Best Western Mountaineer Inn Morgantown

We are back safe and sound from our trip to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. I wanted to tell you what a wonderful travel agency were Inka Fest Travel. They were PERFECT! They took very good care of us - especially after I got sick while hiking out of the canyon! That was a rough day for me. The rest of the trip was great! They are really nice people, too...

Thanks for everything, it was a great trip!

... up the wood and walked out onto a beautiful vista, called Coopers Rock look-out, overlooking Cheat River.

Got back to camp late afternoon/early evening, relaxed and Dave built the fire and I got dinner started. We had a delicious dinner of pork tenderloin, potatoes and vegetables wrapped in foil and cooked over the fire. Along with the red wine and asiago bread from Panera it was just perfect! We sat by the fire until ...

... some "nut" decided to take Barb out by changing lanes right into her. She was wearing a neon vest and had lights everywhere but I guess this guy could not see all that. I heard brakes behind me and after it was all over, she finally told me what had happened. As the guy came around me, he had this arrogant grin that, needless to say, ticked me off good (think righteous indignation) I didn't take it well. You don't try to kill my wife and ...

... fell out and we had to wait for another raft to bring her down river to us. Other than that we had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves even with the river guides acting stupid and 26 year old guides flirting with high school students.

After we went to these natural water slide formations that we read about where you could slide for a few hundred feet at intense speeds. Well... what is advertised as ...

... were very gracious to take me down to the trailhead and leave my car at Rt. 271 for when I finish there on Friday. Arrived at the Ohiopyle Shelter Area around 6:45 PM after hiking 6.3 miles. Not too bad of a start for starting later than I wanted to.

... half of Cucumber backwards. We also had time to climb up to the old railway bridge and look down at the river 50ft below. The campground was lovely (except the trains) and I loved the river. There was a great paddle shop there and a pub. What more could we need? Onto the Gauley River at Hico now - we'll be staying with North American River Runners to do some rafting and kayaking on the Gauley and New Rivers.

... to Sally and Terry's place and must have decided to stop at the same look-out! So we were able to enjoy this with my parents! We all then drove back to enjoy a family BBQ in the garden at Sally and Terry's for the rest of the afternoon. It was really great for me to catch up with relatives that I wasn't expecting to see. Holly and Zach were very well behaved and joined in with all the adult chit chat. Zach spent a lot of time building more lego inside too.

Saturday 7 June Mike and Julie went off with Joan to visit Tessa (Julies's cousin). We stayed back and Terry took us on a tour of the sites - we saw the University Basketball Stadium, the town, swimming pool and cycle path. After lunch we cycled down to the city pool. It was incredibly busy but ...

... park called Stonewall Jackson Lake SP. There we had lunch under a tree right beside an old cemetery and Caroline had a nap. About 1 ½ hours later we continued on to Morgantown where we were meeting up with Mike & Julie, Terry and Sally (Julie's cousin) and Joan (Julie's Aunt). We had a slight detour that nearly ended in disaster enroute - Rory (the GSP) decided to take us on a shortcut up ...

... the World- Chilkoot Trail, Fearless Planet, Extreme Alaska, Travels on the Edge, various travel channel shows like Alaskan Wild, Wide Open, Artic Wildlife, etc., and even Sunrise Earth for goodness sake! So our trip begins with leaving Friday evening to stay overnight in Pittsburgh and possibly catch the 1st conference playoff game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. Go Pens!