7/28/09 - Pipestem State Park, WV

Here we are at Pipestem State Park in WV. It was a total surprise to us. We expected a small state park similar to ones we've stayed in before. Not so. This place is a resort. They have a lodge, cabins, camping areas--anything you can imagine. The lodge is huge with spectacular views of the mountains. The mountains here are definitely not the same size as the ones we saw in the west, but I have to say I love the green.

The lodge here has an indoor swimming pool. Somewhere there are tennis courts and basketball courts, as well as an archery area. Kids are riding their bikes everywhere. They have large rooms in the lodge they rent out for conferences and reunions. Apparently, there are rooms in this lodge, too. They have a couple of restaurants in the lodge and a few restaurants--one is supposedly by reservation only and is excellent. There's a sky tram you can take to have a better view of the mountains. All in all, this is one cool place.

We're so glad we spent a couple of nights with Linda in Columbus. We don't see her nearly enough. She just had her 70th birthday, so we took her out and had a nice dinner. We really didn't do anything else special. We just got a lot of talking done, hung out at Barnes and Noble for a while and relaxed. She's a fantastic quilter and we got to see her latest project, which was a treat.

We don't know what we'd do without our book downloads. My friend, Lynn, recommended a book by Michael Connelly. I'd seen his books on the shelf before but had never read one. We both enjoyed The Brass Verdict. David wanted another one, so we downloaded The Poet. It was fantastic.

David's partner, Bob Mazur, just wrote a book called The Infiltrators. It came out yesterday and we saw it at the Barnes and Noble in Columbus, Ohio. We bought a copy and gave it to Linda. Maybe David will narrate the book for the audio version. (That's a joke, in case you can't tell.)

We've both decided we're getting a little homesick. I don't think we're going to stay at any one place for very long--we're both getting a little anxious to be at home.