Leaving the cities behind (we had just spent Maddie's birthday in Philly and a week in Washington, D.C.), we drove inland to spend almost a week in the countryside on the border of West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland.
Our first stop was Shenandoah National Park, where we drove out early to hike Old Rag Mountain, one of the most popular trails in the park. Much to our surprise when we arrived, we discovered that (1) you needed a prior reservation to enter the trail area, and (2) there was no water to fill up our water bottles. Both were probably an oversight on our part (you'd think we'd be better at researching day hikes by now). Luckily for us, we met a group of med school students who had extra tickets from their group's no-shows ("they probably skipped out to study or something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯," the group leader sighed) and we found a house nearby that was selling bottled water. (That was another odd thing about this hike--you didn't enter any formal NPS station to access the trail, but instead drove through a regular ol' street of residences before encountering the parking lot.)
The hike itself was incredible. What started as a somewhat challenging steady incline turned into a fun stretch of rock scrambles and bouldering up almost-too-tall rocks for my 5' stature. At the top, we lunched with Dan and Gia, munching on our tried-and-true backpacking charcuterie lunch (cured meat, cheddar, and baguette) and taking in the fall colors of the surrounding mountains.
Later that night, we set up shop in our two-bedroom cottage on a large farm property with cows as next door neighbors.
Some other highlights in the area included Harper's Ferry, a now-preserved historical town that was the center of turmoil leading up to and during the Civil War. It was the site of the famous revolt attempted by abolitionist John Brown in 1859, a "tragic prelude" to the Civil War, as Brown was defeated and hanged. The highly publicized raid was considered one of the final events contributing to Lincoln's election and the Southern states' secession. Only a few years later, the town would be destroyed during several key battles in the war, as it was taken over by the Confederacy. Ironically, in winning the battles at Harper's Ferry, the Confederate troops were worn down too much and unprepared to march north to Maryland in time for the Battle of Antietam.
At present day, in addition to visiting Harper's Ferry's historical sites and museums, you can check out several hiking and biking trails that intersect with the Appalachian Trail.
And not far from Harper's Ferry sits the small settlement of Shepherdstown, home of Shepherd University (a small public liberal arts college). The town itself has a very cozy and quaint main street that could be out of Stars Hollow, boasting several bookstores, dessert shops, bars, and restaurants serving Appalachian food. We ate something that night for dinner called an "Appalachian chop salad"; I don't know what made it Appalachian, but it was delicious.