Our Trip Part 1

Our trip started off with a wet, foggy, traffic jammed filled ride to Staunton, VA. We stayed overnight then headed off early the next morning to drive to Cass, WV to ride the scenic railroad. It was a drive to remember. Half the fun was just getting there. I spent most of the drive trying not to throw up those deep fried hash browns from Burger King i'd just eaten... wishing there were more guard rails and hissing at Bob to slow down so we wouldn't plunge to our deaths down one of the ravines. It was truly amazing though... the blush of fall was just appearing in the mountains. Cows and barns in every valley. Alex and i would put our hands up on fun downhill stretches and pretend we were on roller coasters. Bob said at the end of hill we can buy our picture LOL. Oh and we had lots of good laughs over our poor confused Tom Tom. In those far off mountains it got quite confused... and was only Tom sometimes.. which is just not as useful as Tom Tom LOL. (And did i mention it was COLD?! LOVED IT!)

Cass Railroad - hands down the best train ride we've been on yet. And we've been on a bunch. We loved the openness of the cars, the fact that you could stand up and move around during the whole time... that the cars were open air yet had a roof. The scenery was just breath taking. They took us up a mountain and then we stopped for a picnic lunch (even picked up box lunches at the station before we left, very cool!). The picnic area was a beautiful scenic area with lots of wide open spaces and a replica logging camp complete with train cars. Alex just ran and ran and then would flop down on the ground. There is something freeing about being in the open nature like that. After the train ride we decided to try out the hand car. Alex LOVED it!! What a cool experience to ride down the rails like that.

Then we took another winding drive through the mountains to get to the Marlinton Motor Inn. Yeah.. Motor Inn. LOL Rustic but the room was spacious and clean. Couldn't complain much. Met up with Dar and her family there. So excited to see each other! We had dinner in the little town there.. messed around outside taking pictures.. then headed over to the Marlinton train station which they have turned into a tourist office. It was really quaint and pretty. They even had a caboose and some other train cars out there.

Well tomorrow i shall update with part 2 of the saga... including meeting "Jr." at Rite-Aid and doing the Falls with the Kasos. Stay tuned.....