Category: 2023

Covered Bridge tour of Bedford County PA

Saturday Sept 16 2023 was a gorgeous early fall day. We decided to check our list of places to see that we keep and decided a Top Down Day doing the Covered Bridge tour of Bedford County Pennsylvania was the thing to do.

The covered bridge tour is a driving tour that is done on your own and is created by the tourism council of Bedford county. You can find info of the tour in the Bedford county visitor guide or online at www.visitbedfordcounty.com

The tour consists of 9 covered bridges that were built in the late 1800’s and a place called Gravity hill that I will talk about later. All the bridges have been restored. Some are still drivable and some you can only walk over.

All the covered bridges were in great shape and you could just imagine the days when horse and buggy crossed instead of cars. The tour of the bridges took about 2 hours and we used the turn by turn written guide in the Bedford visitors guide to navigate. It is well written and easy to follow. The drive on Pennsylvania’s back country roads seeing farmland and a little slower life style was worth the trip even without the bridges.

One stop on the tour is a road called Gravity Hill. It is a place that they say defies gravity by moving your car up hill. There are 2 painted marks in the road that tells you where to start and stop but we started at the stopping point and it still worked. I have to say that the road looks to be sloped down hill and if you put you car in neutral it actually goes up the slope. If we ever intend to go back I am taking a level to see what the slope truly is on the road. To the human eye it definitely looks to be going down hill with a elevation change of maybe 8 to10 ft over about 150 ft span. Our Miata did drift up hill and increased in speed the farther we went. It is a baffling experience.

We highly recommend doing this Covered Bridge tour and Gravity Hill on a nice Top Down weather day. A few things to know.

1 There is limited parking to stop and get out to walk on the bridge to admire the construction. There was always at least 1 spot and most the time 2 spots for cars.

2 The Bedford visitor center was closed on Saturday so we ended up going to the Old Bedford Village to get information. That is also a great place to visit if time permits.

After the tour we decided to eat at the Golden Eagle Inn. It was ok. The main restaurant was closed so we ate in the brew pub. It was a small room and they did not have enough staff to serve everyone in a timely manner. However they had good food so it is a place we would go back to but there are several potentially good restaurants in Bedford and we will try them on future trips.

Blennerhassett Island

In May of 2023 we took a weekend to go to Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio River next to Parkersburg WV. It is about a 6 hour drive with avoiding highways. The drive over was nice weather so the top was down all the way. We drove through the heart of West Virginia across the mountains. One thing that is prevalent is wind generating turbines on the mountain tops across WV. We are big advocates of alternative energy so it was good to see the wind mills and on this drive you got up close to some of them to see the size of them is impressive.

We met our son and daughter in law in Parkersburg on Friday and went to a local brewery. the Marietta Brewing Comp in Marietta Ohio which is just across the river. It was nice restaurant that was just a short walk to the river that we strolled before heading back to the hotel across the river.

On Saturday we did our excursion to Blennerhassett Island. The only access the island is via boat. The island has a paddle wheel boat that transports people to the island. The trip on the boat is about 20 minutes from the dock near the museum to the island. On the island we had a house tour and a wagon tour of the island.

The history of Blennerhassett Island starts in 1789 when Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett buys the island and builds what at the time is a mansion on the island. they were aristocrats from Europe. What made the island famous is when Aaron Burr convinces the Blennerhassett’s to help fund and lead an uprising to take over parts of the center of the United States. The US government under Thomas Jefferson did not take this to well and sent the army to stop the plot. That is the short version. there is a documentary on Blennerhassett island that is worth watching before you go. We found it on Prime Video and rented it for $3.

The tour guide we had for the mansion was so so at best. The facts she gave was not enough to put the history of the property together. If we had not watched the video we would have gone away with a different story that what really happened. that night we ate at Da Vinci’s Italian Restaurant. If your in Parkersburg we highly recommend this place. The food was great, portions were generous and priced in the medium range.

On Sunday we departed taking back roads as much as possible. We went past Black Water Falls state park and ate lunch at the Smokehouse grill in the park. It was ok and worth the drive around the park. We plan on a separate trip back to the area around Black Waterfalls at some other time. There is alot to do just a hour drive away from Black Waterfalls state park so we plan on a very long weekend trip.

It was a great trip and if your close to Parkersburg highly recommend Blennerhassett Island.