walking vacation, day 7

We arrived Saturday night and went to the hotel that hosts the walk box. They were booked. They sent us to a town a couple miles away to the Comfort Suites. They were booked to. Everyone was booked. There was a film festival in town, a motorcycle rally, and a huge accident on the Interstate. Who would have thought that a sleepy town in West Virginia would have no room at the inn?

The Comfort Suites clerk was wonderful. She called around. The Knights Inn 10 miles away had 2 rooms left, but wouldn't hold them. By the time we got there, they were gone. They sent us across the street to the Roadway Inn. Finally, a room for the night.

Since we did the Volkssport check-in at the host hotel Saturday night, we parked near the middle school. No use walking the long driveway for nothing. Getting the instructions early allowed us to read them, and become familiar with them. That saved us a lot of time.

I believe this was an 11K. We headed toward "downtown" and they were setting up the Farmer's Market. Bonnie decided to get peaches on the way back. there is a historical marker on every block in this town. We walked around town a bit more, then headed into the university, and across the bridge to Maryland. Once we crossed the bridge we headed down the path and snaked around to almost the canal path. Instead, we turned right into the woods. It was a rustic trail. I wished I would have brought my walking stick. It was a climb back up the hill.

When we reached the lawn of Fairy Hill we were soaked with sweat. So what do we do? Take a tour of the house. Lucky for us the air conditioning was broken. They had fans running. We did not get overly cooled down. While there we bought National Park Passports and started collecting stamps. Something else to carry and never fill.

Then it was back down the drive, and back over the bridge.  Back thru the university's athletic fields, and back thru town. Somehow we read the instructions wrong, and I missed the farmers market. So we drove down, Bonnie hopped out of the car, and I drove around the block. Those peaches smelled good.

On the way out we stopped at Antietam National Battle field. Why not? We were in the 'hood.