Morgantown to Philadelphia

We woke up in Morgantown (kept thinking of that Joni Mitchell song Morning Morgantown) and figured out our game plan. Dan and I really wanted to see The Mummies of the Insane in the bathroom of the the Barbour County Historical Museum (seriously, just click the link – they have a hilarious story behind them) but they’re closed on Thursdays! So, we decided to do a little wandering in Morgantown, grab lunch at Black Bear Burritos and head to Philly. 

It was 80 degrees in Morgantown and really nice to walk around in. We went to this old stone house. It is something historic. And very old.  Two very sweet ladies talked to us about Morgantown and we told them where Door County is. I bought a couple things from the gift shop – all proceeds go back to the community and various non-profit organizations. Cool. 

  

After chatting with them we walked to Black Bear Burritos for lunch and the food was AMAZING. The restaurant is super cute inside. I got a WV Hot Rod burrito. It’s a sundried tomato tortilla, tofu, fake bacon, lettuce, tomato, pepperjack, and a chipotle Dijon mustard that reminded me and my sinuses of wasabi. Their guac is also superb and I couldn’t help but think my dad would love to master that recipe!

  

After lunch it was time to hit the road! Speaking of, sometimes I see signs on the highway for Sheetz. I am from Wisconsin so I don’t know what this is. I imagine it is a store that only sells sheet cakes. Let’s go with that, shall we?

  

The ladies from the old stone house told us to check out Cooper Rock Overlook because it has the most beautiful views and hiking. This wasn’t on our itinerary but when we saw signs for it on the highway we decided to check it out. Dan and I did our version of hiking – drive to the very end of the path, park, and walk a little to the actual overlook. Dan and I are SO happy we took this tiny detour. The woods were so pretty and the views were breathtaking. 

After getting our fill of pictures we hopped back on the highway to Philadelphia. I drove for a stretch and let me tell you, it was terrifying. There is a part of West Virginia heading into Maryland that is SO hilly like rollercoasters and such thick fog I couldn’t see 30 feet in front of me. There may have been a point when an overpass emerged from the fog and I shrieked in horror.

The drive to Philadelphia took a long time. We were in the car for about 7 hours but some of that toward the end was because we couldn't find a hotel. We tried about 6 near the airport and none of them had rooms! We had checked out a Comfort Inn but when we drove past it looked really sketch so we figured we'd just find another one. The only place we found to have a room was the Renaissance Hotel. It was twice what we wanted to spend but by then we had no choice.

We settled in and drove into Philadelphia for dinner at Jones. I had baked mac and cheese and potato pancakes. Dan had the jambalaya. Banana cream pie with carmelized rice krispies and caramal sauce for dessert. Dan had the chocolate chunk bread pudding. It was really good.

Milwaukee to West Virginia

Today was the first leg of our road trip! We knew it would be the roughest drive for the whole trip but it actually turned out to be a bit worse. We thought it would be about 9.5 hours but our directions were wrong so it was more like 12. Most of the drive was dull and boring, scenery wise, and the whole drive was under cloud cover, but boy is it gorgeous in PA and WV! It's really hilly and green. Another fun surprise was that the song Billie Jean came on the mp3 player, randomly, while we were driving through Gary, IN!

We're relaxing here at our nice hotel in Morgantown, WV. I can tell it's a pretty place, even in the dark. I look forward to seeing it in the day time.

Anyone who has ever worked with me will find it pretty funny that I ate Panera today for a very late lunch but it ended up saving my life! When we arrived in Morgantown at about 10:00pm the only thing open was a 24 Hour McDonalds and I can't eat that crap.