West Virginia

We had a very interesting trip to West Virginia over the weekend.  For the most part we had fun, but there were some less than wonderful moment as well.

The Good:

• Spending time with old friends and making new ones.
• The incredible cabin that we rented, lost in the middle of the woods with an incredible view over the valley and mountains.
• The food and drink, we ate and drank like champs from homemade lasagne to filet mignon to venison chili, all washed down by some red wine.
• The hot tub, such a nice way to spend a chilly winter evening.
• The jacuzzi bathtub in our bathroom.
• The beautiful winter scenery complete with at least 1 foot (30 centimeters) of snow, snow covered pines, mountains, valleys, babbling brooks, frozen lakes and various wildlife.
• The rest and relaxation away from everything, even internet, with plenty of time to just relax and destress.

The Bad:

• Getting stuck at 2am on Thursday night on our drive there on the side of a snow covered mountain  because they got an unexpected snowstorm and the roads hadn't been cleaned yet because it was the middle of the night.  They ended up having 10-11 inches dumped on them that night and the weather predictions had only been for light flurries!  Luckily, just as we were resigning ourselves to the fact that we would be spending the night on the side of that curvy mountain road, along with 5 other cars, a plow truck showed up and saved us!  The 6 hour trip ended up taking us about 10 hours because of the snow.
• Not being able to use our car half the weekend because we had to park it at the rental agency.  The gravel road out to the secluded cabin was only really passable for cars with four-wheel drive or chains when covered in that much snow...not so much for little Ford Fiestas.  We had to rely on friends for transportation to and from our car most of the weekend.
• Getting sick with some horrible stomach bug Sunday.  Lionel had to drive the whole way home while I suffered and threw up into trash bags, with an increasing fever, aches and pains and chills.  I ended up having to call in sick for work on Monday too because I was in horrible shape and very reluctantly dragged my miserable self in today, still not feeling so hot.  I've barely eaten for 3 days and everyone says I'm looking very pale, but I'm finally starting to feel better, so I'm hoping tomorrow will be a good day.  It took us 8 hours to get home because of my sickness, but we still made it back in time for me to fall asleep in front of the TV watching the second half of the Super Bowl.

And now for some pictures:

 the main living space inside the cabin, looking out over the valley and mountains

the view from the cabin

view over the valley

the "Village" at the top of Snowshoe Mountain

out exploring snow covered West Virginia

the view from the top of Snowshoe Mountain over the snow covered landscape and a frozen lake

a real winter wonderland

freezing our butts off at the top of the mountain

our friends, the deer, that we encountered on our hike down the mountain

wintery landscape

 out in the snow covered forest