Matt_in_VA

After the Tom Catt Run I headed out to Indiana to visit a long time friend (that I have known since 1973). I decided to split up the 630 mile drive home into two days, as I had enough Hilton points for a free room at the Hampton Inn in Mineral Wells, WV on the way back (which was about half way).

When I left Mineral Springs my Garmin GPS wanted me to take I-77 North to RT 50 East but I wanted to drive on some more of the fun roads in WV, where the speed limit is 55 MPH, but even in an S-2000 one can only do or exceed the speed limit about twenty percent of the time. So I drove south out of Mineral Springs knowing that I would have to make a left hand turn at some point to head east. Even though I have my Garmin set up to avoid unpaved roads it had me make a left onto a road that was paved, only for the first several miles. After several miles it turned into broken pavement, then to gravel. By then, I was too far in to turn around. The next road that it had me turn onto turned into tire tracks through the woods. I had to drive with either the left or right side tires on the center to prevent taking the oil pan off. Then is got even worse. At one point it was rocks and I again had to pick a line to avoid ripping the oil pan off. It was so rough that my dash cam fell off of the windshield (Otherwise I would have posted pictures of that stretch of the trail). Then it got even more challenging: It had apparently rained the day before and as much as I hated to have to gas it to get through patches of mud that where about thirty feet long. I could not run the risk of getting stuck. Out in the middle of now where with no mobile phone service. When I eventually found pavement again, I was hoping to run into a thunder storm after my gas stop revealed that the inner fender wells and fenders behind the tires were covered with mud. Fortunately, I did eventually run into some heavy rain (not hail) that cleaned that mess up.

dlq04

Matt, those kind of adventures are no fun. Glad you made it without any damage.

SheDrivesIt

Geez, Matt, and I felt bad about my little "shortcut" route on Ohio 681 on Sunday half of which was tar and chip and the other half being pot hole city.

Tachus

Glad you made it home without damage. That would certainly have sent my blood pressure far too high.

kgf3076

How's Alan doing?

WVCR-V

Matt, I hope you won't give up on WV roads after that incident. There really are some great ones that rival Western NC up in the north eastern region. Unfortunately our roads run the spectrum in surface condition. Glad you made it out unscathed.

SheDrivesIt

How are the roads in Eastern WV say around the Showshoe area. I would think there would be loads of places to stay around there in the summer since it is more focused on the winter ski industry -- I think......

WVCR-V

Good roads around Snowshoe and lodging is wide open in the summer. Best roads are up around Canaan Valley, Davis and Elkins areas. They are maybe an hour from snowshoe if I remember correctly and a good loop could be made starting at any of those places.

Matt_in_VA

OH! I won't give up on WV roads. As I have stated over the years the reason that the TomCatt Run is one of my favorite meets is that the drive out and back to/from Marietta is as much fun as the drive on RT26. Even US RT 50 in Eastern WV is fun, unless one gets stuck behind a lumber truck or a Harley rider.

Over the years, I have taken other ways home and driven for miles on roads with a speed limit of 55 MPH where even in an S-2000 one is hard pressed to meet or exceed the speed limit about 20% of the time. What is not to like?