A Week in West Virginia: New River Gorge National Park and Canaan Valley

I feel like we’re not alone when we say sometimes it is easier to plan a trip halfway around the world than to take the time to visit somewhere within driving distance of home. For years, we have talked about visiting the New River Gorge area as well as other spots in the Canaan Valley vicinity: Seneca Rocks and Dolly Sods. At half a day’s drive, this shouldn’t have taken about a decade in the making, but it did. In fact, it took us so long that by the time we visited, New River Gorge had joined the national park system, the 63rd park designated as such in 2020.

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My Quest to Read 100 Books in a Year: May and June, Months 5-6

I added twelve more books to my 2023 reading list in May and June: The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley, The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and many more!.

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Book Review of Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith

There are certain surface parallels between author Dominic Smith and his main character, Hugh. Like Smith, Hugh is an academic, enchanted by the crumbling Italian towns and has traveled to Valetto as part of a research effort. But Hugh has not picked just any Italian town; he comes from a long line of local inhabitants and plans to work on his academic research from the small, Medieval cottage in Valetto that his mom left to him as his inheritance.

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Book Review of Close Your Eyes: A Fairy Tale by Chris Tomasini

As soon as I saw the title of *Close Your Eyes: A Fairy Tale* I was intrigued. What hooked me was the term 'fairy tale,' making me reflect about how rarely that term is used in contemporary fiction, even when the foundational elements are employed.

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6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Burkes Garden - Day 6

Burkes Garden is an unexpected find.

A couple of years ago, Dustin was looking online at a map of our greater region - Southwestern Virginia - and spotted a place on the map that looked geologically interesting. And that is how Burkes Garden came to be on our radar.

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6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 5

Having exhausted most of the trails in Breaks Interstate Park, we considered finding a new place to hike on our last full day and found a few trails that piqued our interest in Pikeville, KY, at Bob Amos Park.  I already knew that Pikeville was having its annual festival (none other than Hillbilly Days) but figured a hike nearby would be okay and also allow us an opportunity to check out Pikeville. 

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6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 4

With temperatures set to soar to the mid-to-upper 80s (yes, in Virginia and Kentucky in mid-April!), we planned a morning hike and an afternoon drive in Breaks Interstate Park.  Like the prior day, we looked at the trail map and concocted our own version of a multi-trail loop:

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6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 2

We decided to check out a bunch of the scenic overlooks to enjoy them and also identify good spots for sunrise and sunset trips in the future.  We started first at Towers Overlook, inside the park entrance, and got our first real look at the huge massive rock formation that is left as softer rocks eroded away over time. 

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6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 1

When you embark on a trip with three dogs to a state park where you need to bring your own linens and food, packing the car is a noteworthy activity.  A successful car loading looks like this: all of us in the SUV with the ability to see out the back window.  That, of course, is the finished product. 

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Breaks Interstate Park Trip Overview - 6 Days in the Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky

Breaks Interstate Park, located in a rural section of the mid-Atlantic on the border of Virginia and Kentucky is smack dab in a beautiful, mountainous region with undulating mountains and hills spanning out across the two states, and a 1,000 foot deeply cut gorge called Breaks Canyon. The river that runs through the canyon is one of the deepest east of the Mississippi, one of several places colloquially called The Grand Canyon of the East.

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My Quest to Read 100 Books in a Year: March & April, Months 3-4

After a slow-down in March, I picked up the pace and read a total of 19 books over the course of March and April in total, getting me a couple of books ahead of schedule again.

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Book Review of Muckross Abbey and Other Stories by Sabina Murray

The ten short stories that comprise Sabina Murray’s latest work, Muckross Abbey and Other Stories, range in length from 16 to 34 pages, which means that each is bite-sized and a quick read. I quickly discovered that as I wrapped up each tale, I immediately wanted to move straight into the next and read the entire book in just a few short sittings before bed (more on that later).

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Book Review of Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior

Crooked Plow begins with the curiosity of two young sisters going awry. Belonisia and Bibiana, enamored by a shiny knife they find tucked away in luggage under a bed, decide to explore the taste of the metal. They wonder: Will it taste like a spoon? This activity is as ill-fated as it sounds with both receiving serious injuries to their tongues, rendering one essentially mute for life.

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Book Review of Virginia’s Lost Appalachian Trail by Mills Kelly

The Appalachian Trail is established and well-known, perhaps making its greatest foray into general consciousness a quarter century ago with Bill Bryson’s 1997 tome *A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail*. I have lived in the shadow - or the dust, as it were - of the trail for about 30 years with sections running close to several places I’ve lived in Virginia.

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Book Review of God Save Benedict Arnold by Jack Kelly

Benedict Arnold: It is a name that is immediately recognizable to most in the U.S. If you were to poll people about what they know about him, most would probably immediately describe him as a traitor and would hopefully also realize that the historic moment he was affiliated with was the American Revolution. Beyond that scratch on the surface of history, probably most people would come up blank with anything else to share about Benedict Arnold.

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Hiking Smith Mountain Lake State Park - 3.7 Mile Loop Trail from Walton Creek Trail

Smith Mountain Lake State Park is in Bedford County, Virginia, about halfway between Roanoke and Lynchburg. The park is situated on the north end of the large body of Smith Mountain Lake, which itself spans both Bedford and Franklin Counties with a small bit in the southeast falling in Pittsylvania County. We live on the east side of Roanoke, closer to the lake, and the drive is roughly 45 minutes, so it is a very doable trip to get some hiking in or otherwise enjoy the amenities on a beautiful day.

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Pacific Northwest & Western Canada Road Trip: Banff (Days 8-11)

The drive from Spokane, Washington to Banff is about 6 1/2 hours but of course that is only if you drive straight through. Stopping for the necessities like food, gas, and bathrooms means it is a pretty solid day’s trek, also dependent upon the border crossing from the US into Canada. The drive left the state of Washington pretty quickly and then spanned much of Idaho’s panhandle before crossing into Canada. From there, the topography began to change with the towering mountains first in the distance and then rising up and around us until we climbed ourselves up into them.

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Book Review of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

I listened to the audiobook version of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Widsom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, read by the author herself, in what has to be one of the most soothing voices I have ever heard. Combining her voice with the content of the book itself, I found Braiding Sweetgrass to have a meditative quality, relaxing me the same in a way similar to when I listen to audio-guided meditation sessions.

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