Christmas Eve Adventure
One of my favorite things to do is hop in my car and explore. About once a week, or at least two or three times each month, my husband hop in the car for an adventure. Weather was looking good here in West Virginia during the day of December 24, so we took the opportunity to visit some of the more remote areas within an hour or two of Morgantown.
Traveling from Morgantown, WV our first stop was Cool Spring Park (description from Roadside America). Cool Springs is a general store with a lunch counter, though during CoVID-19 they are not allowing indoor dining, and a graveyard of industrial objects from bygone days to explore (during the warmer months). The variety of products is impressive and sometimes entertaining. The hot chocolate on a cool day is was perfect. Cool Springs is also a helpful gas stop, gas stations are fewer and further between on U.S. Route 50.
From Cool Springs Park, we took toward the town of Eglon to find a geocache in the cemetery. The geocache, My Little Black Bird, was placed in celebration of Maison Sharp, a child who brought joy to his family but could not stay with us on earth for very long.
Eglon Community Cemetery
From Eglon we made our way to the towns of Thomas and Davis, along the way we stopped to admire the windmills along U.S. Route 219. Another interesting place in this area is Fairfax Stone State Park, a surveyor’s marker and boundary stone used in the 1700s to settle a dispute over land, it marks the boundary between Maryland and West Virginia and it is the origin of the North Branch of the Potomac River.
Windmills lining the ridge U.S. Route 219 follows through the Potomac Highlands
About 6 miles down the road we arrived in Thomas. The Gal-ivanter has a great blog post on what to see and do on a perfect trip to Thomas. Thomas is jam packed with cute little shops and cafes. My favorites are the Bloom gallery and Thomasyard. We were hoping to find a geocache on part of the Blackwater Canyon Trail, but the snow had other plans.
Onward to Davis! Like Thomas, Davis has an adorable downtown area filled with cute shops and cafes, though I am devastated that Hellbender Burritos closed, so many folks will never know some of the best burritos I’ve ever eaten (and I know a thing or two about good burritos after living in California). After our experience trying to find the geocache on the trail in Thomas, we should have known better. However, we were enticed to the Heart of the Highlands Trail, which was also too snowy for searching. No problem, I would love an excuse to come back, even better if I can come back with my bike!
Our next stop was Mt. Storm Lake. This lake is interesting because the water tends to stay warmer than it would naturally because it cools a power plant. It is enormously popular for scuba diving, though you would not know that on a gusty December 24. On the bright side, we found the geocache and the cleanest portajohn I have ever seen.
The Tacocat is prepared for anything, including a very slushy lakeshore
At this point, my shoes were completely soaked through. It was quite wet and slushy and I cursed at myself for skipping the rubber boots, but the truck was warm and we only had one more planned stop. We headed to the intersection of U.S. Route 50 and Table Rock Rd in Garrett County, Maryland. Maryland has one of the most comprehensive networks of traffic cameras in the country, including one at this remote outpost (to explore more of Maryland’s traffic cameras and other metrics, check out CHART).
Being Christmas Eve, and feeling a little bummed about not being able to see either of our families, Chris sent the link to the cam to his mom and I did the same with my dad. My dad captured the following picture from the video feed:
It was as close as we could get to our loved ones. Facetime might be easier, but this was a lot more fun and capped off our adventure on a high note. Avoiding others can be difficult, but there are ways to make it a lot more fun.