West Virginia

We left  Hickory Hollow Campground in Pennsylvania on Wednesday morning.    Our last evening there we were finally able to sit outside for happy hour and enjoy the pastoral view of our sweet site.

Lewis particularly enjoyed getting to play with his brand new "fish" on the grassy slope while we enjoyed our gin.

We arrived at the Harpers Ferry (West Virginia)  KOA around 4 p.m.    We had the woods to ourselves!

By 5 p.m. we were on our way to our dinner reservation in nearby Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

The Press Room

One of the reasons for our stop in this part of the country is to catch up with a dear friend from long ago.   We hadn't seen Mary since Jesse's wedding, 4 years ago so it was definitely time.     Not timely, however, because her husband wasn't able to join us and we really missed him.      Dinner was wonderful, as usual at this place, and we had a good, long catch up.

still two pony tail girlfriends

The next day was Halloween so we planned on relaxing around at Beluga.   Lewis often has trouble with strangers when they are dressed normally so I didn't want to leave him home with the potential of bizarre and scary strangers lurking around outside.

  In addition,  the weather forecast was for heavy wind and rain with thunderstorms and possible tornadoes.    It was quite warm and we certainly had lots of rain and strong winds but, fortunately, the tornado watch did not produce any dangerous weather for us.   

Today dawned sunny and beautiful.   Cold and windy, but beautiful.   The second reason we wanted to stop here was to do a little gentle research about an old musket my mother accumulated during her antiquing years.    We believed it was made at the Harpers Ferry Armory in the 1820s so we thought we'd go into the National Historic Park and see what we could see.     First, though.....lunch!

We drove back to beautiful Shepherdstown to a little French restaurant we noticed when we were there meeting Mary for dinner on Wednesday.    Bistro 112 did not disappoint. 

What does it take to make Mr. David smile?   Maybe a sunny day, a glass of good white and a delicious Croque Madame?   You bet it made him smile.

We ate so much it was hard for him to squeeze out of Bistro 112's little tiny front door!   And...that IS a package of Royale cookies for the road.   burp

Later in the day we went down into the Historic Harpers Ferry area to look for the Armory.   It is gone.   We didn't spend too much time there because we'd been there/done that many times in our past.    It's a very pretty and historically important area at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.

  It turns out we weren't able to find out much about the musket other than it is a Model 1816 Flintlock musket, made in Harpers Ferry in 1825 and later modified for civilian use.    Ah well, it was a good excuse for wandering the quiet streets.   (Not that we ever need a reason to explore)

   Our sleepy, woodsy campground has turned into a zoo - It's Friday after all.     Our darling next door neighbors felt it necessary to unhook our sewer hose and throw it to the ground to make entry to their site easier.    The crisp fall air is heavy with wood smoke and bicycles are whizzing by with their little operators looking in every direction except the one they're headed.     Ugh.   On a happy note.... we're leaving in the morning, heading south.

Oh, and here's a picture for you Pam.....

Lewis is happy to take advantage of a free hand