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| Punjab The Camel! |
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| Levi Shinn Log House, Shinnston |
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 3: Shinnston and meeting Punjab the Camel!
From Berkeley
Springs we drove 2.5 hours down to Shinnston, in Harrison County, so we could see our good friend Kathleen Panek and stay at her B-&B,
Gillum
House Bed-and-Breakfast: https://gillumhouse.com/
Tel: (304)
592-0177.
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| Gillum House Bed-and-Breakfast |
Kathleen
has been to our inn several times, but in all our years here we had
never been able to get up north to see hers! Gillum House was built
in 1912; Kathleen and her husband John purchased it in 1994 and
opened it as their B-&-B in 1996. Kathleen was the President of
the West Virginia Bed-and-Breakfast Association, and one of the first
people we met when we decided to buy our historic property and create
the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre; she gives an excellent Aspiring Inn-Keeper
Course which we took prior to opening the Elkhorn Inn. I made
Kathleen promise to take us to experience two special things in Shinnston that
she can arrange: to meet Punjab
The Camel and
feed him carrots, and to see the historic
1770s
Levi Shinn Log House! Shinnston
is named for Levi Shinn, who settled in that area with his brothers
and cousins circa 1772. By 1778 Levi had built a 2-story log house
for his wife (nee Elizabeth Smith), and their 9 children. The original log
house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, still stands on the original site, and Kathleen has the
permission of the Shinnston Historical Association to take her guests
inside! A two-story Log House is quite rare- for its time it was
definitely a mansion! Occupied until the 1970s and wonderfully
maintained, it was super-cool to be able to go inside and look at all
the furnishings and historic items! (A
note to lovebirds: Kathleen arranges Elopements, and she can arrange
for you to be married in the Shinn Log House!
https://gillumhouse.com/elope)
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| Levi Shinn Log House |
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| Levi Shinn Log House |
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| In the Levi Shinn Log House |
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| In the Levi Shinn Log House |
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| Upstairs Bedroom |
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| Log House Chinking |
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| Upstairs in the Levi Shinn Log House |
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| Inside the Levi Shinn Log House |
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| Upstairs Bedroom |
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| National Register of Historic Places |
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| The Levi Shinn Log House |
Dan and
I loved meeting Punjab the Camel and his horse, zebra, and
burro friends, and feeding them carrots! This was another truly
unique WV experience, as I don't think anyone expects to find a camel-
much less a truly sweet and good-natured, carrot-eating one- in the
mountains of West Virginia!
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| Me and Punjab! |
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| Punjab's Burro Buddy! |
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| Punjab loves carrots! |
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| Feeding the horses carrots... |
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| Dan feeding Punjab a carrot! |
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| Me, Kofi the Zebra, & Punjab's Butt! |
That
night we all sat on the Gillum House front porch, ate pizza delivered
from the new East of Chicago
Pizza: https://www.facebook.com/EOCShinnston/,
drank West Virginia wine, and caught up on a million things- a lovely
evening! We stayed in Gillum House's Gillum
Room, which has a private
bath with an antique claw-foot tub- which I loved! You can see all
the guest rooms here: https://gillumhouse.com/rooms-rates
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| Gillum House Guest Room |
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| Gillum House Guest Room |
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| Our Claw-Foot Tub! |
Kathleen's B-&-B
is famous for her world-wide
selection of coffees, which she roasts fresh for her guests,
and for her scrumptious
breakfasts,
which we were privileged to enjoy! I especially loved her Blackberry
Cobbler, which she makes from her garden's blackberries, and tops
with her sinfully rich "Mock
Devonshire Cream"! When we left she gave us a "take-away" box
of cobbler, which we happily devoured on the road!
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| Simpson Creek Covered Bridge |
From
Shinnston we headed south towards Cass, but at Kathleen's suggestion
we first stopped at the Simpson Creek Covered Bridge,
which dates from 1881, and is one of only 16 covered bridges left in
West Virginia, and then the MannCave
Distillery
and Lambert's
Winery!
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| Simpson Creek Covered Bridge |
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| Ducks at the Covered Bridge... |
MannCave Distillery:
https://www.manncave.com/
Tel: (681) 533-1001 in
Weston, WV is
a brand new and truly unique distillery with an amazing backstory!
Stephen and Wendy Mann are crafting and selling excellent whiskies,
vodka, and gin, that literally won medals right after they opened in
2019! What makes MannCave so unique and truly West Virginian is that
their
spirits are made
from the crystal-clear Artesian spring water that lies beneath two
abandoned 1930s coal mines! Their successful creation of the MannCave
Distillery is an incredible and truly West Virginian story of
ingenuity, grit, and perseverance that really hit home with us, given
our experience creating the Elkhorn Inn:
https://www.manncave.com/our-story/
We
were treated to an excellent tasting by Stephen, followed by a tour of the
distillery by his daughter, and we bought their superb gin and
whiskey. Check out their Facebook page and give it a “like”:
https://www.facebook.com/spikeworld (One
of the great things about MannCave is that it's actually easy to
find, thanks to 8 bright blue signs at literally every turn along the
way- something truly unique in West Virginia, where directions
often start with “turn left at the Chevy up on blocks” and end
with “turn right where the old schoolhouse used to be”. LOL)
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| At MannCave Distillery with Stephen Mann |
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| MannCave Distillery Tour |
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| MannCave Distillery Tour |
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| Dan checking that corn mash! |
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| MannCave Distillery |
We
then drove to Lambert's
Winery http://lambertswinery.com/
Tel: (304)
269-4903,
a beautiful winery also in Weston,
WV, had
a tasting, and bought several bottles of wine to take home!
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| Tasting at Lambert's Winery! |
As we headed south towards Cass, history-buffs that we are, we stopped to see a number of historic sites, including the log cabin
at Jackson's Mill, the site of the boyhood home of Stonewall
Jackson, which is now a 4-H camp, and the Weston Colored School, which is now also a Veteran's Memorial. There's truly gorgeous scenery to enjoy, barns with cool, old ad signs, deer and wildlife all over the place, wildflowers out the wazoo, and 1000s of fun street signs all over West Virginia, from Country Girl Road to Moo Cow Lane, and we enjoyed more than a few of all of the above on this road trip!
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| At Jackson's Mill |
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| Jackson's Mill |
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| Weston Colored School |
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| Weston Colored School |
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| Battle of Middle Fork Bridge |
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| Herman Guy Kump, 19th Gov. of WV |
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| Along the way... |
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| Pocahontas County on one side... |
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| Gee Lick Road! |
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| Randolph County on the other side! |
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| Mingo Flats |
Next: WV Road Trip, Part 4: Cass Scenic Railroad!
West Virginia is open for business, and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!
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