October 1, 2008: Huntington and Beckley, West Virginia

I forgot to note that I entered the Eastern Time Zone on September 28th, as I was working my way to the Shepherdsville, KY hotel.

Although I'm heading east, I drove west today by nine miles. I wanted to see the Carter Caves Resort Park. There are several caves. Some can be explored without a guide (for a fee). Others are guided. The two caves open outside of the summer tourist season are Cascade Cave and X Cave. From what I read, X Cave is a little smaller and involves a lot of stooping. If this was the beginning of my trip, I'd probably be up to it. (This was necessary in the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana.) But at this point, I'm getting tired of sightseeing, so I just want a nice, easy walk through a cave. Cascade Cave would be the one I'd tour.

I arrived at noon. I had a number of other things to do today and assumed this would be an hour long tour. Because the heavy tourist season is over, tours are limited. X Cave (the one I didn't want to see) was having a tour at 1pm. Cascade Cave (the one I wanted to see) was not having a tour until 2:30pm. This would not allow me enough time to do everything else I wanted to do. There is also practically nothing in the area other than a few antique shops. So, it would be a lot of driving if I decided to wait. Therefore, I decided to skip the cave tours today.

I headed east along I-64. I crossed into West Virginia and did some shopping in the Huntington (second largest city in WV) metro area. This area is a big shopping and city area indistinguishable from any other city I've seen.


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After that, my next stop was Beckley, WV. This is in southeastern WV. I wanted to visit Tamarack, which is an upscale shopping area selling goods made in West Virginia. They have lots of carvings made out of coal. They also have absolutely delicious food.

My hotel for the evening was in Charleston, the capital. The capitol dome is lighted up at night and looks beautiful from the interstate. I had gone southeast on I-64 to get to Beckley. So, I was doubling back northwest to get to Charleston.