The end of the trail

If you follow my mom's blog, Autumn of Ginny, you might be familiar with the Knackmuhs challenge to visit all 50 states and my parents' recent trip to West Virginia in pursuit of this noble goal. Well, I too, went to West Virginia last week on my trip east. 

One of the nicer state welcome signs

I had a great visit at West Virginia University in Morgantown even though it was spring break and thus resembled a ghost town more than a bustling college town. I rode my bike on one of the many "rail trails", bike paths that were once rail tracks, checked out the bike and running stores and met with Professor Dave Smaldone. Just about 12 miles out of town is Cooper's Rock State Forest, a popular hiking, climbing and mountain biking destination.

View from the lookout at Cooper's Rock State Forest

From Morgantown it was on to New Jersey where I experienced one of the great disappointments of the trip. No welcome sign! The only sign I saw as I entered from Pennsylvania on Route 78 was "Delaware River". Needless to say I was outraged! But then again maybe you are NOT welcome in New Jersey and that is why there is no welcome sign. I tried to make up for it by stopping at a rest stop but no sign there either. In desperation, I snapped this photo as I rolled up to a toll on the NJ Turnpike.

Cue the Sopranos theme song

After a day relaxing and repacking at home I was on my way to Catonsville, MD to visit the Leon-Liermans. 

If they had bubble machines back then I'm sure Norman Rockwell would have painted this scene.

Trent and I went for a great run, somehow stretching a 5 mile jog around the neighborhood into a 70 minute odyssey through the nearby trails. Holly is a master chef and cooked some spicy peanut Thai noodles for dinner. Tre, even though he was under the weather, brought out his "A" game to entertain his house guest. After visiting the Leon-Lierman household I was eager to get to my new house at Cape Hatteras. I was the first of my roommates to arrive so I had my choice of bedrooms. I picked the one that faces the back woods so I would have a view out the rear window of course! So far all I've seen is these friendly bunny rabbits.

 Now that I've got a window again I'll try to stay true to my roots and blog about the interesting things I see from that vantage point. However, I hope to not be stuck inside this summer as I often was during the past year so I'll also move beyond my regular programming to include other adventures. It's going to be a good summer!

The final stats are in

I made it to Cape Hatteras today. Stay tuned for details and some highlights from the last days of my trip. For now, here are the final stats:

14 days
5,007 miles
19 states
12 national parks
11 patches
2 oceans
1 driver

And here's the first of many lighthouse photos.