Hampton 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!

... late am. Set-up camp and got organized then went to find the Raven Rock trail- head. This was a short trail that ends at a beautiful vista overlooking Cheat River. What a surprise that view at the end of the trail was! Coming back we followed the power line, per the hiking book's recommendation, and had to maneuver over and around some tricky rock formations. It was a pretty hike back that ended at the road, just a little ...

... throttle, covered the brake lever and prayed for the best outcome. God provided and the truck righted itself, the guy slowed down for about 15 seconds and then took off faster than ever. I guess he wanted to get away from the witnesses to his stupidity. If it had been me, I'd be pulled over looking for a clean pair of shorts but I guess that's just me. Anyway, I guess God still loves me even with my anger at the guy who tried to kill Barb and we ...

... 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 ...

Friday 6 June We find that when we do stay at Walmart's we tend to leave early and today was no exception. We drove onwards into West Virginia, which is a particularly lovely State that looks after its visitors. All the rest areas have Dump stations and the visitor info and maps they gave us were excellent. We took a detour off the interstate near Weston and visited a particularly lovely and "free ...

... 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!