Country Roads

Sunday morning we headed south through rural Pennsylvania, along winding roads and through small towns, most of which had seen better days. Around 9 am we arrived at Friendship Hill NHS. This was the house of Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Jefferson and Madison, the Minister of France. He added on to the house several times while he owned it, and later owners added and modified it as well, so a lot of the information at the site was how the house changed over time. 

He bought land along the Monongahela River in hopes of developing an industrial town nearby, but that never happened, so he eventually sold the property. We spent about an hour looking around the house and watching the short films about Gallatin’s life and the house. There was also a trail system that could have taken another hour or two to walk if one was inclined. 

We continued south into West Virginia, where the road straightened a bit, and reached Charleston in the afternoon. We checked into the Marriott Town Center, across from the convention center and the mall. They gave us a nice big room high up, but the hotel is fairly dated, and the pool was closed. We had a late lunch and walked through the mall. A lot of spaces were unoccupied. 

After unpacking and unwinding a bit, we got back in the car and drove through downtown to the Capitol. Charleston is a fairly small city for a state capital and largest city in a state. Because it’s located in a river valley, it’s surrounded by wooded hills. We had dinner at the hotel concierge lounge.