New River Gorge National River II

Tuesday, October 14, would be our last touring day, and we made the most of it. We were again blessed with gorgeous weather. We had two destinations in mind: Thurmond Historic District and Grandview. These locations were some distance apart so we knew we would be on the road most of the day.

Narrow Route 25 follows Dunloop Creek for seven miles to the restored Thurmond Depot. When we arrived, a train with cars full of coal was waiting at a siding. Obviously, there are active coal mines throughout the region. The Depot is operated by CSX Transportation, but was once part of the Chesapeake & Ohio railway system hauling coal and passengers from Virginia to Chicago. Freight and coal are still the main train cargoes, and Amtrack has three passenger trains per week on CSX tracks. The Depot is much like it was in the early 1900s and reminiscent of depots we had in New England during that era. While we were there, a long CSX freight train climbed the mountain to Thurmond and continued west toward Ohio. We enjoyed the stop.

Our last destination was Grandview. The tourist brochure describes it this way: "The overlooks at Grandview, the highest in the park, offer broad views of the land cut by the New River and its many tributaries. Rhododendrons frame the view in mid-May and fall color adds to the panorama in October." This is accurate. As a bonus, we stopped at an apple orchard and purchased apples right from the trees.

The neat thing about Grandview is it is only five miles from I-64 at Exit 129. So many people pass it by not knowing the grandeur of the New River Gorge. We feel fortunate that we had two days to explore this natural beauty.

Wednesday morning we hooked up the tow vehicles and headed east along I-64 for Virginia. We made the Afton Mountain rest stop around midday and had a picnic lunch together. Chuck and Donna left the caravan at US 29 from I-64; we and the Halsteads continued on toward Gordonsville on US 15-N. The Halsteads turned off for Louisa, and we headed home to Fawn Lake, arriving mid afternoon.

We packed a lot of activity into these eleven days. Meeting new people is such a treat, and Discovery International is a great group of people. We didn't know what to expect at Cumberland Gap and Renfro Valley. We thoroughly enjoyed every day of both experiences. We now have a much better appreciation of Kentucky and West Virginia history and contemporary times having learned a great deal on this trip. We are indebted to our friends the Tolsons and the Halsteads for all they did to plan and facilitate this trip.

We will be home a week. We leave for Frederick, MD and the Maryland Good Sam Samboree October 23. More about that later.