Seneca Rock and Dolly Sods

Well we are back from our yearly Memorial Day roughing it camping trip and I'm only slightly hairier to show for it. I couldn't wait to get in my big jacuzzi bath when I got home and put that weekend behind me! My idea of roughing it is a 1980's Holiday Inn. Before we could go I had to go shopping for some new clothes. I realized that I didn't have one thing in my closet that fit the "I don't give a rip how I look" look so I had to go buy some. Seneca Rock is a beautiful area with bluffs, rocks, mountains and the river. But let me tell you do not go up to see Dolly Sods! Dolly Sods is the equivalent of telling your children that you are taking them to Disney World and instead putting a couple of quarters in a lame horse in front of Cost-Co! Not that riding the merry-go-round horses aren't enjoyable-I still like them myself from time to time. But after being told your going to Disney World----I think you get my drift. It was so awful that I came home and googled it. Let me tell you, I don't know where the pictures on the Internet came from but it wasn't the Dolley Sods we saw! It is 4 miles straight up, 8 miles across, and then 4 miles straight down. Sixteen miles and we were gone for 2 1/2 hours! The road is so bad {gravel, pot-holed, steep and narrow} that the whole family kept thinking this can't be the road. We must be lost. This is a national tourist attraction after all! All we could think of was the movie RAT RACE where the guys stop and ask the lady for directions. When they refuse to buy one of her goods she is peddling, she gives them directions on a "fall off the cliff road" in which they see the signs along the road saying YOU........SHOULD.........HAVE............BOUGHT.............A..........SQUIRREL! After climbing at 2 miles an hour {I think we could have hiked it faster] swerving everywhere to avoid crater size holes and looking over the edge of a mountain with a drop off like you have never seen before we finally arrived on top. We expected a beautiful view but there was nothing! We pulled into a look-out point only to find that you couldn't see anything because of the over growth. There were a couple of nice rocks you stand on looking at the nothing view though. We met a local couple up there who I suspect had gone there to "park." They thought it would be private because knowing what was up there who in their right mind would go there huh? We asked if the whole 8 miles looked like this portion. He very honestly said that it only got a little better up the road. We then asked about getting down off the mountain. He proceeded to tell us using the expression "when you fall off the mountain." Please I said, "We've just spent the last 45 minutes holding onto our seats in a white knuckled death grip, don't say "when you fall off the mountain!" He laughed and said that when we got to the bottom we were just a "spit"away from our campsite. Now we lived in Louisiana for 16 years. I am familiar with states particular quirks. In Louisiana you don't have counties you have parishes. But imagine my surprise when I found out that the state of West Virginia or at least this portion has done away with feet, yards, and miles and is now measuring in "spits." There is a site on the net where you can rate Dolly Sods. Here are some of the comments. "I thought that there would be more to it" and my favorite, "I tore up all four tires on my sedan seeing this national treasure!" Us girls did have a little excitement back at the campsite on the day the guys went golfing. { Am I the only one here who sees the irony in my family making fun of me for not liking to rough it and the men going off for a day of golf on one of West Virginia's most beautiful courses?} Anyway, we arrive back at camp only to find we had a snake in our area right where the grand-kids had been playing for a good portion of the morning. In fact, we can't get my grand-daughter out of the van for the snake! I keep my eye on the snake while Jenny our oldest daughter goes and finds a weapon. I am hear to tell you that when your in "mama bear syndrome"mode you can kill a snake with a spatula! For those of you that don't know what mama bear syndrome is just try getting in between her and her cub. There will be nothing left of you but DNA! We saved the snake to ask the guys what kind it was. We thought it was a rattlesnake-they said it didn't have diamonds. We said that was only because it hadn't developed its diamonds yet. We began to get a little freaked out that there were snakes in our tents and in our sleeping bags etc. In fact by the time the guys got back from golfing we had pretty much convinced ourselves that every snake on the Eastern seaboard was "vacationing" there at our campsite. The guys got back and managed to talk us out of our frenzy just as we were ready to pack up and get out of there! My favorite part of the trip? When we went to Olive Garden when we got back home!