Friday: After a good drive of clearing skies and nice leaf color, we arrived in Davis/Canaan Valley. Met Todd and Kathleen for the traditional dinner at Hellbender Burrito (delicious!), and welcomed Kate and Tristan later that evening.
Saturday: Misty and foggy, but dry. We headed up to the ridge on the edge of Dolly Sods National Wilderness area. The crew hiked about 3.5 miles, ending up with some cairn art and rock throwing, which sadly led to the demise of Tristan’s lego man. Alas. Back at the house, we carved pumpkins, toasted seeds (shaking salt, shaking salt, shaking salt…), danced to The Killers (yes, there’s a video), and welcomed Sam to the party.
Sunday brought the rain, but we were ready. The ubers headed back up to the ridge for an 8 mile loop. The evening brought hot showers, a farewell to Sam (just before the snow too L), and Mary Kay’s first viewing of The Princess Bride.
Monday: snow! The forecast said it would snow until 11am and then turn to rain. Well, it didn’t turn to rain, and it never stopped snowing for 4 days. My mom, who emailed me about 2 feet of snow BEFORE we left has requested a cross stitch piece from me that says, “You were right.” I think there should be snowflakes as accents. To be fair, we did think about leaving, but Hurricane Sandy blocked the path of the rest of the crew back to Baltimore, so we took a long walk along the snowy roads of Timberline. Afterwards, Todd and Frank went into town for the beloved Sirianni’s pizza. The ladies stayed at Mile Failte and watched Dirty Dancing…all of Dirty Dancing and no Frank and Todd…. They called to let us know they’d been delayed because of an accident on Rt. 32. By the time the road opened, snow chains were necessary for driving, and when they got to the gate house at Timberline, the guard helpfully suggested, “…you’re going to Mountainside 183…you might make it.” Fortunately, they did make it, and we had a cozy and warm night with pizza and a fire, a first viewing of Star Wars Episode IV for Mary Kay, and it kept snowing….
Tuesday: Still snowing and now no internet; Mary Kay and Kathleen cooked and baked everything we’d brought in anticipation of losing power, which happened around 12 noon while the crew was out sledding. Luckily over the next 46 hours, we had running water, a gas stove that could be lit to heat up food, plenty of snow for keeping food cold, a landline to receive calls (thanks to all family and colleagues who called!), and a well-insulated house built for winter with a great fireplace and plenty of wood.
Wednesday: Still snowing. We thought Wednesday might be our day to leave until the rental agency let us know that the governor of West Virginia had declared a state of emergency until 6pm. The plows had run out of gas, and the gas stations had lost power. The plow guy for Mile Failte could not be located. The forecast showed continuing snow turning to rain and ice later in the week. The roads in Timberline were plowed, so we needed to shovel our 40 yard driveway. No problem. Four hours, 5 adults, 2 adult shovels, and 1 kiddie shovel = ~12 “man” hours. Whew. During our Halloween dinner, we lit up our jack-o-lantern, carved by Frank, and had the equivalent of 1 slice of pizza each with pepper slices for dinner. Fortunately, there was still wine and beer!
Thursday: Still snowing and Departure Day aka Day 7 of a 4-day vacation. With our Timberline road clear, we did some final shoveling, packed and organized, and got all three cars out of the Mile Failte driveway and up and off the Timberline roads. Go team! The road was still pretty dicey for several hours, and then pretty suddenly and remarkably, the snow disappeared. Quite an adventure. Check out more photos here.
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