50 States, Day 209

50 States, Day 209  Charleston, West Virginia 7 Miles

 

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

~Yogi Berra

 A little catch up: We ran around 200 miles yesterday to Charleston, the Capitol of West Virginia. State thirty-one, yeah. What a great day to ride. We took the freeway to just get there and traffic proved to be really light, particularly the trucks. The weather, cold with clear skies, warmed all day to a balmy sixty-four degrees. Nice!

We rolled in to the Knights Inn around 2:30 and found a few choices for Thanksgiving dinner; McDonald's, Wendy's, a Chinese place and IHOP. We chose the IHOP, QG enjoyed the appetizer sampler and I partook of a pot roast dinner. Weirdest Thanksgiving ever-except for the house fire, and the power outage.  Seems like yesterday we took turns being depressed, a good thing, as one can prop up the other.

Today we decided to escape the inclement weather due to arrive and tour the Capitol, a short three miles away. We rode up to a building with the second finest dome on the Adventure, second to Pennsylvania. The gold leaf with patterns on it rocked. We parked in front, no meters, no one else around.

We got a bad feeling.

Sure enough, the building was locked up. Even after we met Tony and Angela who just toured it. Apparently they found a door ajar, because we tried 'em all.

Dangit. Instead we toured the grounds, with numerous memorials. One celebrated coal miners, one women veterans, and a large one honored West Virginia natives that perished in WWI and II, Korea and Vietnam. Inside were lists of names. Incredible. The losses in WWII are staggering, probably more than the others combined.

We wandered around a bit more, walking through ankle deep leaves. QG noticed the rain first and suggested we exit to the motel. Off we went, then separated (an anomaly for sure), QG to the sewing and me to the laundromat and grocery store. Meanwhile the rain fell steadily, yet not hard.

And now, dry and fresh from sewing, Quilter Girl!

I started the day feeling sorry for myself, with a long list of reasons, further to go than we thought, coming rain and cold, and Thanksgiving.  Being away from family on holidays is the pits.  I am tired of feeling sorry for myself so I decided to just be thankful and praise The Lord as we rode.  It really was a gorgeous day with bright sunshine.  We certainly were not cold while wearing the gear.  God has been so good to us and so much of life is our attitude that I was glad to be able to change my outlook.  It made everything else look good.  We have a great motel room and had a great meal.  It might not have been turkey, but it was enjoyable.  A good day all around.

The rain I worried so much about is just a drizzle and I am very glad of the downtime.  I am cutting the background for my second Irish Chain and sewing together the last 4 rows for the other one all while watching football.  It is so nice of Kevin to do laundry as he would have to take me if I went to the laundromat. Tomorrow we will head towards Kentucky with a couple of stops, bundling up to keep warm.

 QG

 

Tomorrow, a quilt shop and a glass factory, Lord willin' and the creek don't rise. See ya then.