All good things must come to an end

 After we left TG and Jenny, we drove from South Carolina, through North Carolina, Virgina and into West Virginia. It was a long drive in terrible weather.  

We had several hours of torrential rain, and often heavy traffic.

As we drove, the weather calmed down.

We were happy to arrive at our hotel in West Virginia.  We were staying at a historic hotel, the Blennerhasset Hotel which was built in 1863. It was a beautiful place!

 

This was our room.

It was located in the oldest part of the building.

This library was open to guests.

JFK stayed here in 1960.

The hotel has it's own restaurant and we had a delicious meal out on the patio.

This courthouse was kitty corner from the hotel.

The next morning we walked through this area; the beams are from a bridge, there was also a railroad and just past this was the Ohio River.

We walked to the river and saw this bridge spanning it.

Then we got on this stern wheel boat which took us down the river to Blennerhasset Island.

We got off the boat and after a short walk, we saw this beautiful mansion.  It was originally built in 1800 by Harman Blennerhassett who was a wealthy Irish Immigrant.  He was involved in some shady issues with Aaron Burr (including possible treason!) and ended up leaving the area.  It burned down in 1811, but an exact replica was rebuilt which is what you see here.

This island has a long list of famous visitors, including: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Zachary Taylor, Stephan Foster, George Custer, Charles Dickens, John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses Grant, Andrew Jackson, John Audubon, Daniel Boone, Aaron Burr and Meriwether Lewis.

While waiting to tour the mansion, this wagon came by. It makes such a pretty scene.

We enjoyed our tour, which included seeing some of the original furnishings.

This is the main bedroom.

The island is huge, about 500 acres.  A lot of it is wooded, but we were free to walk around and explore.  

This old log cabin is one of the things we saw on our path.

Near the cabin are these fields where we saw horses grazing.

This is another old home we were able to walk through.  It was lived in until 1980, even though it had no electricity.

We really enjoyed our wagon ride around the island.

We had a picnic lunch on the lawn.

This is a grove of walnut trees. Bob was wishing he could take some of the lumber home with him.

It was such a lovely day!

The next day we were up bright and early, out of the hotel about 7 am and ready for the long drive home.

And here we are - home sweet home!  We arrived home shortly before 5pm.  
1,946 miles, 8 states, (9 if you count Michigan) lots of beauty seen and priceless time with friends and family! We are thankful for the time away, and thankful to be home!
Thanks for following along on our travels. Next week I'll be back to regular blogging.