Driving through Charleston, my attention was focused on the road and the traffic, so my impression comes mostly from the occasional sideways glance and may be unduly harsh, but the town seemed rather drab, and a bit dilapidated, which made the capital dome which is covered in 23 1/2 karat gold leaf stand out like bling on a beggar.
At noon, we exited the Interstate at Beckley and used the Garmin to locate a grocery store. We then decided to get really adventuresome and used it to get directions to a Taco Bell. We found it along with about half a dozen other fast food restaurants on one side of a 2-lane road that had bumper to bumper traffic in both directions and no traffic lights. Of course, they were all on the other side of the road. We eventually got into the Taco Bell parking lot and got lunch for Nicole. Nancy and I weren't in the mood for Mexican and decided to go to Chick-fil-A, a place we used to like when we lived in the Pacific Northwest but hadn't been to one since. Unfortunately, none of the fast food parking lots are linked, so we had to get on the highway to get back to it. Silly me, I assumed that the traffic would have eased up at least a little by the time we were ready to get back on the road, but no, it was still a steady stream in both directions. When we finally made it across and were on our way again, we found the traffic went on like that for over a mile with absolutely no indication of where everyone was coming from or where they were going.
Apart from the cities, I did find West Virginia very picturesque, though I'm sure my view would be less charitable if our route had take us passed any of the strip mines or topless mountains.
Tonight we are staying at a truck stop/camp grounds in the Shenandoah Valley.
Day 19
Milton, WV to Lexington, VA
Daily Mileage: 219.1
Total Mileage: 5,048.9
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