Weekend in West Virginia

This weekend Kaitlin and I hopped on a JetBlue flight from Orlando International Airport (MCO) to Dulles Airport (IAD), grabbed a rental car and headed towards West Virginia for some horseback riding and whitewater tubing.  We stayed at a cheap hotel in a small town near Harpers Ferry, WV, which turned out to be a dump in the middle of a town with nothing to do…live and learn, I suppose.

The following morning we woke up early to grab breakfast and head towards Elk Mountain Trails in Knoxville, MD where we had scheduled a 90 minute horseback ride.  At first we thought 90 minutes would be too short, never having rode horses, but as it turns our my rear end was sore around the 45 minute mark, so 90 minutes was longer than I would have done if anything.  The horses were all well trained and for the most part we didn’t have to steer them, they simply followed the horse in front of then, with our guide being the leader.  The trails were pretty, with a variety of wildlife along the way.

After finishing up there, we headed to River Riders where we changed our Kayaking reservation to Tubing due to the extreme heat index (over 110) that day.  We were able to eat a quick lunch on site, then get our life jackets and board one of their many renovated school buses that they use to transport rafters back and forth between the drop and pickup sites.  The tubing was fun, however it wasn’t nearly as wild as the website made it look, with only a few short drops scattered along the river.

Fireworks at Lake Eola

Tonight Kaitlin and I went to “Red Hot and Boom” at Lake Eola, and annual event hosted by the City of Orlando.  I took some video, which should hopefully give those of you who find this while Googling next year an expectation of what you’re going to see.  I would suggest parking as far away as possible and walking there, because it took us over 1 1/2 hours to exit the area and get onto 408. The fireworks were excellent, way better than any of the other local shows that I’ve been to.