-9477

The Cass Scenic Railroad is the same line built in 1901 to haul lumber down from the mountain to the mill in Cass, and the locomotives are the same, huge Shay locomotives used in Cass during that time! Many of the passenger cars are old logging flat cars that have been refurbished, as well, and the little red cabooses are downright adorbs! Cass is home to the world's largest fleet of geared Shay locomotives: five Shays, one Heisler, and one Climax happily reside there- it's railfan heaven! The legendary turn-of-the-century class C-80 Shay, #5, has been toiling up Cheat Mountain for nearly 115 years, making it one of the oldest engines in continuous service on its original line, and the oldest operable Shay in existence! Cass is another, total "Must-Do" for any railfan, and with its fabulous, loud train whistle and billowing steam smoke as it chugs up the mountain, tons of fun for kids of all ages!
We took a Cass steam train excursion in the summer of 2002 when we first came to West Virginia, and really enjoyed it; we bought our first piece of art in West Virginia- our wonderful "Little Bear" chainsaw sculpture- from a man who was carving tree trunks into magnificent statues with a chainsaw in his driveway right outside of Cass! 
"Little Bear"
 At that time, we took the Cass excursion up to Whittaker Station, where we enjoyed an outdoor picnic lunch and live music. This time we took the longer, 4.5 hour, 22 mile excursion all the way up to Bald Knob, and had a tasty "Hobo Lunch" of sandwiches on board. We spent about 1/2 hour at Bald Knob, and got to stretch our legs in the sunshine, take in the magnificent view, and shoot lots of cool photos of the fabulous Shay locomotive! Railfan guests of our inn did a "Castaway Caboose" overnight there years ago, and Dan and I both hope we can get back to do that! We arrived at the station an hour early, at 11am, so we had time to see the movie about the history of Cass and the diorama of the town in its hey-day, and visit the Museum, which adjoins their Last Run Restaurant and Company Store. After the excursion we returnedk to the store and bought West Virginia artisan salt from J.Q. Dickinson Salt Works: https://www.jqdsalt.com/, moonshine praline pecans, and locally-made jams, including a fab and zingy Jalapeno-Cherry Jam!
The Shay at the Station, ready to board!
Getting ready to board!

Chugging up the mountain!






Caboose!











Caboose!

Up the mountain!

Up the mountain!

Watering the engine...

The view!


The view!

Railfans Dan & Elisse!

Up the mountain!


View from Bald Knob

At Bald Knob

At Bald Knob

Maintenance at Bald Knob...
On the way down the mountain...
Oiling the engine...





Cass




Exhibit of Logger ID Tags

Cass Loggers

An Immigrant's Story...

A really cool ride on the rails!



































































Although Cass Scenic Railroad State Park now has restored Company Houses available for lodging: https://reservations.wvstateparks.com/products/lodging, they are quite large, with three bedrooms, and so we chose to stay for our two nights at the Morning Glory Inn in Slatyfork, a lovely B-&-B near the Snowshoe Ski Resort, as well as Cass: https://www.morninggloryinn.com/ Tel: (304) 572-5000. Morning Glory currently has a "no contact" check-in and check-out procedure in effect, and breakfast was provided for us in our guest room.
Morning Glory Inn

Morning Glory Inn
Morning Glory Inn














For dinner we drove about 20 minutes into Marlinton, where we found the Greenbrier Grille and Lodge: https://www.greenbriergrille.com/ , a nice restaurant with an outdoor deck overlooking the Greenbrier River where we could enjoy our dinner and a glass of wine, and throw corn down to feed the ducks and geese their dinner! 
Geese & ducks at Greenbrier Grille

Feeding the geese & ducks at Greenbrier Grille
 A cool Marlinton mural...

Leaving Slatyfork the next morning, we stopped at Sharp's Kissing Bridge on US 219, the red covered bridge across from the cool and fun Sharp's Country Store https://sharpscountrystore.com/Welcome/, a place we discovered years ago on another railfan road trip thru West Virginia to Elkins, and kissed again on the bridge! The red covered bridge across the Big Spring Fork of the Elk River was built in 2005 by Ken Gibson for his great uncle, Dave Sharp. Dave had wished to one day own a red covered bridge, as he remembered sneaking a kiss in such a bridge! Unfortunately the store wasn't open when we were there this time, but at least we got to kiss on the bridge! Sharp's Kissing Bridge is on Roadside America, a site that lists all sorts of cool things to see across the nation: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/ 


Sharp's Kissing Bridge
At Sharp's

After kissing on the Kissing Bridge!
"Falling Man Barn" at Sharp's- you can't miss it!
We drove the Highland Scenic Highway:
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/eastern/HighlandScenicHighway/index.shtml through this area, which is a world-famous and gorgeous "Must-do" drive in West Virginia. There is truly magnificent scenery to enjoy, hiking trails along the way, geological and vegetative wonders, trout streams, and wildflowers out the wazoo!

Highlands Scenic Highway

Cool info from
https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/scenic-drive-in-west-virginia-highland-scenic-highway-ga.htm: "As an isolated area with abundant natural resources, the wilderness of the Highland Scenic Highway was an early haven for Americans seeking to avoid the horrors of the Civil War. Families who moved to the area at this time maintained their seclusion for decades. In the 1960s, the descendants of these families experienced a visit from people researching for the Smithsonian Institution. As the researchers studied and recorded the oral histories of the families in this area, they discovered that the language spoken was still the Elizabethan English of the early U.S. settlers. Tradition and folk tales of the area have been recorded and are a remnant of the mountain cultures of the East".
The center of West Virginia is also home to a unique "tundra" climate in some places, where high elevation, cold weather, and geology combined to create areas with plants and animals usually only found in the arctic, such as Red Spruce Trees, the Canada Mayflower, and the Snowshoe Hare, and we were able to see a bit of that on this trip: Black Mountain and Cranberry Glades, and the Ice Age Forest, a relic of the last Ice Age!

Ice Age Forest
Black Mountain...

Ice Age Forest
Black Mountain....



Black Mountain

At Black Mountain
Black Mountain

Wildflowers...
Cranberry Glades





















Next: WV Road Trip, Part 5: Summersville & Fayetteville for Wine and Food! 
West Virginia is open for business, and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!