The New River Gorge Bridge

Clay and I took a little impromptu trip to Fayetteville, West Virginia yesterday to see the New River Gorge Bridge. We almost did the bridge walk, and I was getting pretty excited about it, until I called and found out it was $70 per person. So we just viewed from afar. 

The mining town of Kaymoor used to sit right at the bend of the river

We did a little bit of hiking around the area as well. The hikes we took weren’t long at all. In fact, one was just a staircase created by the visitor’s center that allowed you to get a better look at the bridge. But guess how many steps it had? 178. Climbing 178 steps at a brisk pace gets your heart going.

The second trail we went to was advertised as “strenuous.” They were not lying. We hiked through the woods on what felt like a vertical wall and when we got to the crest, the trail narrowed quite a bit so you were walking down a windy treacherous slope between a wall and a cliff. I called foul. It wasn’t an official hiking day for us (we were just checking them out) and neither of us was prepared for that kind of hike. So we went back to the car, but we were both huffing and puffing for most of that hike as well. It was steep!

Then we headed over to Charleston for lunch at the Bluegrass Kitchen. I forgot to pull out my camera so I didn’t get any pics of the food or the decor, but it was in an old building and had a pretty artsy vibe going on. I wouldn’t call it kitschy. Or maybe I would. You check it out and see for yourself. It’s worth a drive down just for the scenery. 

I got the house salad with grilled chicken and a side of fries. I shared the fries with Clay. Clay got a cheeseburger, fries, and a side salad. Clay’s a foodie, so he wasn’t too impressed with his stuff. I think he’s also turning me into a foodie, because I am finding myself fine-tuning my taste buds on every meal I eat. My salad was okay. The dressing (homemade strawberry vinaigrette) was a little too sour for my taste. They also put a heeping pile of sprouts on my salad. I’ve never been a fan of sprouts – I think they taste like dirt (literally) – but it had been years since I last tried them so I gave them another shot. Yep, still tasted like dirt. But the fries were really good. That’s why I made Clay eat most of them.