Magical Time in the Mountains

I had been looking forward to this weekend for a long time and it didn't disappoint!  Several months ago when we went to the West Virginia State Fair we learned of scenic train rides that they have through the Mountains in the Monagahela Forest of West Virginia.  We wanted to go on a dinner train and the only one that worked for us was this weekend which just happend to be the last ride of the season (except a special Christmas one) and it was also a "Murder Mystery" ride.  We had a beautiful 3 hour ride through the mountains and along the way we stopped at several different places.  As we crossed the mountains we were on what was an old turnpike.  We stopped where the old toll booth used to be and looked at the gorgeous view:

A Family used to live on the property and collected tolls and that is how they made their living .  People would pass this way on their way to Bath County where the hot mineral springs are. (thus the name Bath)

 We, of course, read all historical markers along the way.  This one represented another sad aspect of the civil war-brother against brother.

 I thought this one was interesting because I had never heard of this problem in the Congo before.

 Directly across from these markers were the Jefferson Pools. These bath houses have been in use for over 200 years.

This wooden structure was built in 1761 and has a pool inside that is 120 ft in circumference and holds $40,000 gallons of constantly flowing, crystal clear mineral spring water.  There is a "ducking chair" inside that was used to help invalids into the pool.  It was used by Mrs Robert E Lee before and during the civil war to help with her rheumatioid arthritis.It is considered the oldest spa in America and  Thomsas Jefferson used the pools in 1818 at the age of 75 for his arthritis.  He would come and stay for 3 weeks at a time to "take the waters".

After soaking in the pools they would drink the water from this pool

some interesting information on the contents of the pool:

You can still come and soak in the pools for $17 an hour and we are planning on going back to give it a try sometime.  We think we'll do the family time when bathing suits are NOT OPTIONAL!  They have a ladies pool and a men's pool but during family time you can be in the same one!

We then traveled to our destination of Elkins West Virginia where we boarded the Mountain Explorer train.

Here is the crowd with the conductor:

Here is our table and some pictures along the way.We got to choose between Salmon, Prime Rib and Pork with apples. It was all very good!

 We sat with a nice couple from Harrisonburg VA, the Hams.  They work with at risk children and have had many foster children in their home and are getting ready for a permanent placement child.  He is a fish and wildlife patrolman and they were very interesting to get to talk to. Those are the menus propped up against the window. The sceanery was gorgeous and most of the time we were along the river. The leaves this year are not as spectacular because it has been dry and off and on cold and warm and we have had tremendous winds so most of them had blown off.  By the time we got to the waterfall it was dark outside and that is where some of the "murders" took place 

We thought these people might be part of the cast so we took their picture.  It turned out that they had just dressed up as characters from CLUE(expect Sherlock Holmes!) for the fun of it.

Here is one of the actors in the mystery (and our waitress). She ended up dead and we didn't guess the right murderer but it was fun anyway!

Here is the last part of our trip. Guess where you think we are by these pictures:

If you said Hospital or Hotel you would be right because it was an old hospital that they turned into a Days Inn but they have't  done much remodeling!  It SMELLED like a hospital (not my favorite fragrance) and the bottom two floors had Dr's offices, a lawyer and bondsman and the lobby had a gift shop!  We had booked from Hotels.com and now we know why it was so inexpensive!  At least the bed was comfortable and didn't have a crank!

There is definately plenty  more  to see and do in the mountains of West Virginia and we look forward to having more adventures there! 

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween!