Prologue
After many
years I am learning to leverage my vacation days. With the Fourth
of July week this year, I could use three vacation days and two
scheduled holidays (July 4, 5) to get a whole week off. With the
two weekends stacked up that meant that we could spend nine days for the
price of 3. That's a hard deal to pass up so I scheduled the time
off late in 2006.
As the time drew near,
we had to decide what we would do. Since we'd taken
a big road trip in March and April,
we wanted to keep this trip closer to home and keep the costs down.
Many times Babcock
State Park had come up in conversations with my friends. After
our two very positive
experiences with Holly River State Park last year, I was confident
that a trip down to Babcock would reward us with some quality time,
great outdoor experiences, and all at a cost that would be reasonable.
The three hour drive looked easy. It was all good.
I called
the park and was happy to learn that they had a cabin that met our needs
for Monday night through Thursday morning. The kids would have
their own room and other than that the cabin has the same amenities as
the one we had in Holly River. So I made the reservation.
Then Maria and I sat down and decided what we'd do for the time we were
down there.
We decided a trip to
Charleston, WV was in order. After living in West Virginia for
almost three years we had still not visited the state capitol. We
would be so close in relative terms it made no sense to miss it.
We decided to do that on Monday since the cabin would not be available
until 4:00PM and we could check in anytime up until 7:00PM (with late
arrival arrangements available as well). This would give us plenty
of time to make the drive down to the capitol and do a little
sight-seeing and catch a meal.
For the next few days
we identified some opportunities but left the order of engagement to be
determined based on how we felt once we were there. We put the
following on our short list:
With that basic plan, we packed for a
three night/four day trip. I got each of the kids to pack their
own knapsacks so they'd have a way to carry what they needed on the day
trips, and to make loading and unloading a little easier on Maria and
me. On Sunday afternoon and evening, I installed the
roof box on the
Commander, organized the coolers and supplies we would need, and
with the luggage packed, loaded the Commander. This left nothing
but to get a good nights sleep, complete a leisurely morning routine and
hit the road, loaded for bear...
I have organized the account of this
trip into four pages because of the number of photographs. Below
is a set of links to each day's excursion.
Activities
|
July 2, 2007 |
July 3,
2007 |
July
4, 2007 |
July 5,
2007 |
|
Road
Trip, Charleston WV |
Geocaching,
Off-road to Thurmond, More Geocaching |
New
River Gorge, Long Point Trail, Fayetteville Fourth of July
Fireworks |
Babcock,
Off-road, Beckley, Trip Home |
