Dietz Summer Road Trip

Ok folks, it’s that time of the year again! The summer solstice has passed which ushers in another season of the #RoadTrippinDietz ! This summer we have a few things going on so a “mini” road trip (and by mini we are talking about 1,300+ miles) was planned before Danielle heads to Seattle for a week for Special Olympics. But don’t worry, when she gets back there will be more travel, more blog posts, and a two-week teacher seminar program (as if all of these National Parks and Historical Landmarks were’t nerdy enough!).

This summer we are kicking things off with a little trip around the “mid-atlantic” states. Check out the proposed travel plan:

Before we could take off we dropped Max (our almost 10 year old Puggle, 118 months old to be exact) off at the Petsmart Hotel in Raleigh for the week. We joke that its his summer camp, since he always comes home exhausted from all of the play! Before we said goodbye we snapped a few pictures of Max and his new friends!

Now that we know Max is in good hands for the next few days we head out into West Virginia! About a 5 hour drive from our house is the New River Gorge National River, and the National Park Service site which showcases the largest, single arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere! We plan to get in to this location called “Ace Adventure Resort” which had these adorable A frame Chalets we wanted to rent (maybe to test the waters to see if we could live in a tiny house) but since we were only staying one night, their two-night minimum made it an unattainable dream for now! So we settled on the good old no-water, no-electric, no-internet camp site. What could make it better you ask? How about having it rain when we get there and while we were setting up the tent! Kicking off Camp Dietz 2018 with a bang!

So since it was raining we went to the resort restaurant. Called the “Lost Paddle”. We helped ourselves to some cheesy brick oven pizza!

The next day we headed out to the main reason why stopped here. The New River Gorge National River and Bridge. These bridge was built 1971-1974, making it the largest single arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere and also cut a 2+hour commute around the river down to about 15 minutes! So now the river/gorge has a National Park designation and the Bridge brings thrill seekers from all over. They have an annual “Bridge day” where base jumpers head over the edge, and they even bungee jumped a car off the side of it in the 90’s.

We took a LITTLE safer approach and signed up for a two hour excursion called the “Bridge Walk”. They harness you in and you walk under the bridge on a catwalk. Sounds innocent enough.

So they pick us up and shuttle us over to the entrance to the bridge walk (this trip is like 1 minute by mini-van).

Then we head down this little path here so that we can access the catwalk under the bridge. Think like a service entrance, something that only trained maintenance professionals should access. But for $45 and a quick safety talk, they’ll let you walk yourself over a river at 851ft.

So now we are all harnessed in and can begin our 3,000+ft journey across the underbelly of this steel marvel. The catwalk isn’t super wide, it’s sturdy, and shakes violently every time a truck drives overtop of the bridge. Yes, it’s supposed to shake, sway, move, shudder, whatever. But still, it’s a little freaky until you get use to it.

So we walk along, she tells us literally everything we could care to know about the bridge, when it was built, what it was built out of, and the effect on the local community.

Here are a few views, videos from over the edge. The whole thing lasted about two hours from start to finish. We had a gorgeous morning for it and the views were spectacular. As we walked to the middle and were at the highest point above the river our tour guide had us lean out over for a picture!

We got to see a few bonuses also! A plane, a coal train go by on the railroad below, and a peregrine falcon (but I couldn’t get a picture fast enough!).

Our tour guide also talked a lot about the inspection and maintenance of the bridge. Also again how the whole thing was built to be able to shift and move with the changing weather and seasons. She opened up the service door, let me hold my camera over top for a quick picture.

As we finished up our walk our mini van was there on the other side (no we didn’t walk back) to pick us up. Everything was timed perfectly and we had maybe a 5 minute drive back to where we started.

For further proof we did it, they give us a sticker! The whole thing was awesome, even better was we ended up being the only two people on the tour! Sometimes there can be as many as 20 people. I guess it pays to book the first tour of the day, no one else is awake then!

Since we didn’t actually get to go into the Visitor Center, we headed back over there and took a short walk down to another great platform to see a cool view of the bridge. Inside the visitor center there was a little exhibit on the bridge, flora and fauna, and the first National Park stamp of the trip!

It’s now time for lunch and the place that came highly recommended to us was the Secret Sandwich Society in Fayetteville, WV. After eating there, we totally get it. Not only was the food all farm fresh, delicious, homemade… sandwiches were all named after Presidents (well Lafayette and Churchill weren’t, but the portraits of the presidents that they had hanging everywhere including the bathroom, made up for that oversight!)

We sat outside, it started to pour which somehow made it better. We were covered and the downpour made it so relaxing, or maybe we both have just really been looking forward to this excuse to relax! Teachers like us work triple time August-June, so we are just now getting a chance to relax and enjoy free time together!

We are all fueled up and ready to head north to Ohio! Another quick 5 hour drive and we will find ourselves in Cleveland! Stay tuned for the next post from the shores of Lake Erie!