October 2, 2008 - Small Cities in WV's Mountain Areas

I visited some small West Virginia cities in the mountains today. The scenery along US 119 is beautiful. There are a number of small unincorporated communities along the way. I recall driving this road last year and describing Walton as "a string of eight houses." Last year, I went by a bit too fast. (I had to get to southern WV before dark last spring.) This year, going a bit slower, I found Walton to be much more than a few houses. It had several houses, plus a bank, sheriff's substation, a Mexican restaurant, a library, and a couple of small stores. It was situated around a bend in the road.

There were other small communities like Speed. This could be described as a "string of around sixteen houses." Gandeeville was another one like that.


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Finally, I got to Spencer. This is a city of about 2,000 people along US 33. The houses are in the mountains and almost seem "stacked" on top of each other. They were getting ready for their Black Walnut Festival. It begins on October 8th. The city suddenly becomes crowded at that point.

I decided to see a little more of this area and stay an extra day. However, there are no chain hotels directly in Spencer or any of the other small cities. The only hotel in the area is very run down. I couldn't stay there (even the locals say it's bad), and besides, I couldn't use my points there. This week has been another freebie week. So, I had to go up to Mineral Wells, WV. This is a hotel I stayed at during my visit to WV last spring. It's a very nice hotel and only takes a reasonable amount of points.

Instead of going up to Mineral Wells via I-77, I decided to go up the back way. I also wanted to see the town of Reedy. I wanted to see Reedy last spring. Reedy is north of US 33. The GPS (last spring) kept taking me south of US 33 on dirt roads with warning signs saying they could wash away in a flood. Some of those roads were so narrow that I decided not to try them last year. And in the end, they would not have gotten me to my destination anyway.


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Reedy was a nice small town. It was mostly houses. The area is surrounded by beautiful mountasins.

Finding a hotel for Friday evening was an adventure. I wanted another freebie night. When I looked through the map of available hotels, it seems as though every one of them was booked solid....when I used the free night as my rate program. If I was willing to pay, it was a different story. Yet, the policy for freebie nights is "no blackout dates." I decided to call in the reservation. That worked and allowed me to get a $104 night for free.

We're told about the supposed bad economy. Yet, people are willing to pay over $100 for a hotel night (in an average hotel) in the fall, during the school year.

My hotel for the next evening would be in Martinsburg, WV. Martinsburg is in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. I would work my way east along US 33 until I got to Weston. From there, it would be just over three hours to Martinsburg. I could have stayed in a hotel room in western Maryland, but I had read some negative reports about the available hotels in Tripadvisor.