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| Wineries! |
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| Potomac Eagle Dinner Train |
West Virginia is open for business and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!
NOTE:Due to possible COVID-19 restrictions, which seem to be changing daily, before you travel or book Anything, CALL every place you want to go and make SURE they are open and operating! I have included phone numbers for almost every place we went to and enjoyed in this post. Although I have also included website hotlinks, do NOT rely on websites and online reservation sites- they are often not kept up to date!
After Chef Dan and I had arranged for a friend to inn-and-pet sit so we could have a “Bucket list” vacation in July and had it canceled on us at the last minute, we were brutally disappointed- I was actually in tears! We decided that we HAD to get away, no matter what, and so I went into serious Trip Planning Mode and mapped out a great 9-night Road Trip loop thru our very own West Virginia! Our route would take us from the mountains of Landgraff, McDowell County, the southernmost county in West Virginia, where we have our Inn, the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre, up to Romney, in Hampshire County, to ride the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train, then a little farther north to Berkeley Springs, in Morgan County, to “take the waters” at America’s First Spa. Then we’d drive down to Shinnston, in Harrison County, to stay at Gillum House Bed-and-Breakfast and “sightsee”, and then to Cass, in Pocahontas County, to take the Cass Scenic Railroad. Our last stop before driving home would be Summersville, in Nicholas County,to visit the Kirkwood Winery and Isaiah Morgan Distillery, a favorite of ours from when we first came to West Virginia in 2002! Then we’d drive home through Princeton and Bramwell, in Mercer County. Along the way we’d get to drive the Highlands Scenic Highway, see a bit of tundra in the Ice Age Forest, stop at historic sites and covered bridges, stay at some unique and special places, and do tastings at every winery and distillery we could find! Not wanting to be disappointed yet again, I called EVERY place we wanted to go and made SURE they were open and operating BEFORE I booked- and I strongly advise you to do the same! And then we jumped in our pick-up truck and took off for places known and unknown! Every place we stayed at was spotlessly clean, and we had NO negative issues whatsoever! Dan and I are not kids- he is 73, and I am 61- and we had a fabulous West Virginia getaway!
Part 1: To Rommey for the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train!
The first day we drove from our Inn, the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre: www.elkhorninnwv.comin Landgraff, WV, up to Romney, WV, about 5.5 hours, to take the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train: http://www.potomaceagle.com/Tel: (304) 424-0736. This excursion had been on our “railfan bucket list” for years, as Dan did it many, many years ago (30!) when they first started these excursions, but we had never done it together! We took their Sunset Trough Dinner Trip which leaves the Wappocomo Station at 6pm and returns at about 9pm, going southbound through the famed Trough to Sycamore Bridge and back, approx. 35 miles round-trip. We chose to do their “top level” excursion, with seating and dining in the Superior Club Car ($120.00/per person), and enjoyed a fine, chef-prepared, 4-course dinner, including Beef Tenderloin, in a beautifully maintained 1940s car, but there are several alternatives that are less expensive, starting as low as $54.00 per person. The excursion was a delightful experience, as the scenery in this area is truly gorgeous, but just as we prepared to go upstairs to enjoy the Trough in the outside car and hopefully see some eagles, we got hit by furious rainstorm and had to content ourselves with continuing to enjoy the gorgeous views from seats inside our car!
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| On the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train! |
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| On the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train! |
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| View from our Dining Car! |
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| View from our Dining Car! |
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| View from our Dining Car! |
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| View from our Dining Car! |
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| The Storm- viewed from our Dining Car! |
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| View from our Dining Car! |
Dan and I love to stop at wineries and distilleries whenever we travel, so we can do tastings and buy wine and booze to take home to extend the vacation! As you may recall from earlier blog posts, we brought back many dozens of bottles of wine, booze, foodie condiments, and spices from our trips to Israel, China, Vietnam, Korea, Chile, and the Caribbean, as well as from our USA road trips, and this trip was no exception- we stopped at Every winery and distillery we could find along the way! We’ve found a good GPS to be indispensable for locating wineries on our road trip routes! Driving north up to Romney took us thru Staunton, VA, and thanks to a sign on the highway, we peeled off for our first break at the Ox-Eye Winery Tasting Room: https://www.oxeyevineyards.com/ Tel: 540-849-7926 in downtown Staunton’s historic Wharf District, and happily found it open!Ox-Eye’s focus is on crafting high quality, food-friendly wines from grapes well-suited to the soil and climate of their farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and after our wine tasting and a snack of stuffed grape leaves, we bought several bottles to take with us!
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| Rockingham County, VA |
We stayed for two nights at the South Branch Inn in Romney, which was okay, but nothing special: www.southbranchinn.comTel: 304-822-2444. If we get back to Romney we will definitely stay at the Koolwink Motel: https://www.koolwink.com/ Tel: 304-822-3595, which has been family owned since 1936 and is thus historic: https://www.koolwink.com/our-history, looked absolutely darling, and was highly recommended to us by a number of local residents!
My US Army Ret. husband and I are both history buffs who stop to read the historic marker signs we find along the way (so you’re going to see a lot of them in my posts!), and very interested in Civil War history, specifically, and so we were delighted to find the Taggart Hall Civil War Museum and Visitor’s Center: Tel: (304) 822-7477 in a local guide we were looking at while having breakfast at the Romney Diner: http://romneydiner.com/– which is still known by everyone in town as Shirley’s – and is THE place to have breakfast in Romney! We called the museum and learned that we needed an appointment to see the collection, so we made one for right after breakfast, and thus got to have a private viewing of their small but very interesting collection of artifacts from the Civil War in Romney.
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| Taggart Hall |
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| Outside Taggart Hall |
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| Lost River |
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| Historic Marker Signs |
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| Horses along the way… |
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| More horses! Fun things seen along the way… |
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| Mechanicsburg Gap |
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| Oriskany Sand |
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| Romney: WV’s First Town! |
The museum also functions as the Romney Area Chamber of Commerce, and so had a rack of tourism brochures; the helpful staff lady recommended a local winery and a local distillery, and so off we went to both! Our first stop was Flying Buck Distillery, 20 minutes away in Augusta, WV: https://www.facebook.com/flyingbuckdistillery/ Tel: (540)550-5480,atBigg Riggs Farm: https://biggriggsfarm.square.siteTel: (304) 359-1120, where we got to do a tasting of their yummy moonshines! We bought a jug of their aged Naughty Oak Spirit Whiskey,as well as Apple Pie Moonshineand Raspberry Starshine,and Mason Jars full of strawberries and melon in ‘shine! Calvin Riggleman of Bigg Riggs Farms is USMC; they have farm stands selling excellent produce, and they make a lot of really delish condiments and sauces; their Ramp Salad Dressing, which, sadly, they no longer make, was the House Dressing at our Inn for years! (We now have to make our own from the ramps we dig in the spring near our Inn!)
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| YUM! Flying Buck ‘Shines! |
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| Tasting at Flying Buck Distillery! |
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| Flying Buck’s Still |
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| Flying Buck Distillery |
After our tasting and shopping at Flying Buck, we drove 20 minutes in the other direction to the Flying Squirrel Ranch and Farm and Rada Appalachian Spirit Craft Distillery:
http://flyingsquirrelranch.com/up on the mountain inRada, WV. The owner was delightful company, and let us taste everything, including a yummy Nocino he made from Black Walnuts that’s not for sale! He offers two “Glamping”sites there, as well, one Forest, and one Meadow, which are listed on airbnb, and he has The Indie On Main Arts House in Keyser, WV, too: www.TheIndieOnMain.com(Don’t laugh, but the kids are presently planning a production of Rocky Horror Picture Show! The “cutting edge” sexual musical of my Wild 1970s Youth has become a classic, beloved by 2020 teens! Let’s Do The Time Warp again, shall we? LOL) After our tasting, we bought hisRada Gin, made with local botanicals, Malted Aged Whiskey, and Spiced Rum!
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| Turn at the sign! |
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| At Flying Squirrel Rada Distillery |
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| Flying Squirrel Rada Distillery |
Next: WV Road Trip, Part 2: To Berkeley Springs to “take the waters”!
West Virginia is open for business-, and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!
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