Rocky Gap State Park

We are in the nicest campground since we began our travels - nice site, satellite reception, phones & Internet work plus there is a beautiful lake and golf course. Rocky Gap is a man made "cut" through the Allegheny Mountains near Cumberland, Maryland. More lovely rolling green hills and farms.
We have been educated about the Chesapeake & Ohio - the C&O - Canal which runs from Georgetown to Cumberland (185 miles.) It is a narrow canal, parallel to the Potomac River, built for long, narrow boats to float goods from the coast inland and coal back to the east coast. Families lived on the boats and used mules, on shore, to pull the boats through the canal. There is a series of 75 locks that raise the boats from sea level to approximately 800 ft at Cumberland and there were "lock houses" at some of them. It took 14 yrs to build a 3000 ft tunnel near Paw Paw, WV as a shortcut past multiple "S" curves in the river. There is a bike trail all along this canal with camp sites, water, and toilets and amazingly it is flat except at the locks sites. We rode to and through the tunnel today and will ride another section later this week. Correction, Roger rode through the tunnel - I ended up walking my bike most of the way! The path inside is narrow (there is a guard rail,thank goodness) bumpy and wet in areas. I couldn't hold the flashlight, so I could see, and keep my balance going so slow! What an experience! We met a family of 4 who were biking the entire trail and had been on it for 61 days! The advent of the railroads eventually caused the canals demise. Hard to imagine the time and energy it took to make a delivery when we can get a "Fed Ex" overnight!