I organized what has turned out to be a relatively pricey but well-worthwhile trip to explore the roots of Jennifer's maternal grandparents. This was simple enough as it involves one county in Pennsylvania, Bedford.

Making I-70 Interesting

We picnicked and enjoyed our Portuguese Vinho Verde from house wine in Worthington (highly recommended) in the wonderful State Park that is Lake Barkcamp in eastern Ohio, it is only a few miles off of the interstate and well-worth the detour for a picnic on the monotonous highway. Note that it is forbidden to drink any alcohol in State Parks, so please do not do so, I am pretty sure ours was non-alcoholic since I couldn't taste any alcohol. You know, Vinho Verde is a very light summer wine, jeez it practically looks like water, give me a break.

Flight 93 Crash Site

Since we had visited Ground Zero in Manhattan and it was on our way, I decided to make another detour to the crash site of Flight 93, the aircraft hijacked by coward muslims and turned into a missile presumably destined for the Capitol but bravely taken down by her passengers and crew in an old quarry just north of Somerset, PA. The site is quite makeshift but there are very grand plans in multiple stages for the coming years. There is a wonderful group of volunteers and NPS presence that makes the visit quite worthwhile with wonderful explanations of what happened that day.

Bedford Springs Hotel

That night, I elected to keep us on the north side of the county following a long day's drive that started, of course, later than expected. So our first task in Bedford County was to get to the resort. It is an absolutely amazing historic hotel, and we have high standards, unfortunately service levels are still not even close to being up to snuff but are passable with some patience, but don't know if that is worth $310 a night.

We spent the afternoon lounging at the pool under what were gray skies, then enjoyed the indoor pool (which is what we would have hoped the Gellert Baths had been). We later went to the tavern as both of the nicer restaurants were fully booked up, the resort is definitely cranking despite the recession. We enjoyed a couple of what were the longest burgers we ever had to wait for (30 to 45 minutes AFTER the dinner rush), but we were here to relax so it wasn't that big of a deal, just don't come too hungry. We also enjoyed a bit of the firepit late night, but the smoke was too much and we didn't want to smell like Smokey Bear in the bed.

The second day we headed straight for the pool, a gorgeous sunny day, no complaints on the improvement from the first day but we had to leave by noon check out plus we had come out here not to hang out at the pool but to explore the history of the county and half of Jennifer's family in the United States.

One County, Two Stories

There are two sets of two townships relevant in our little genealogical tour - Bedford and Everett and Clearville and Chaneysville.

Bruce House Bed & Breakfast

The happening place in the Alleghanies is Cumberland, MD and without having seen the other alternatives, I still think it is safe to say that the Bruce House Inn is the best, make sure you book the Robert the Bruce Suites, an absolutely amazing space! The innkeepress is lovely, as I am sure the innkeeper is as well, but we only so far have had the pleasure of meeting the lady.

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