The last full day of Girls Weekend 2020. Kathi and I both always hate to see this day come, but it inevitably comes every year. We are blessed with a stunningly beautiful day and have decided that we will make the one hour drive out to Hawk's Ridge State Park. We have told by a few people that, not only is the park and its overlooks beautiful, but that the drive out to the park from Charleston is also beautiful. We made our way east on Highway 60 out of Charleston and made a few stops along the way to take photos. We noticed a lot of industrial sites along the Kanawha River and I believe that most, if not all, of them are related to the coal industry. We stopped at one, the Mammoth Coal Company Preparation Plant where there was a mountain of coal with conveyer belt system and towers used to move the coal from the mine to the site and clean it. A couple of nice gentleman headed into the site stopped and talked with us a little bit about it when asked. Apparently the coal is moved underground for some distance along a conveyer belt, then it comes up out of the ground and to the preparation plant. I have to say that, while the process is interesting, it really isn’t pretty.
We stopped again to take photos at Kanawha Falls. I think there is a museum here that we missed and didn’t find out about until we were well past it, but it looks as if these falls may have been used to generate energy based on the structures that were there.
We then drove the rest of the way to Hawk's Nest State Park, where we stopped at the Hawks Nest Overlook which afforded us a view of the New River.
After enjoying this view for a while, we moved on to the Lovers Leap Overlook which is near the lodge where one can stay in the park. There is a tram here which Kathi and I would have truly enjoyed riding, but unfortunately was not operational while we were there. Probably because of COVID. We did walk down the 100 + steps to the Lovers Leap Overlook for another view of the river.
After enjoying this view for a while, we moved on to the Lovers Leap Overlook which is near the lodge where one can stay in the park. There is a tram here which Kathi and I would have truly enjoyed riding, but unfortunately was not operational while we were there. Probably because of COVID. We did walk down the 100 + steps to the Lovers Leap Overlook for another view of the river.
After climbing back up the steps here, we headed toward Fayetteville, where we had a date with an escape room, but I saw the sign for the New River Gorge Bridge, so we made the turn so we could go get a look. The New River Gorge Bridge was completed in 1977 and is the longest steel span bridge in the western hemisphere and the third highest in the United States. The bridge is one of the most photographed places in West Virginia so we felt it was worth a stop. We were not disappointed. It truly is a work of art in a beautiful place.
It came to our attention while we were here that the New River is designated as a National River. Kathi and I both had no idea that there was such a thing as a National River but apparently there are many!! We are such nerds because we love learning things like this!
From the bridge we made our way into Fayetteville, where we had booked an escape room adventure. We went to the Escape-A-Torium and I booked us into the Mothman adventure. If you follow along with these journal entries, you probably already know that Kathi and I have done SEVERAL escape rooms together and have failed to successly escape ANY of them in the allotted 1 hour time period. We are hoping that this one will be the exception. One thing we have learned over the years, however, is that the more people you have in the room with you working to find the clues, solve the puzzles and unlock the many locks the more likely the success. During these COVID times, though, they are not allowing strangers to work together. If you book for two people, then you work to escape with two people. Hmmmm, we felt that this may put us at risk for yet another failure, but we are willing to give it a go!! So, Mothman. For those of you that are not familiar with West Virginia lore, you may never have heard of the Mothman. Kathi had not. I would say that the best way to describe the Mothman would be to say that he is West Virginia's version of Bigfoot, but he has wings, red eyes and can fly. There is a movie called "The Mothman Prophecies" starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney that is supposed to be loosely based on actual events that occured in Point Pleasant, West Virginia between November 1966 and December 1967 in which this unusual creature was spotted several times by various reliable people. I have not seen the movie but think I will add it to my Watchlist/
The storyline of our escape room adventure is that we have been hiking in the New River Gorge area when a storm moves in and we seek refuge in an old coal mine. Lightning strikes nearby and causes a cave-in at the entrance preventing us from leaving. We are forced to find another way out and in searching for that exit, we discover a journal left by a miner that leads us to believe that we are in the lair of the Mothman, who will return at dark. It was a GREAT escape room adventure and we really enjoyed it, but we were, once again thwarted and did not make it out. Maybe next time!!
We returned to our house, settled in for the normal evening routine in front of our computers, made dinner of leftovers (we had packed and eaten meat and cheese rolls and snacks while out driving around). We watched a couple more episodes of “Silent Witness” and crawled into our beds for one last night in West Virginia.
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