Spooky Railroading
10.30.2021 The music
draws you up a valley, and across a mountain*
Hey
Now! Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends- just ventures to other
locates every so often. We do like our Halloween escapades. We are headed
northwest to where 3 states meet. Harper's Ferry WVA. This will be both Sweet
Ti's & my first time in this area. By god. We have tickets to see Railroad
Earth tomorrow afternoon at B Chord
Brewery in Round Hill, VA. They are playing a 3 night gig there that started
last night.This will be the first time we have seen a band
together since Halloween
in Vegas Pt. 4 in 2017. Damn, that's a long time. Glad we are rectifying
that situation. We have reservations at the Clarion Inn Harper's Ferry. I sprung
for a "suite" with pool access. Whatever that means. It's weird to
have to actually pay for a hotel room. Other than tax and maybe the stray resort
fee, I haven't actually paid for a hotel room in quite a while. Casino comps do
come in handy.
We hit the road and went up Rt. 17 for as long as we could. No interstate for us. We stopped in Port Republic at an old school store.
I remember these growing up when we traveled. Along with Stucky's. Nice to see some things still exist from the 60's. As for using Sue, the GPS to go the backroads it doesn't work. So I pretty much winged it. Nailed it too, pretty much. Except for the horses....
The backroads served us well right on up to the last mile. Sue sent us down this road to finish off our journey.
Fake Sign!!!!
We kept going and passed River Riders and climbed the hill to the Clarion Inn. We are there!
Vintage 1972
We checked in and I must say that all the employees here are very friendly. Just about everyone we met around here was too.
Yer basic room. Have to add our fairy lights as usual....
nice pool area
walking path down to the Shenandoah
We are ready to chew off our arms at this point. The good news is that The White Horse Tavern is attached to the hotel.
The better news is that we hear music on the way in. Deane Kern is playing for the sparse mid afternoon crowd. Makayla seats us.
This is quite a nice spot. Deane even played some Little Feat sight unseen. Brilliant. Now that we are sated and lullabyed, it's time to gambol. And what do you know, there just happens to be one right up the road. Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Raceway. Longest name ever for a casino.
This joint is huge. The entrance road circles the entire complex, including the horse racetrack. The ponies are running this evening, but the first race isn't till 7:30. It's only a bit past 5:00 so I don't see us being here that long. The smell of smoke hits us hard when we walk in. Even with masks on. But then we walked in directly next to the main pit. Time to find a no smoking area.
We found said no smoking section for what it's worth. Even though it's next to the food court. Sheesh. Lots o' By God huffers. I already had a player's card here. It's a Penn National Company so I had probably signed up Down Around Biloxi. I just needed to acquire a couple of new copies for us to use. Today's local, Carolyn hooked us up at the cage/players club. She not only knew our home area, but had lived near where I grew up in Newport News. Small world out there y'all. Since we are just playing for fun, we just played 20. at a time.
Take us on a QH journey please Jim......
auspicious start for my Sweet Ti
My turn please James>>>>>>>>
nice clean rest rooms- and plenty of them
By this time, we were both
pretty damned tired. We cashed out a 92. profit and hauled ass. Back at the
ranch we settled in for the evening. The TV offerings were surprisingly very
good. HBO good. Which is convenient seeing as how I couldn't get the Firestick
Fire TV to work. We munched out on our leftovers from earlier and I found a
Facebook video of the first set from last night's Railroad Earth show courtesy
of the Hobos.
They were smokin'! We can't wait for the show tomorrow. Gonna be alot of dancing
going on. We went to bed listening to a bunch of loud kids in the pool. It's
open till 10 pm. Ouch. They finally quieted down around 10:15. ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
10.31.2021 And when the music is right, you feel the spirit lockin'*
Hey Now! Happy Halloween. 4:20. 24/7/365. Ooops, got carried away. It's Sunday morning, and so according to this sign-
The Casino is open
Brilliant!
I found another way to get to the actual building. But you still have to drive half way around the racetrack to get there. I parked once again in the tiny lot near an entrance. I was again hit in the nose by the smoke. And the place was just about empty except for the pit. I asked the entrance security guard about the video rules herein. " You can't do that. Hell, they don't even want you to take photos" said today's local, Mike. Of course I was just curious Mike, I wouldn't actually try. Worked here long Mike? "24 years, since they opened in 1997. Helped open the place. My brother Stanley Snell, was a jockey who raced here before the casino bought it. I used to exercise the horses. Where are y'all staying?" The Clarion. " Oh, you mean the old Cliffside? Worked there for 28 years too. Helped open that place too." Damn Mikey, didn't realize I was talking to one of the creators of this fine area. " You just look around and if you don't see noone, well then you just shoot away." Thanks, Mike. Nice for you to meet me. Here's a clandestine illegal shot of today's local hero.
Mikey's in a hurry
This concludes my walkabout of this side of the premises. I inserted coinage in a few likely suspects, to not much avail.
Meanwhile, there's some televangelist preaching on multiple screens scattered around everywhere. Sunday morning in West By God.
Pass the plate
I'm feeling the spirit now! W4 Tall Fortunes fits the bill. I dial up 4 Buffalo Gold games and start out with a minimum bet- 2.40.
parley to 4.80
parley to 7.20
Fire up the bovines please Mr. Jimmy!
BUFFALLOOOOO!!!!!
Looks like the goblins are friendly here this morning so far. I've seen maybe 10 people walking around. But I did actually see a CW. She paid me absolutely my interest though. That's fine. Time for part 2 of my walkabout. Folks, this place is gigantic. 2500 slots.
I finally made it back to the main pit area. So apparently it's basic shape is that of a gigantic comma. The majority of the non-smoking areas seem to be in this outer ring area. I played a few slots here and there, but I wasn't feeling it. I'll take the profit home with.
I did remember to get a chip
Back at the ranch I butler coffee Elizabeth. Fancy setup they have here at the Clarion.
Time to Make it Rain, or in this case, Make it Sprinkle.
We enjoy our repast and get ready for our afternoon of music and mischief. Now if Sue can just figure out how to get us there. I have to admit I haven't paid too much attention to exactly where B Chord Brewery actually is. Seems Sue didn't either. Let's Boogie.
Sue is trying her best. She sends us down Foggy Bottom Road and tells us that we are 1/8th of a mile from the Brewery. But the pavement ends and the potholes begin. The area is gorgeous with ancient rock fences and beautiful scenery. But no brewery in sight.
We tried Google maps and they sent us back the way we came for 1500 ft. and said we were there. Time to get serious. We got on the Brewery website and asked there. We are apparently on the wrong side of the mountain. But at least now we know the way.
Gotta love it- there's no sign.
We drive up the hill and are greeted by an employee. He scans our Eventbrite tickets and we score a primo parking spot.
We timed it just right. There's maybe 50 people here and we find a nice place to set up. We brought chairs and a small cooler with some NA and some bottled water. Everyone is very friendly and in a matter of minutes this dude is making a beeline straight for us.
Today's local, Brian.
Brian's shirt reads "Deadhead Guide" He is a veteran of many, many. Dead shows. He moved to Harper's Ferry a few years ago from the DC area and never looked back. Nice guy. He wanders off and we stroll inside to check out the brewery and order up some food and drink.
Quite a cozy little set up they have here. There's even an inside stage. We belly up to the bar and order a flatbread pizza and some chili. To drink Sweet Ti gets a Lime and Ginger Seltzer and I get their homemade root beer. Everything was very tasty.
Dinosaurs and playing cards abound
SHOWTIME!
Let's tune in to the show please Jimmy...
The Bubble Man cometh
Pierre Le Pugh
Lots of acts have played here
Including this guy...
Bubble Man has this high tech device to produce his wares. It's 2-3 ft. pieces of 1inch PVC pipe, with strips of terrycloth across the top and dangling down on the sides. He also has a large bucket full of dishwashing liquid mixed with water. He puts the 2 pipes together and dips the terrycloth into the liquid, raises them, and slowly opens up the pipes. He's really a pro.
Beta and Sweet Ti
Beta is something else. Earlier we watched him walking up to one of the fire pits with a HUGE armload of firewood in one hand and that pitcher of beer in the other. Never spilled a drop. We told him we were impressed with his prowess. "It was only half a pitcher" said Beta. Then these 2 danced for quite a while. He still didn't spill a drop.
What an awesome place, full of such friendly people. We met a bunch of Hobos. Railroad Earth kicked out the jams. Perfect day. We eased our way back to Harper's Ferry and ordered up some dinner to go from the White Horse. Then we chill in the room.
Happy Halloween y'all!!!
11.01.2021 Oh! And there's a feeling running thru ya*
Hey Now! Rabbit. We had a leisurely start to our November. Then we made the quarter mile journey to the Harper's Ferry National Historical Park. We paid our dues and caught the next shuttle bus down to the Lower Town. Harper's Ferry ties right in to the Railroading theme of this missive. The town was here in a large part due to the railroad being here, along with the confluence of the Potomic and Shenandoah Rivers. Along the way we took some photos.
And that's what's happening in the Lower Town of Harper's Ferry. We made our way back to the shuttle and then to Foxy. Sweet Ti suggests that we head for the casino. Well Boy Howdy! That works for me. We need some lunch, and look for a pizza place. We spot a Brother's Pizza. So we roll on in sight unseen. The place is empty except for us. We are seated and order up a salad and a pie.
The reason for 3 sporks is the cheese. The dude said they sourced it from Wisconsin. It had a very high fat content. Noice. Else wise the place would have gotten 2 sporks at best. This was partly due to today's local. No names please. So this whole place is empty, and today's local sits at the table next to us and orders a salad and a beer. He doesn't bother to use a fork. He shovels it into his mouth with his hands. Then he orders another salad and does it again. Pretty damn gross. We take our leave. At Hollywood I let Sweet Ti off at the door and once again find a place in the surface lot as we mount our final assault.
incognito
Double Diamond Deluxe Doubleheader!
And that pretty much sums up our Gamboling for this here trip. The Gamboling Gods were smiling at us and we ended walking away with a few hundy of Penn Natty's money. So far as the rest of the trip is concerned, we got up the next morning and re-traced our path back once again to our Feline Fortress. Fun trip, and really nice to get away with my Sweet Ti. Well, once again thanks for following along my friends. Hopefully we will see ya'll again real soon. Happy Railroading!!
And you're smilin' like a buddah*
* Like a Buddah, Todd A Schaffer/Timothy Brian Carbone