Military Officer - April 2007 - (Page 56) comic books and crayons, staring out the window, waiting for something of interest to catch my eye. Then there would be that dash of color — a funky gift shop, a roadside tourist attraction, a store window filled with the brilliant colors of West Virginia glass. As much as I begged to stop, my parents would hear of no such thing. No tourist attractions, no deviation from the path to Grandma’s house. But now I’m old enough to indulge myself, so I pull into a parking lot off Route 60 west of Ansted next to a brightly painted Quonset with a VW Bug smashed happily into its side. A blinking sign above my head cries: “The Mystery Hole!” And before I know it, I’m inside one of those lovely tourist traps with silly West Virginia souvenirs and, even better, a 15-minute descent into a gravity-defying basement where balls roll uphill. As many travelers are giving up the interstates in favor of more lei- surely travel, people like Michigan natives Sandy and Will Morrison, who reopened the Mystery Hole eight years ago, are taking advantage of the new tourist traffic along the nation’s old two-lane byways. They know, like I do, that a vacation isn’t always about a destination. Sometimes it’s about enjoying the ride. Winding through Appalachia: the Midland Trail (Old Route 60) The Midland Trail officially begins (or ends, depending which way you’re traveling) in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., home of the historic Greenbrier Resort, which houses the once-secret Government Relocation Facility. More than a decade ago, The Washington Post broke the story that the ground under The Greenbrier’s West Virginia wing had been home for three decades to a protected bunker, buried 720 feet under a hillside, designed to house the U.S. Congress in case of nuclear war. Just a few miles west is the college town of Lewisburg, with a historic district that includes nearly 70 structures — many, like “The Barracks” on Jefferson Street, dating back to the late 1700s. After stretching my legs with a stroll around the shops downtown, I turn in at the General Lewis Inn on Washington Street, where innkeeper Jim Morgan tells me, “There’s not a bed in the place that’s less than 100 years old.” From Lewisburg, I continue west to Hawks Nest State Park just outside Ansted. The main overlook offers views into the New River Gorge. Also visible from here are Hawks Nest Dam and the infamous Hawks Nest Tunnel, where 476 people died of exposure to silica while constructing the tunnel through Gauley Mountain for Union Carbide in the 1930s. Trails like the Cliffside and West Virginia: Travelers on Old Route 60 might stop and hike the New River Gorge. 56 MILITARY OFFICER APRIL 2007 PHOTOS: PREVIOUS SPREAD, ENVISION/CORBIS; ABOVE, RICHARD T. NOWITZ/CORBIS
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