Text 17011, 91 rader
Skriven 2011-10-25 01:24:08 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: WV Trains, day 6 & 7
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Day 6:
Breakfast was a buffet in a private dining room at the Holiday Inn.
This was one of the worst breakfast buffets that we have been subjected
to.  The steam table had cold scrambled eggs, cold and soggy potato
squares that were supposed to have been hash browns and bacon.  The
bacon was ok, but the other items were not.  They did not even have any
dry cereals as an alternate.  There was a table with juice containers --
but the orange juice was empty.  We had arrived at about half way during
the serving time, with an hour before our coach was to leave.  Many
tables had not been cleared of the dirty dishes.  They had one attendant
on duty, who seemed to be slowed down by a bad foot and considerable
limp.

The train ride this day was on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad,
http://www.wmsr.com/.  It was a 16 mile trip from Cumberland to
Frostburg, MD.  This seems to be a very popular train ride.  We had our
own car for the 44 people, but the rest of the train was sold out ($30
for a round trip in coach, $55 for first class with lunch).  It was a
nice ride, some fall color plus views of farm lands.  The color here was
not as good as it had been when we drove through the same area about a
week before.  Lunch was another box lunch on the train.  Decent ham
sandwich, a container of macaroni salad with a very sweet dressing.  I
ate mine, but Gail did not.

Cumberland is also the end of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal,
http://www.nps.gov/choh/index.htm.  The original intent was to go all
the way to the Ohio river, but when the railroad got built the project
stopped at Cumberland.  It was said that to travel the next 16 miles and
1000 foot rise to Frostburg would have required nearly as many locks as
had been on the entire canal from Washington to Cumberland.

At Frostburg we had a brief tour of the Thrasher Carriage Museum,
http://www.thethrashercarriagemuseum.com/, which had a large number of
old carriages and buggies.

The steam train engine and tender were pulled into a turn table.
Normally, they turn it around and it goes up a side track to rejoin at
the other end of the train to pull it back to Cumberland.  This day,
they had too many cars and instead we were told that they put a diesel
onto the other end.

The day's end took us to Stonewall Resort, www.stonewallresort.com.
Dinner was on our own, with a choice of three locations at the
conference center.  There was a restaurant at the golf course clubhouse
-- with a shuttle to get there.  The main dining room had a very good
menu and what looked like an excellent buffet for $25.  By this point of
the trip we were pretty much "dined out", and thus opted for the lounge.
Gail had a large bowl of minestrone soup.  She said it was very good.  I
tasted it and agreed.  I had some sort of a special burger which had
cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato plus a BBQ sauce.  It was quite large,
perhaps 1/2 pound or more, and cooked to medium rare as requested.  The
only problem was the the bun ran out before the meat did, but it was
excellent.  If this place were near to us, we might well be visiting
them again -- perhaps for the buffet.

Day 7:
Our last breakfast was at the Stonewall Resort.  This buffet was as good
as the first one at the Marriott.  Large selection of breakfast items,
including omelets.  Very good fresh fruit items.  A+.

On the way back to Charleston, we stopped at the Appalachian Glass.
They had a glass blowing demonstration, and lots of hand blown items for
sale.  Nice, but nothing we have not seen before.

At the end of the trail, we had lunch in a restaurant very near the
hotel.  Food had been preordered.  Choices were chicken teriyaki, prime
rib, and grilled salmon.  I took a chance and checked the prime rib
column, but put (RARE) after my check mark.  Gail ordered the grilled
salmon.  As we were seated, the tour guide came over and told me that
she had emphasized my (RARE) to them.  What came out was pink all the
way through, really a medium rare -- but better than I had expected.
Gail's salmon was ok, but over cooked and dry.  I did not see any
chicken at our table of eight.  The woman across from me was from Texas.
When she heard that I had ordered rare meat, she cringed.  She said that
she could not eat any beef that was not at least medium well -- and
could hardly stand to even look at rare meat.  I did not notice if she
was watching as I ate, but I enjoyed it.

After lunch, the coach drove us to the motel we had started from and
unloaded our baggage.  We picked it up and trekked up to our car in the
parking garage and began the journey home.  We had been thinking of
stopping in Hancock for dinner, but decided that we were "dined out" and
just went all the way home with a few stops along the way for gas etc.
Dinner was a late night grilled cheese and soup at home.


... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 00:38:56, 25 Oct 2011
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30

--- Maximus/NT 3.01
 * Origin: Owl's Anchor (1:261/1466)