Ohio's Flag

 Today I drove from West Virginia, through Maryland a little bit, back to West Virginia, through Ohio and into Indiana. While stopped at a rest stop in Ohio I noticed the three flags on the flagpole. The American flag was at the top. The POW flag was in the middle, and an unusually shaped flag at the bottom. Ohio is the only state in the union that does not have a triangular flag. This flag was designed in 1902 and I really like the looks of it.

 

New River Gorge

From Pennsylvania we traveled to West Virginia to New River Gorge. This is a beautiful gorge.

On the first day we visited two of the visitor centers and did some hiking.

We saw a group of people in zip line gear getting ready to traverse the lower level of this bridge. I don't think I would enjoy walking under a busy bridge. People have bungi jumped from the bridge. Others have parachuted off the bridge. We camped that night. The next morning we reported to Aces Adventures for our white water rafting tour. We took a bus up stream and got into our boats. The half before lunch is fairly tame with just a few rapids. The half after lunch had many rapids. Only one person over turned. The weather was perfect - sunny and warm. The river water was about 84 degrees. The grand girls jumped off a rock and swam in the river. What fun!

 

North Carolina

 This morning I got  up early, packed my car, and started driving south and east. I left Pennsylvania in the rain about 10:30 in the morning. I drove through Maryland and West Virginia. I drove through Virginia and into North Carolina. The prettiest scenery was in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina. This is my first time in North Carolina. I like it. Gas is cheaper here by 30 cents a gallon compared to Pennsylvania.

Berekly Springs

Today we hiked around Cacapon State Park. Cacapon is the native American name for healing waters. We saw red bellied woodpeckers, chickadees, a hawk, and tufted tit mice. Cacapon State Park has a nice lodge where we are staying. The park is 6 miles long but about 4 miles of the road is closed from Dec. 1st to April which is too bad because at the end of the road you get to the peak of the Cacapon mountain.  Hot springs run in this area. We traveled north to Berkeley Springs. George Washington took a hot bath in Berkeley Springs for the first time at age 16.

In Berkely Springs a Roman bath cost us about $35/half hour.  The bath house was built in 1815. Water from the springs is 74 degrees. The water runs in concrete ditches from one bath house to another. Inside the bath house the water is heated to 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Towels are provided. I put on my swimsuit and went down the stairs. If I sat on the floor of the bath my head would have been underwater so I didn't do that. You can see we were so warm we had to open the window some.  I thought the mineral rich water made me more buoyant but that might have been my imagination. The water was so hot I didn't quite last the full half hour in there. I was thirsty and exhausted when I finished. I had to go outside to cool off. I filled my water  bottle with water from the spring. After a long drink of water I felt much better. A museum is housed above the bath house but it was closed for the season.