Shall we hang out in a friendly small town on the panhandle of WV? Well, ok, particularly as it is somewhere we’ve visited many times over the years. Berkeley Springs is a great place to while away a few hours, and we did exactly that for a sunny day or two earlier this month.
It has a microbrewery or two (nope, not this time, would you believe?!) great coffee shops, an antique mall, and a number of little stores selling arty crafty stuff. If you like cinnamon scented candles, handmade birthday cards, and knitted/quilted/beaded/stitched stuff, then you’re well catered for. Next visit, and if you’re there, I’ll meet you in the microbrewery (‘cos by then they’ll have very sensibly adjusted their afternoon opening hours so I can skip out on the knitted/antique stuff…)
We’re not really leisure shoppers, but we browsed and had a couple of great conversations with storekeepers who couldn’t get enough of those cute accents. “You’re from Australia, yes? No? Texas, then?” Close enough. We usually agree on Canada via Europe. Folks we chat to south of the border always love Canada, which is reassuring and neighbourly. I mean neighborly.
The guy selling Native American beadwork and blankets was a road warrior with hundreds of thousands of truck miles under his belt. He knew of and had driven through most north of the border places we mentioned, east to west and also north, right up onto the ice roads in deep winter. He was now enjoying his warmer retirement years in his often sunny small WV town. I’d love to share his stories about the “cat” that kept him company on many of his trucking adventures. He described what sounded like a small mountain lion, one that scared many a border guard into waving him through rather than get within close up claw distance to inspect any paperwork… (Next time I’m down that way, I’ll visit with him, see if he wants to elaborate and maybe get his permission to tell a tale or two. I suspect colourful isn’t even close…)
The park in the centre of town has to be one of the smallest state parks ever, and is a delightful spot to sit in the sun and drink coffee. In season, there’s a wonderful outdoor pool – Junior PlaidCamper spent many happy childhood hours splashing about on hot days. In and around the park there’s some (civil war) history to the place if that’s more your thing. For something less bloody, how about George Washington’s bathtub? Yup, really:
I can recommend staying at The Country Inn, a friendly hotel complete with dining room and tavern. We had a spacious room overlooking the park, and if an inch of wall was unpapered (a bright flowery design), I didn’t find it.
We scoped out the dining room and tavern to decide where we’d prefer to eat that night – reservations had been strongly recommended by the check in staff. The helpful person taking dinner reservations looked me up and down and suggested the tavern rather than the dining room as we’d be a better fit for the lively crowd found in there. That’s us, always found hanging with the lively crowd.
We returned at 7pm and it was busy enough already, most of the tables filled with revellers at least twenty five years our senior. Many seemed to be enjoying the local draft dark beer, a stout called The Miner’s Daughter if I remember correctly. After a couple of pints I was tempted to sneak away from the youth set for a moment and peek in at the dining room, but thought better of it – wouldn’t have wanted to startle (awaken) the octogenarians (nonagenarians?) in there.
My brother joined us for dinner, looking relieved we were hanging out in the hipster bar – he might have mentioned it being the hip replacement bar, but relented when he heard about the dining room – and we had a great meal. So great we had to slump, almost comatose, in the nearby and very elegant reception room to allow for recovery before tackling the stairs to bed.
Anyway, I think we’ve discovered why I’ve never been paid or sponsored to write trip reviews… Let’s leave my dreadful ageism aside, and finish by saying if you ever find yourself near Berkeley Springs, WV, you’ll have a fine old (stop it, PC) time.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
OldPlaidCamper 