We left Beckley early this morning, 7.45 a.m. to be precise, as we had a long drive to Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania. We anticipated a seven-hour drive and that’s exactly what it took to get here. There were a few roadworks along the way but none of them delayed our journey.

Once again, most of the 470 miles was driven through beautiful scenery of mountains and lovely green trees. We were surprised at how little traffic there was.

It’s been hot again, rising from 59ºF (15ºC) to 85ºF (29ºC) and we are assured it should be lovely and warm for the next couple of days. 🌞

As usual, on long trips, we listen and sing along to music. Today of course, as we were partly in West Virgina it seemed appropriate to include John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’:

A river on our trip today

I was going to say it was an uneventful journey today but we did have some excitement!

First of all, we were about thirty minutes down the road and I remembered that I had left a whole bag of mini Twix in the fridge at our last hotel! I hope whoever found them appreciated the treats! 😔

Also, one of the first things we saw just as we left were deer on the side of the road, but we flew by so quickly I couldn’t get a photo. Likewise, near the end of our trip, right in the middle of the Interstate, a mummy duck and goslings were walking right across the middle of the road. 😱We don’t know their fate! The van behind us slowed down but we didn’t see what happened to them. 🦆

Partway into our trip a car just ahead of us shed its tyre! Rubber was flying everywhere and we were lucky to avoid it. Thankfully, the person driving the car was able to pull off onto the grass at the side of the road. 😥

Photos to make you smile!

Go Chicken!

The largest tin of Egg Shell paint in the world!

The most hilarious thing that happened today has happened to me!

After dinner we came back up to our ‘suite’ …………… did I mention that we are staying at the Hilton for three nights and we have a two-room suite, it’s very nice!

Anyway, I digress! I’m sat in bed writing this blog and suddenly remembered I needed to charge my Apple watch. I lent over with the watch in my hand to plug it in and as I did so, I knocked my cup of Cappuccino, ☕️ the drink flew everywhere, including all over the Hilton’s lovely white sheets and duvet. 😱

I leapt out of bed shouting for Si to bring towels, 😳 whilst trying to find the precious watch but was unable to find it anywhere! Eventually, after cleaning up the mess we both set about looking for it and it was just nowhere to be seen. 🤔 It was a complete mystery until 💡……………….. something told me to look in the coffee cup. It was still half full and sure enough, there’s my watch drowning in coffee! Lucky they are waterproof! I rinsed it off and touch wood, it seems to be working okay. 🤞That will teach me not to be so lazy. I should have gotten out of bed to put it on charge. Still, I’m doing a penance …………….. I’m now going to be sleeping on partially wet sheets! 😔

We had dinner this evening here in the hotel. I had the most wonderful beets and goat’s cheese salad to start followed by a crab cake. Si had crab cake to start and then the Cowboy Burger and fries. It was all very delicious. No pictures unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view!) as we were both very hungry as we hadn’t eaten anything all day and forgot to take any! 🤷‍♀️

Tomorrow we will be visiting Ricketts Glen State Park and undertaking a four-mile hike so that Si can photograph all the waterfalls. There are approximately 20, so it may take us a while! 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for reading.

Back tomorrow!