What a Whirlwind Trip!

The view of Seneca Rocks from the tent camping sites.

I was hoping there would be some time for sitting around the campfire, knitting and listening to the birds in the forest on this trip. It was anything BUT that. It was even BETTER! This trip was all about visiting my beloveds and making memories and that is priceless.

My only living uncle…my precious Uncle Bud…is a widower. Living on his own and keeping himself busy as ever. He’s 86 years old now when we arrived, he was welding a contraption he designed to pull a submersible pump and copper wire out of a 600 foot deep water well. He is a force to be reckoned with. He took us out to dinner at Cheetah B’s…a little mom and pop restaurant in the building they share with the American Foreign Legion. The Whiskey Glazed Filet Medallions were SO good!

The second day was spent with my wonderful Cousin Tammy and her husband Alvy. Located at the base of a mountain, their sprawling property houses a wood chip mill, and meat processing facility, a flower stand, and a gorgeous home they built with their own hands. They even cut the timber in their own sawmill. They recently purchased a 27 acre lot adjacent to theirs and Alvy took Mr. FixIt and I in the side-by-side up these crazy 4×4 trails in the rain. I had NO idea where we were. It felt like we were just going around in circles. We went out this one trail and there was a good lined tree blocking the way. We had to go back. There was no room to turn around, so Alvy just started backing down the mountain. I never should have let him see I was getting a little freaked out about not being able to see where I was headed, because that just added to the fun and he gave us a ride to remember, let me tell you. Alvy is a great big, strong, mountain man with a heart the size of the rugged mountain he he’s scrabbled a life on. They raised three equally strong women and now have a passel of grandkids they absolutely adore. It was SO much fun seeing them. The bonus was her middle girl stopped by with her two kids.

When we got up yesterday morning to sunny skies, I suggested we stay one more day so I could get some of that knitting and listening to the birds in that I was hoping for. But my sweetheart reminded me we had a boatload of stuff to do.

Who wouldn’t want to stay here a while?

It’s a good thing we did come home because there was a frost warning for this morning in the area we camped in. It didn’t take us long to pack up and we took our time towing up and down four mountains on our way back.

We stopped in Buchanan at a Walmart parking lot. I jumped in the camper and cooked us a delicious meal and we sat there chatting about how wonderful it is to have the freedom and the means to take such adventures and to have someone to share them with. It was a really nice getaway.

The first morning before all the visiting began.

We stayed at Seneca Shadows Campground located in the Monongahela National Forest. It is a beautiful place with four loops with well-spaced campsite. There are flush toilets and showers, fire pits, and picnic tables. There is a large tent camping area that overlooks Seneca Rocks so there are a lot of rock climbers that stay there. There are a couple of little stores at the intersection about a mile or so away and they have a climbing school with a huge climbing wall. West Virginia has some of the most beautiful scenery there is and I hope y’all will come see why John Denver called it…Almost Heaven!