Before I continue, a couple of quick thoughts about The Biltmore that I forgot to include with my last post. My new bucket list item is a return visit at Christmas time. I saw some photos of what the house looks like in full décor, and it is stunning. I’m a sucker for Christmas decorations, so I would LOVE to see it. And, I think the gardens must be gorgeous most of the year, and different depending on the seasons. They were planting mums for the Fall while we were there, and I’m sure the Spring brings a ton of perennial blooms. Plus, there’s an azalea garden that would be in bloom, and the rose garden, as well, in Spring/early Summer! So, hopefully we’ll plan another trip through Asheville to enjoy Biltmore again (and again…and again!)
Saturday started with a quick packing up and we were back on the road by 9am, for about a five hour drive. It was actually a chilly morning, about 55 degrees when we left Wytheville. I can’t remember the last time I saw 55 degrees…so excited it’s September and we’ll see more temperatures like this over the next month or two! Love autumn!
Mark called Saturday’s drive, which was mostly through West Virginia, the world’s longest rollercoaster. It was seemingly non-stop curvy, windy, uphill, downhill…we are definitely in the “mountain state”. It’s never fun when you see warning signs (and the GPS warns you, as well) of impending downhill grades of 5-8% and there are ‘truck escape ramps’ just in case a truck’s brakes fail. What I want to know is how a truck gets off one of these ramps if they have to go up it. It’s damn steep!
We did see some thick fog in the mountains – understandable on such a chilly morning!
There were two tunnels on our route – RoVer’s first tunnel trips. The second (and longer) one actually crosses the VA/WV border about halfway through the tunnel – one of only two land tunnels in the US that cross a state line. The 55mph speed limit in the tunnel seemed a bit aggressive…we took it a bit slower!
Once we crossed into West Virginia, we started seeing signs for “Tamarack Marketplace”, featuring “the best of West Virginia”. We decided, since it was right off the highway, it would be an interesting place to stop and walk around for a bit to stretch our legs. So glad we did! What a neat place! It’s a co-op of sorts, with a variety of artisans and crafters displaying items handmade in WV, with a shared cash register. We spent about 30 minutes wandering around, enjoying everything from baskets and blown glass to paintings and hand-crafted wood items. I found two things I couldn’t pass up…
Back on the road and before we knew it, we were seeing signs for New River Gorge National Park, the country’s newest National Park (just designated in December 2020!). I knew it was in West Virginia, but when I looked on Google Maps, the way it was routing us would make the park pretty far out of the way. But our GPS routed us differently, to cut the corner between two Interstates, and low and behold, we were passing by a National Park. What a perfect place to have lunch and spend a little time on our drive!
It was literally just off highway 19…not out of the way at all! To access the park, you actually drive over one of its most famous and impressive features…the New River Gorge Bridge. This bridge is the 3rd highest in the US, and is the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the country. The arch is so high that you could fit a Washington Monument and two Statues of Liberty underneath it, with room to spare.
In the park, there are observation decks to view the New River, one of the oldest rivers on the continent, as well as the bridge.
There’s a scenic drive but it’s not intended for ‘large vehicles’. We figured RoVer is considered “large”, so we did not attempt it. Maybe someday we’ll be back with a car and can take the drive! There are also hikes and rafting, but we opted to keep our visit short and get back to our drive. We did get our obligatory passport stamps which I will add to my passport book when I get home (didn’t think to bring it…didn’t know we’d be visiting a national park!). I’ll also add a pin to my National Parks map…even though this park is so new, it’s not on the map!
So, it was a fabulous drive through West Virginia, and I get to add that to my list of states I’ve visited (I’ve previously driven through WV, but that’s not enough to count as a visit; now I’ve actually been places in the state!).
We finished up the remaining three hours of our drive, finally crossing into Pennsylvania for the final 30 minutes or so. Our destination was Mill Run, PA, in southwest PA…we’ll be visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater on Sunday!
We’re staying at a Jellystone Park, where Yogi Bear and his friends live. It’s definitely a park made for families with kids…so many activities and very heavily themed! The RV sites are pretty close together and our section appears to be pretty new with hardly any trees. Not a place we’d stay again, and we really only stayed here this time because it’s like five minutes from Fallingwater and there’s not much else around here! And, the sewer pipe is so darn high – they are supposed to be as low as possible so that gravity can help with the tank emptying process…no gravity here, that’s for sure. Makes the process a bit more challenging and time-consuming.
Yogi Bear welcomes us to Jellystone Park, Mill Run PA 
Why would they put the sewer connection so high?!?
Sunday morning, we headed to Fallingwater for our 10am self-guided tour of the grounds. I had screwed up a few months back when we first planned the trip; I saw that they had LOTS of tickets for architectural (interior) tours, so I delayed buying them (not sure why, but I did). Well, before I knew it, all of the interior tickets were sold out for the day. I was so annoyed with myself. I bought the grounds/exterior tickets to make sure we didn’t miss out on that, and I have been checking their website on a regular basis ever since, hoping that there would be some available because of a cancellation or something. Nothing ever showed up except for one ticket, and that wasn’t going to work for two of us! On Saturday, as we approached Mill Run, I saw that there were three tickets available at 1pm Sunday and quickly tried to buy two of those…but my cell signal was almost non-existent, and it timed out before I could get the tickets. And the tickets were gone before I had a good signal again. Ugh. Technology. I called to see if maybe the tickets were ‘stuck’ somewhere, but they were not.
So, upon our arrival at Fallingwater Sunday morning, I went right to the information desk and asked if there was, by any chance, a last-minute cancellation or no-show such that two of us could get a tour. I expected a quick “no” response, but she looked at her list, checked her computer, muttered something about people who were late, and said “check back with me in ten minutes”. I thanked her profusely, crossed my fingers, and Mark and I took a quick walk to see the “birds-eye” view of the house. We headed back, and as we approached the desk, she motioned to me and said “I was just looking for you”…I took that as a good sign! Sure enough, the Peterson party was late and we were able to buy two tickets for an interior tour starting in about 10 minutes. Totally thrilled and so excited that we’d be able to see both the inside and the outside of this amazing and iconic house. I hope whatever delayed the Petersons wasn’t too serious, but I’m SO GLAD they were delayed or forgot or whatever…made my day!
The tour was simply amazing. There were just six of us on the tour, and our guide was wonderful – very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the home and its history. Mark and I have toured a few Frank Lloyd Wright homes, in Buffalo and in Chicago, and this was so very different from what we have seen before. Usually, his homes have lots of wood , both on the walls and with heavy furniture pieces, as well as his signature stained glass or leaded glass windows. None of the above here. His focus was so heavily on the integration with nature that the window glass is all clear & simple to keep the unobstructed view, and the furniture is much lighter and more upholstered than is typical. The large, open rooms were typical of his designs, as were the low ceilings in certain areas to encourage people to move into other spaces. It’s a relatively small house, and the outdoor terraces are almost as much square footage as the indoor spaces!
The home was built for and owned by the Kaufmann family, owners of a department store in Pittsburgh. Fallingwater was built in 1937, and remained with the family until it was deeded to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. In 2019, it became one of eight FLW homes to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. One thing that was unique about this home versus others we’ve visited is that it was only owned by the one family, so the home was never modified and thankfully did not need extensive restoration to return it to its original condition and layout – just the usual conservation, maintenance, and upkeep.
After the interior tour, we checked out the most iconic view of Fallingwater, with the waterfalls and surrounded by trees. Breathtaking. Amazing. Beautiful.
Our timing was perfect; we stopped in the gift shop briefly, and headed back to the campground…1pm kickoff for the Buffalo Bills meant our afternoon would be spent with RoVer’s TV. We had multiple plans for how we would watch the game. Originally, we were concerned we wouldn’t even be able to see it, but once we realized they were playing against Pittsburgh, and we are about 90 minutes from PGH, we figured it would be televised locally…and then we found out it was the national 1pm game. Problem is that our cell signal at the campground is pretty much non-existent, making it impossible to stream. Mark connected the cable TV that the campground offers, but the quality was horrible. The campground free wi-fi wasn’t strong enough for streaming, so we paid $4.95 to upgrade to premium wi-fi. Works great – clear, no buffering! I did warn Mark…we’re in Steelers’ country, so no screaming “Go Bills”! The game didn’t turn out as we had hoped, but it was still an incredible day!
September 13, 2021, 6:29 pm
Love reading about your journeys! I just read some of this to my sister and she said you must have been taking the i77/i79 route. Never traveled the ‘western’ route from NC to NY; usually 77/81/15/390.