Our Drive From West Virginia on I-77 To Marietta, Ohio

                                                      Thursday, 5/8/2014

After a noisy night at the Morton Travel Plaza, which is south of Beckley, WV. we continued north on I-77. The whole drive through West Virginia was mountains and trees. Like the West Virginia sign said "Wild and Wonderful"

As we traveled through Charleston, West Virginia, we followed the Kanawha River.

The suburbs and the city of Charleston lie between the mountains and along the river.

The traffic just south of Charleston came to a complete stop for a while, because the traffic was funneled down to one lane for painting white lines on the interstate. A good time for a potty break!

I-77 crosses the river in Charleston.

Many barges lined the shores of the river.

Charleston is the capitol of West Virginia. We thought about staying at a Wal-Mart for the night instead of Morton Travel Plaza, but it was too far off the interstate, which Joe doesn't like because it costs us more in gas, and the hassle of driving into a city.

As we continued north of Charleston, the mountains get smaller.

Not too long the small mountains became small hills, and Joe started to relax.

If you don't mind driving longer days, there are two truck stops, one of them being a Love's, and a Super Wal-Mart in Ripley.  We though about staying here, but it would have made way too long of a drive for Joe after mountains and curves.

After Ripley there are two rest stops at mile marker #165, and 185. We stopped at MM #165 for lunch. This rest stop has a dump station if you need to get rid of your black and grey waste.

We cross the Ohio River and arrive into Marietta, Ohio.

"Ohio So Much To Discover" State

Our GPS took us down a street full of  old beautiful historic homes to our next stop.

Our GPS wanted us to turn left onto a street that was so sharp and almost going the opposite direction we were going, that we thought it was the wrong street. (It was the right street, but we never would have made the turn) Next the GPS had us turn down a street that was so steep, it made Joe and I hold our breath going down. Once at the bottom of the street, we turned left again and down the street, and we finally came to the Washington County Fair.

This is a fairground campground in Marietta, OH. No one is in the office at this time of year. You just fill out an envelope and place $35 for the night in it. Joe was complaining right away about the price we paid for the zero amenities in the campground.

The full hook up section sites were around a parking lot. All the RV's were parked in one section of the parking lot.

Joe didn't want to be parked right next to neighbors so he chose one across the lot on the other side of the lot.

We were told later that the only problem with this site was that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we would be surrounded by cars 

when the Skate Rink was open. Oh well we thought, we will just close the curtains! After setting up we headed up town for the Post Office. I had some medicine being sent General Delivery to the Post Office. If the campground does not accept mail, we have our mail sent General Delivery to the Post Office. Post Offices will hold your mail up to 30 days. Because this was medicine, I called the Marietta Post Office to make sure they would hold it until we arrived. At first they said I needed to come in to fill out some papers. I told them we only planned on being there for 2 nights, so the mail would never arrive in time if I had to order it after we arrived and filled out paper work. The person I talked to said they would hold it for me without the paper work. When I got to the Post Office they told me they didn't have anything for me. I went out side and called the pharmacy, and they tracked it and said it had arrived on Monday, but it looked like it was sent back Wednesday. I then had to go back inside and explain to them that I had the tracking number and I was told it was sent back. The Post Master was brought out so I could explain my blight. I told him we were Full Time RVers, and we had been doing this for years, and we have never had anything sent back. He told me he was sorry and he would try to locate it and get it sent back to me where ever I was. He said he would call me the next morning once he located the package. These are the kinds of struggles Full Timer's have to deal with that can get old!