Almost Heaven...West Virginia...

We headed south from Pennsylvania to visit my son Michael in West Virginia...right into freezing weather and even a little SNOW!

We took two days to make the trip. Stopped the first night at Shenandoah Valley Campground of Mt. Jackson. It was ideal for an overnight stop, right off the highway, easy to find, easy to pull in and out of, and they have a little snack bar where we were able to get sandwiches and burgers as well as breakfast the next morning. We didn't even have to unhook the truck...always a plus! Additionally, it is a Passport America member, so the rates were great...another plus.

Between the mountain roads and the snow flurries, the trip took longer than we expected; we didn't pull into our campground until 4PM. We stayed at Pipestem Resort State Park, it is 15 miles from Princeton, the nearest town. As I was getting us registered, the staff told me that the water was turned off so the pipes would not freeze but, not to worry, it would be turned back on at noon on Saturday! We arrived on Thursday! They did have a working water connection that allowed us to fill our fresh water tank before we hooked up...amidst snow flurries. For the better part of two days we conserved water, but you know I was in a nice hot shower by 12:15PM on Saturday!

Pipestem is a beautiful place and we will stay there again, hopefully in better weather. The sites are wooded and ours faced the woods so we had lots of privacy. Above you can see the snow flurries that accompanied our arrival. The photo to the left is our view from the door side of our RV the day we checked in.

Thursday night the temps dropped down into the high 20s and we awoke Friday morning to snow! This is how our campsite looked Friday morning. Not a lot of snow but way more than we wanted!  

Our propane furnace was working overtime to keep us warm so we went into town and bought an electric heater at WalMart and Michael loaned us one of his electric heaters. His produced more heat than ours did so we went back to WalMart and bought one just like it! With one heater in the master bath, one in the living room, and the fireplace blower on, the RV stayed comfortable and the furnace rarely had to kick in. 

Temps warmed up a little on Saturday and were quite nice on Sunday when the sun came out!

I really loved spending time with Michael and finally seeing his 1940's vintage house. It is a great house and will be fabulous when he finishes all his renovations. We also enjoyed showing him our new home on wheels. Of course we went out to dinner a few times and one night I ended up arm wrestling my own son for the check...I lost! Sunday, our last full day there, Jack wasn't feeling well and wanted to veg out, so Michael and I went out alone. He drove me all around showing me the sights. We walked through Sandstone Falls, which was absolutely beautiful, and we went to Talcott to see the Memorial to John Henry. We finished the day with burgers at Kirk's a little roadside café in Hinton overlooking the river. It was a wonderful day! Thanks, Michael! 

Below are photos...

We had a nice dinner here at Kirk's.

 Like everyone else, Michael had to be photographed with Blue Bear and Red Bird...

...and Red Bird almost lost his head!  Some things never change :)