A Long Way to the Secret Sandwich Society

A few weeks back Chris and I heard that a new 101 Unique Places to Dine in West Virginia list had been created. Inspired to try every restaurant on the list (or at least the ones we don’t already frequent) we decided we would go to Fayetteville on the first tolerable Saturday. Winter this year has been most merciful so we did not have to wait long until we packed ourselves into Chris’s Miata and headed south!

Before going to one of the state’s most unique eateries, we decided we should first work up an appetite. I proposed making the hike out to Long Point. The hike is 1.6 miles of everything that is right and splendid about the Mountain State. The hike is fairly gentle, with only the final hundred yards or so providing much of a challenge (in the summer one could probably floss pretty well on the tunnels of rhododendron).

The view of the New River Gorge Bridge from Long Point, and two nerds

The view is spectacular. It is the absolute best view of the New River Gorge Bridge as the point is about even with the center of the bridge. You also have the benefit of being closer to the altitude of the bridge deck than you do if you brave Fayette Station Road to admire the bridge from the bottom of the gorge. Chris and I were not the only ones who found the view spectacular. As we carefully stepped out onto the rocky ledge we found two people preparing part of the area for a marriage proposal. Two people may have been thinking about the next phase of their life, but Chris and I were now firmly fixed on the food.

Secret Sandwich Society is only a few years old but has already taken a legendary place on the West Virginia dining scene. Located on the edge of Fayetteville’s funky downtown district (voted one of the Coolest Small Towns in America by readers of Budget Travel Magazine in 2006), Secret Sandwich Society is located in a deceptively large building. When you realize you have to descend a flight of stairs to get to the dining area you realize it isn’t very large, especially compared to the demand! Trust me, when you’re waiting an hour for a table at 2:30pm on a Saturday, you want any excuse to feel like you’re making a good decision.

The restaurant did not disappoint! Their selection of Hansen’s sodas was a fun departure from the usual fountain offerings. We kicked off our meal with the Society Fries. I couldn’t tell you how they season them, but I know I want to eat more of them. Their burgers sounded delicious, but when a food item is in the name of a restaurant it seems wise to try that item. I ordered a Washington (ham, white cheddar, green apple, rosemary majo, and greens on a toasted baguette), while Chris tried the McKinley (spiced homemade meatloaf, chipotle-bacon jam, 1000 island dressing, and crispy onions on toasted sourdough). Both sandwiches were unique flavor combinations. The McKinley left a zesty after taste, while the green apple on the Washington seemed to amplify the flavors of the ham and cheese with a kiss of bittersweet in the finish.

If I had the day to do over again, I would’ve ordered lunch to go and either driven to the Canyon Rim Visitor’s Center (just across the bridge), down to the bottom of the Gorge via Fayette Station Road (15-20 mins), or to the ghost town of Thurmond (30 mins) and enjoyed my meal as a picnic. There is a wonderful view of the New River Gorge Bridge from the Visitor’s Center. At the bottom of the gorge there are enormous boulders along the shore that make for great picnicking (and you can watch the rafters!). Thurmond is a fantastic spot to watch trains on the CSX mainline from the safety of the platform of the train station and, after eating, you could explore the well-preserved ghost town!

After filling up, we made the short drive to Ansted, WV on the Midland Trail. The Hawks Nest Rail Trail is a 1.8 mile rail trail linking Ansted with Hawks Nest State Park. Descending down to the trailhead in Ansted seems a little unusual, but once you see two small, old, railroad-looking buildings you’re pretty sure you’re in the right place. Things seem more and more right as you head away from town on a grassy right-of-way, but when you see a sweeping, curved trestle you know you’ve arrived. Abandoned by Sherman Cahal has a really nice write-up and photo-essay of this rail trail. We walked about half of this trail to find one of the Coal Heritage geocaches. The Coal Heritage Trail is another way to interact with West Virginia’s best known history.

Over 12,000 steps later, it was time to go home. I even managed to nap in the passenger seat of the Miata. Yet to be determined, which restaurant is next?

New Favorites and Old Favorites

When I think about fine French cuisine my mind does not immediately travel to Huntington, WV. While I have never been to France and consequently have no points of reference there, my mind at least travels to my native Canada and to a wonderful bistro in the DuPont Circle area of Washington, DC. But I am also not one to dismiss an ethnic offering just because it is not in a typical locale. If that were the case, I truly might think that West Virginia is devoid of tantalizing opportunities. To the surprise of many, West Virginia has some great restaurants. I know I’m always eager to see who Candace Nelson reviews next on her blog.

Le Bistro is one of the offerings near the Pullman Square complex in downtown Huntington and a favorite of my mother-in-law, who is such an excellent cook I sometimes wonder how she can even tolerate eating out most of the time. I ordered a plate of chicken salad, fruit, and breads, sort of a deconstructed concept. Everything on my plate was delicious. At the same time, there was ample sharing between Chris and his mother. There was nothing that would not be described as outstanding on anyone’s plate. I am so excited to return next time we visit Huntington because their menu is adjusted weekly to include new recipes and ingredients. Menu selections are very much tuned into the season. While we had been up to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving meals were hardly memorable compared to the perfection at Le Bistro. I’m not exactly a foodie, but I hardly have a figure that would imply I don’t enjoy eating.

After a divine meal we parted ways from Chris’s parents and turned our sights on the highway home. Though we had been on something of a geocaching streak so we decided to find an easy geocache on our way out of town. I picked C-N-C Challenge: Favorites, a challenge cache requiring that each person logging it as a find has found 10 caches whose favorite points total 4700. We didn’t need 10 caches to do this, we only needed five. At the time we found the cache our list looked like this:

Points - GC Code - Cache Name
2237 - GCK25B - Geocaching Headquarters
  788 - GCEB2 - The view of an “Honest Man”
  714 - GCK12J - Last stop for a weary traveler
  561 - GCM1C - Table Rock Earthcache
  553 - GC33NAZ - Evolution of the Rest Stop!

Total Favorite Points = 4853

We were feeling just a little chuff about the ease of satisfying the requirements. So much so that when Chris stepped away from the guardrail the cache was hidden in there was an audible ripping noise as he tore a hole in his brand new corduroy pants. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or both. There aren’t words to express how much we dislike shopping. In light of the draft in his pants, we focused on the drive back to our home and our cats.

Hair

After skipping the salon for about five years I finally decided my hair was something worth caring better for. Though I found it amazing how my hair just naturally stopped growing right at about my shoulders and it had a nice wave, sometimes even a curl to it—with no more maintenance than just daily shampooing and conditioning. But I watched and listened while Jenn had her hair cut by her lifelong hairdresser in Beaver, PA about a month earlier and realized that maybe it was time.

Here, on the opposite side of the continent, hair was the avenue of a homecoming. I took a seat in the chair in front of the woman who cut my hair twenty years earlier. I must say, I like having my hair cut more now because I get to make all of the decisions. Just like watching Jenn’s haircut, it was a fine choreography of combs, scissors, and pinched hands. It was a pleasant ritual and the results were wonderful, so similar to before yet so different. More than anything, it is just a little easier to pass a comb through.

To celebrate the trimmed tresses we made tracks for De Dutch, which is a Dutch themed breakfast and lunch restaurant. I’ve never found anything like it except for the small chain in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Their signature item is pannekoek, a large and extremely thin pancake, is used in virtually every dish in masterful ways. My sweet tooth in overdrive, I ordered one covered in strawberries and whipped cream.

Mormon Movie Night

After another evening of sleeping like the dead (still a little jet-lagged, one would really think three hours would not wreak so much havoc on a person), it is the day before Canadian Thanksgiving. It is exactly like American Thanksgiving, except it is about six week earlier and it is sensibly on a Monday, but often celebrated throughout the preceding weekend. Having a major holiday always land on a Thursday, I thought, was sort of sadistic for a wide variety of reasons.

In the religious tradition that my mother has now devoted her life to, the baptism is only the first of two parts of initiation into the church, the other part occurs at the beginning of the next church service: receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost/confirmation (Wikipedia). The previous day, I had struggled to navigate the hills of Port Coquitlam, especially in the dark on the way home, in the daylight it was a breeze to find the church (which was a lucky break, mom and her friend were running late getting ready, so much so that I almost gave up on waiting for them because I assumed they had found a ride with someone else). One thing I do like about the LDS church is that the services are programmed by the members, the clergy is less formal. It reminds me of the churches of the Anabaptist faiths you’ll see in places like Pennsylvania, belonging to the Amish, Mennonites, and, that’s right, the Quakers. It was a pleasant service in a lovely space.

After the main service, there are a few events: Sunday School and then Relief Society (for the ladies). Though during these festivities, Misty (the friend from Idaho) and I took a walk around the neighborhood to look at the stunning homes and get a little bit of fresh mountain air. We hadn’t had the chance to catch up in years ourselves.

In order to accommodate a greater number of parishioners, this LDS church services two wards (or parishes or whatever). The one my mother is part of meets earlier and then a second one has worship beginning about an hour and a half later. This means that, while she goes to church on the earlier side, you finish at a great time for lunch. Which was awesome because I was craving Red Robin.

We don’t have a Red Robin in the Morgantown area, but the Pittsburgh-Washington, PA area has a few, though I have found each of the locations I have tried in that region to be deeply disappointing compared to the Red Robin locations in the Greater Vancouver area. I was in chicken tender, Caesar salad, garlic cheesy bread paradise.

To celebrate my mother’s baptism, Misty had brought with her three spiritual movies to share with my mother. Never one to turn down snacks and movies, I joined in the fun. We watched 17 Miracles, the Saratov Approach, and Heaven is For Real. These are not the kinds of movies I will usually seek out, but it was a good time, even after my mom fell asleep about 45 minutes into 17 Miracles.

17 Miracles is based on and is a composite of the stories of several of the handcart convoys of early Mormon settlers going to Utah and how a series of miracles enabled the safe passage for any of them to actually successful manage the journey. Of the three movies this is the one I liked the most because even if you removed the spirituality component of the story (which certainly added to it), it was telling an interesting chapter of history, particularly history of the American west and I am ALL OVER THAT.

The Saratov Approach is also based on a true, but much more recent, chapter of Mormon history: the kidnapping of two missionaries in Saratov, Russia in 1998. Heaven is for Real is also based on a true story, this mainstream release film (starring Greg Kinnear) details the encounters of heaven that a little boy experiences during an emergency surgery—and the lackluster response from what is supposed to be a spiritual community. Like I said, bring on the historical flick, though the movies were not chosen to appeal to me, but to appeal to my mother and tailored to what was a very special weekend for her.

With this event in the past, the remaining week of the trip is dedicated to getting outside, eating tasty food, and spending time with my 95-year-old grandmother.

Blind Dates and Bridgeport

The best weekends are those spent with all kinds of friends, even better is when the begin on adventures that change their lives and better still is when they remove large items from my home so new projects and concepts may be embarked upon. With a little bit of fuel from Tudors Biscuit World, this Saturday held a lot of promise.

Indeed, before Chris even had a chance to get back to the house with our biscuits, Courtney and her dad rolled up in his truck to remove a queen sized bed that had been taking up space in our basement far too long. She wanted a new bed and I had a like new bed that was causing my camping and hiking gear to be strewn about the house in the most annoying way. Now I would have room for shelves! Chris did make it back in time to help get everything loaded into the truck, for the 90 minute ride up to Dunbar, PA we wanted to be triple sure there would be no problems.

Already having my day made by having one of the rooms in my basement back, we prepared to send Jenn off on a quasi-blind date. She’d texted and Facebooked the guy a little bit, but Chris was the master matchmaker. On one hand, we recognized there was a chance she’d bolt and come running back within an hour or so, we also had plans of our own.

We headed south toward Bridgeport to find some geocaches. The weather seemed like it could go either way, such is life in the autumn in West Virginia, though we were not expecting a hailstorm. That was a surprise. Thankfully, Bridgeport is also an excellent shopping destination so as we waited out the ridiculous weather, we continued (but failed) in our quest to find a one-gallon jug and bought printer ink. We’re so exciting. Meanwhile, we thought of how Jenn’s date must be going, as they were hiking at Coopers Rock State Forest and we couldn’t imagine that a hailstorm up there on a first date would fall under the category of a “good time.”

Eventually the weather broke and the fun commenced. We found a total of 10 caches and got, what we felt, was a good tour of the Bridgeport area. The highlights include:

I also finally had a chance to try out Meagher’s Irish Pub for lunch. This joint is in the new Charles Pointe development off of Benedum Dr just north of Bridgeport. I had heard wonderful things about the food and it lived up to the hype, at least the meal I had sure did. Having grown up in British Columbia and with many Britons for friends, I sometimes get uncontrollable cravings for real fish and chips. Meagher’s satisfies this need. I strongly recommend stopping in for a bite if you’re down this way (Exit 124 off of I-79 in WV). Besides, it’s a nice diversion from all of the chains and fast food you’ll find off of Emily Drive.

Local Successes: Preston County Buckwheat Festival

Perhaps the most exciting sign of fall for the denizens of the Morgantown area is the Preston County Buckwheat Festival. Besides, Monongalia County (where Morgantown is) doesn’t really do a great job with the whole county fair thing, so this is like the best shot for something as good or better. And though you can find buckwheat cake mix year round in the local supermarkets, there really is something quintessentially fall about the sweet and sour flavor.

There are a few ways to get to Kingwood from Morgantown, most take about a half hour (I-68 to WV-26, WV-7, and Kingwood Pike). On this day, we took Kingwood Pike, favoring the rolling hillsides and pastoral farms coupled with the lack of heavy truck traffic.

Parking could be a disaster, but they handle it well, using a large parking lot on the periphery of downtown and offering continuous free shuttle service on the Buckwheat Express (the local transit agency) from the lot to the center of downtown, which is also the center of festival activities.

The first stop is the Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department Hall, this is the place to gorge on cakes. Many other places around town also sell buckwheat cakes and I’m sure they’re delicious too, but you can’t go wrong here. At the KVFD hall, you pay at the window, walk in, they direct you to a kitchen area, and you can get your first serving of cakes and sausage. The sausage and milk are finite, but the coffee and cakes are not. With true Appalachian hospitality, you can eat until you’re ready explode. We did. Thinking about it, six weeks later, still makes me feel stuffed!

Once you’re so full it hurts to move, you’ve got to move on to the crafts and exhibits. Like a county fair, local children are showing and selling the animals they’ve raised. Chris and I are partial to the goats.

We love a lot of the vendors at these events. Forget about Bath Fitter and that stuff, I love the local businesses. This year, we discovered Mountain State Honey, a honey company based out of Parsons, WV. At the urging of our friends Kelly and Cody, who we ran into unexpectedly while perusing the craft and vendor area, we loaded up on all kinds of tasty of honey. It is true, there are at least two things you should spend the money on: honey and maple syrup.

After taking in a bit of the parade, we picked up the shuttle and headed back to the car. While the parking lot was deserted when we first got to the festival, when the shuttled pulled in on our way out, the line of people waiting to go to the festival was immense. It is so awesome to see such a successful local event!

We decided it would be lovely to go for a hike up at Coopers Rock to top off the wonderful day. We headed out WV-7 to Masontown, where we took Rohr Rd/Snake Hill Rd to Tyrone Rd and eventually got on to I-68 to get to Coopers Rock. Then the strangest thing happened: for the first time ever, we could find absolutely no place to park our car. Not a single picnic area or trailhead had a parking place. When we started noticing the trend, I started counting license plates, almost three-quarters were from out of state. I hope each one spent lots of money in Morgantown!

Somehow, we managed to work off the energy because eventually we made it to Chaang Thai for dinner. The weather was perfect so we enjoyed what would probably be our last meal on a patio in Morgantown for the year.

Pittsburgh, as a Tourist

Once in a while, it is nice to play hooky (after filing all of the proper paperwork for the day off with your employer) and be a tourist. Hitting the state parks and hiking around home in West Virginia never feels very touristy because, while we often encounter folks from faraway places, the tourists we run into are usually pretty into their own experience and blend in very well. Alternatively, many have local tour guides, enabling them to cut through the noise to get to the best of what the area has to offer. But when you commit to visiting Pittsburgh and playing tourist the experience is different, these are actual tourists with no local hosts and they aren’t all the quiet, introspective outdoorsy types.

I’m not sure at which point we switched from, “oh, we live in the Pittsburgh exurbs” to “let’s be tourists.” We often do enjoy the drive up to Washington, PA on old U.S. Route 19. Good grief, do I ever love eating at the Waffle House on Racetrack Road in Washington. I think the exact moment was when Chris took a wrong turn onto the Smithfield Street Bridge while seeking a specific entrance to Station Square and it had been so long since I’d been downtown that I didn’t realize they’d modified the traffic pattern somewhat that I was about as useful as a tourist (even though I resided in the City of Pittsburgh for several years!). First rule of driving in Pittsburgh: there are no rules.

For a long time we had been wanting to try out a Duck Tour, these are the tours of cities on the amphibious vehicles, so there is an in-water and out-of-water component of the tour. The tour was a really good time. The tour only covered the downtown core and the stadiums on the North Shore but our guide was great and was certainly able to entertain us sufficiently in the time provided, which seemed to be a little over an hour. The only part of the tour that wasn’t quite as I expected was the water component, I figured it might be used to cross the Allegheny instead of using one of the bridges, but instead the water component is just fooling around in the Ohio, between the Point and the West End Bridge. Not any real tour points there, just the unique factor of being in the water. We would both recommend the tour though, it was informative and fun!

Another big attraction about Pittsburgh for us yokels to the far south are the malls! When I lived in Pittsburgh, I loved South Hills Village and now I also have a pretty healthy relationship with Ross Park Mall. It was great to be able to hold the new iPhones and pick out the ones we want (even if we still have to order them!) at the Apple Store. We also are madly in love with the L.L. Bean Store. Perusing the L.L. Bean basically reassures me that even when we do decide to go for some crazy hikes in February (because we will want to), they’ve got the gear so I don’t need to freeze.

But then around this point the tourist thing must’ve worn off because we had some time before we had settled on meeting friends on the North Side for dinner and I suggested we escape to North Park, which would be an attraction like those I describe in the first paragraph. North Park is wonderful, but it’s not a place you’re going to find unless you’re looking for it or looking very specifically for something like it. Since our last visit, a little over a year earlier, a small café had opened in the boat house. On this day, there was some problem with their kitchen but they were still serving drinks from the bar. However, not two or three moments after our drinks made it to our picturesque seats did my phone ring.

The view from our table at the North Park boathouse

Brian is a best friend to both Chris and I, but like most of my close friends, we don’t talk on the phone. We text and Tweet substantially, plus hang out a lot, but there is not a lot of calling, particularly out of the blue. This suggested to us that something was up. Unfortunately, something was up. On her way to a weekend camping with her family, his sister, Anna, was rear-ended while sitting in congested traffic in Pittsburgh. The server at the café was wonderful, she gave us to-go cups for our drinks and cashed us out in a hurry and we were on our way to help Brian’s sister.

When we got out to Carnegie and found Anna, the news was mixed. She was more or less fine physically and the car was still drivable. But this was her very first crash and her car is less than a year old at this point. Worse yet, she’s 2.5 hours from home and still about 2 hours from where she’s going. The three of us sit out in the parking lot of a drug store and catch up, talk, and hang out until Brian makes it up from Morgantown. Despite being shaken up, Anna gets right back on the horse and makes the drive out to the lake in Ohio.

Running a little late, we re-descend on the city and meet up with my friend from college, Jasmine, and her fiancée, Pete, at the James Street Gastropub. The food was delicious and the beer list spectacular (two things I was promised in advance). Catching up with Jasmine was wonderful, it was great to feel like I went a few years back in time to college but it was also nice to meet her fiancée. I look forward to attending their wedding in March!

When we parted ways, on another floor of the establishment a jazz band was in full swing and with the windows open the music was filling the street. It ended the wonderful day on a wonderful note.

Average September Sunday

Around town, it can be hard to find easy geocaches and some days I just don’t want to be pushing myself to climb a hill or walk several miles. Luckily, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed two relatively easy new caches in the area. On this cool Sunday morning, we helped ourselves to Fort Pierpont.

While retrieving the cache on a perfect, cloudless (though quite breezy) day the evidence that cooler weather was headed in was clear. And being beat from the adventures in the coalfields from the prior day, the desire to huff it up a mountain just was not going to do it for us. Besides, we had bingo plans for later.

We hit the road for Point Marion. While Point Marion is actually very close to Morgantown, we never get up there. Being on U.S. Route 119 it is only ever traveled through when seeking an adventure, because to get to Pittsburgh I-79 is faster and to get to Uniontown the Mon-Fayette is much faster. But we keep hearing that our lives will not be complete until we try Apple Annie’s. We will get around to it, I swear.

Windows down, music playing, the drive was divine. Even when it began to lightly sprinkle as we passed over the Monongahela River and took the back roads to wind back around by the Longview Power Plant (and the signs of protest that’ve been there for 20-odd years) and the west side of Morgantown.

Early afternoon we headed over to the Mountain State Brewing Company for bingo. Each Sunday they have Team Bingo, which is an awesome way to spend a few hours with friends. In the past, we’ve done well here, sometimes winning over half of the rounds. Today, we did not fare so well, winning nothing—except the pleasure of the company of good friends over tasty food (I swear, their home-made root beer is the best). During the cold, cold winter Sundays, I feel like I’m going to be spending a lot of time here.

Dine and Cache

In January I moved away from State College and down to West Virginia. It has been absolutely wonderful to live under the same roof as my husband after three and a half years of living apart (besides trying to get all of the cats to agree with each other), but we do miss a few things about State College: the restaurants, the awesome public transit, and the stunning places to hike, bike, and soak in the beauty of nature. So we planned a weekend trip entirely focused on eating with a little bit of geocaching worked in to make good on some old DNFs and clean up at least a few of the lower terrain rated new geocaches. 

Our first stop was Olde New York. Don’t let the name fool you, this restaurant has some of the finest German food you will find. The gem of the menu, in our opinion, is the jaegerschnitzel. The breaded cutlet is crisp on the outside and moist on the inside over a bed of pickled cabbage and my favorite spatzle, with an utterly divine gravy to top it all off. Impressed by the fact we drove three hours just to eat there, the proprietor offered us complementary dessert—that we just did not have any room for!

Our second stop was Brody’s Diner. State College has a lot of wonderful breakfast spots, the quintessential being the Waffle Shop. I cannot dispute the greatness of the Waffle Shop, but if you’re willing to drive just a little ways out of town, Brody’s Diner in Centre Hall will serve you the best French toast you will ever find (except maybe from your mama’s griddle). Made with their house-baked cinnamon swirl bread, the French toast is sweet, fluffy, and purely addictive. Alongside a hearty “Brody’s Breakfast” of bacon, eggs, toast, and perfect home fries it is fuel for a day of adventure!

After two enormous meals and a third one planned, we sought out some geocaches. Like in most places, after you’ve lived there a few months the low hanging fruit is mostly snapped up. But, with the benefit of a few months, we had some options (anything too strenuous may have meant losing my breakfast). The highlight of this new batch of caches was Combat Vet Cache, where after a pleasant walk in a field we came across the cache and met the cache owner and had a talk about the beautiful day, the beautiful location, and how great it was that caching can bring people together.

The other types of geocaches we sought were the past failures seeking redemption. In this category were two well-celebrated finds: At Witt’s End (appropriately titled) and (CYOA) First to Find.

At Witt’s End is in a picturesque area with easy parking, which came in handy after the five attempts it took to locate it. We sought this traditional cache during warm weather, during frigid weather (when the grass and weeds are down) and we were so sure we had looked everywhere within 100 feet of the coordinates. But apparently, after five rounds, there was one place we had not looked… and there it was. After ensuring there were no spiders present on the husband, high-fives abounded.

The other great victory was (CYOA) First to Find. This may be one of the most uniquely set up caches around. It is similar to the Create Your Own Adventure, CYOA, books you probably read or at least heard about in grade school where you’d read a chapter and at the end of the chapter you could choose one of multiple next chapters, and each choice would tell the story a little differently. Of course, with geocaching there can only be one final location so the trick here was the follow the clues until either you found the cache or found a dead-end. If you found a dead-end, you then had to figure out where you made your mistake. On a very cold day, we set out to complete this cache. However, on the day we tried, the very last clue that would send us to the final coordinates was missing! The wonderful and crafty CO was kind enough to offer us the final coordinates but until today, we were never able to “find” this cache and award it the favorite point it deserved.

But all of this caching did nothing but make us hungry. Last but not least, we returned to Centre Hall to fill up on some perfect prime rib at the Whistle Stop. The Whistle Stop is located in the old Centre Hall train station and, while the food is always delicious, on Saturday they serve prime rib and it is just the absolute best. It is so tender and flavorful that I have never needed to use steak or any other type of sauce on it. It pairs well with their garden salad topped with the house oil and garlic dressing (it is about as addicting as Brody’s French toast). The owner of this restaurant is also a native West Virginia and all around super lady. We never leave hungry or dissatisfied!

With tummies full and feet tired, we started on the long trip back home to West Virginia, though we were wishing we could just go on back to my old townhouse for a nap first. Life goes on, thankfully we can still return for great, local food!

Memorial Day 2014: Burgers, Bypasses, and Buffington Island

We were musing over how nice Columbus and, heck, even greater Cleveland seemed as places to live. But our attempt to exit onto U.S. Route 33 off of I-270 was foiled. As it turns out, a police standoff was occurring a block or two away and, for the safety of the public, they had closed Route 33 at the 270 interchange. Maybe the boonies aren’t so bad. When the police guided us back onto I-270, we took the next and worked our way back to 33 because we had a mission: White Castle.

In Lancaster, Ohio we stopped at a White Castle to get a taste of their sliders. I went for four of the classics through Chris went for variety, including double sliders and some concoction that appeared to be mostly jalapenos. Fountain cream soda was a great pairing with these tasty delights.

Ohio seems to be amidst a major highway building boom. We got to travel the new Nelsonville Bypass on Route 33, so new that our barely six-month-old Garmin seemed to truly believe we were driving off road. The prior routing narrowed the four-lane divided highway to a two-lane local road through town, subjecting motorists to lower speed limits and congestion. The bypass is a wholly modern road that pretty effectively cleanses the charm of the Hocking Hills region from the route. But, as it is now, it is a road built for speed, a concept that has not escaped the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Let us take this moment to thank the inventor of cruise control (a gentleman named Ralph Teetor).

Perhaps the greatest thrill of the day was crossing back into West Virginia, if for no other reason than we could drive down a major state route and ever have a moment where we did not see a state trooper running radar. Our initial goal for this entire weekend was the WV Civil War Trail Zone 1 – Buffington Island geocache, it is why we rented a small SUV rather than just a larger car with fewer miles than ours. Our plans certainly grew, but this one never escaped our mind, not since we had to skip over it the previous month because we just weren’t sure how the Civic would handle it. The view from the cache was breathtaking. I love the Ohio River (and all of its tributaries, especially the one I live on). It is a hardworking river with an interesting and evolving history—though you couldn’t pay me enough money to swim in it. This cache was a great test for the Sportage that negotiated the gravel and dirt road up with ease and proved the value of the hill descent function with pride. We weren’t sure we could love a Kia, but this Sportage won our hearts.

The view of the Ohio River and Buffington Island

From here, all roads lead home. We headed up to U.S. Route 50 to make our way over to I-79. The trouble with the modern day Route 50 is that sure gets boring after a while, built for speed and all that good stuff. So we took a side trip to Harrisville, WV and WV Civil War Trail Zone 1 – Jones Raid. Harrisville is the seat of Ritchie County and is truly cute as a button, the kind of place Chris and I could see ourselves summering in after we retire. The geocache was located next to the repurposed old elementary school. Nothing stirs my heart more than an old school that finds new life in a city or town center. That is where schools belong so communities may congregate.

The old Harrisville School

From here we discovered that if we kept driving we would end up in North Bend State Park. Having never been there, we figured we’d come this far, we should keep going. Despite the seemingly remoteness of the park, it was a busy place! The pool was a popular choice, but around every corner you could see children playing and people enjoying the best of what West Virginia has to offer. I think we found the next place we’d like to take a stab at camping at.

Road weary at this point, all roads really did lead home. Shortly after arriving home, we arrived in bed face-first, where we slept for twelve hours, ending only when my best friend called to say she was an hour out and hungry for lunch. There are worse ways to wake up on the last day of a long weekend.