Trip recap

We arrived in Parkersburg in the early evening on Friday. After we landed in our deluxe hotel room, we headed out to have a meal and came back to listen to live jazz and play backgammon in the hotel library. The music drifted into that lovely room and we played for a couple of hours. Toward the end of our game, the ghost tour lady brought the group for that evening in and wrapped things up. It was there that we overheard she had been chased off as a devil worshipper somewhere along her route. Hmm. (A side note about our hotel: they have the maid service place a stamp of the hotel insignia on the first little square of toilet paper when they clean a room. That just cracks me up. I brought the toilet paper squares back to Daniel who will cherish them.)

Pictures from that evening are here:

We took our time getting out and about the next day. After a leisurely detour (code for Ted going the wrong way for about a half hour), we arrived at the North Bend Rail Trail and rented the last two bikes on hand. Ted rode the one with the handlebars a foot below the seat level, forcing him to lean forward the whole ride, and the rock hard seat. Mine had a slightly cushier seat and weirdly sticky handles. As we set out, a stream of horse drawn wagons made their way past us from the opposite direction. It was very peaceful and serene and I look forward to expanding to some bike rides here locally. The only problems I experienced were the times I was forced to ride the crap bike and of course the tunnels. I get a little panicky with the earth above my head. I am not claustrophobic or scared of the dark, but the thought of an entire mountain over my head freaks me out. So when a drop of water dripped down on me in the second tunnel I flipped my wig. Ted has captured a photo for posterity. Love it.

Photos of North Bend Rail Trail here.

After we biked around 10 miles roundtrip, we decided we still had time to visit the Blennerhassett Museum and Island.

Museum Pics are here

Island Pics are here

The island was lovely with deer and turkey and a horse drawn wagon ride. The only part that got my goat was that a house built by wealthy people was built on the island and then burned down in 1811. Why in 1988 did someone feel it necessary to rebuild this mansion on a floodprone, middle of the river island? It seems such a waste to highlight past wealth with new money, instead of using those funds to house the homeless that were being fed in the parking lot by the mobile soup kitchen as we returned to our car. Just sayin'.

Once we returned to the hotel, we decided against the ghost tour. We were so sore (and still are) from our bike rides that we didn't think a 2 mile walk would do anything for us. So we went to Olive Garden and overate. My husband indulged himself with some very sweet, very potent wine. When we got back to the room, he sat on the bed and fell asleep. Live jazz was playing in the courtyard (our room overlooked it) and a wedding was taking place. I opened the window to hear better and rested beside him. That was a really lovely experience.

Pics of a cemetery skyline that I saw several times and asked Ted to take pictures of.