EXPLORE MOONSHINE, MOUNTAINS & MUSIC

It’s about time we present a tour that features the beautiful states of Kentucky with Virginia. We will be spending three nights on the Virginia side in the Breaks Interstate Park while visiting in Pikeville located in eastern Kentucky. It is a small town with a big past. Known as “McCoy territory” from feud lore. Pikeville is the central hub for the region, and a short drive from everything with a wealth of history to be discovered during our visit. We will explore the sites where the Hatfield & McCoys lived, worked and feuded. See bullets that were fired in the feud and other artifacts from feud lore. We will also see the gravesites of the feudists, the Hog Trial Cabin, McCoy Well and much more. We will also dine in Randolph McCoy’s home in this hands-on heritage experience that you’ll never forget. Our lodging for three nights is in Virginia in the park itself. Tour includes 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches and 3 dinners. We will depart from Wood bridge at 6:15 a.m. and Manassas at 7:00 a.m. Return time is approximately 9:00 p.m.
The Itinerary
Day1: Friday May 24
You have a day to relax and unwind as we make our way thru Virginia to the Eastern region where the two states of Virginia and Kentucky become neighbors with some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. We will be checking in at the Chafin Lodge inside Breaks Interstate Park on the Kentucky side for three nights. But first, we will make a stop for our group to have a photo opportunity of “The Grand Canyon of the South” and east of the Mississippi River. Ater checking in, we will enjoy dinner at the Rhododendron
Restaurant. Your dinner choices are meat loaf or flounder with three sides of your choice, full salad bar and dessert and of course, coffee, tea or soda. We will also enjoy the live music of Rachel Messer and Connor Dale. Following our meal and entertainment, we will enjoy the Pauley Hollow Distillery with tasting and the educational components involved.
Day2: Saturday May 25
Start the day with breakfast before our departure for an exciting day. We will pick up our guide for a tour of the historic sites including the Hatfield and McCoy historic sites- Hog Trail Site, The historic McCoy Well Site, the Pawpaw Tree site and Aunt Betty’s & the Historic Williamson Coal House. The Coal House in Williamson, West Virginia is a unique building built of coal masonry. The bituminous coal was quarried as blocks and dressed as stone using 65 tons of coal from the nearby Winifrede Seam. Located adjacent to the Mingo County Courthouse, it houses the Tug Valley Chamber of Commerce. We will make a lunch stop in South Williamson fur a buffet lunch at South Side Steak House. This will be followed by the Dueling Barrels tour. We are going to leave that to your imagination! Returning to our lodging you will have some down time before we depart for our evening adventure. We are headed for our picnic meal in the woods as we scout for Elk. Restored to the area in 20113, they now number over 13,000. Have your camera to catch one of these beautiful animals in their natural setting.
We encourage you to wear long pants, season appropriate clothing in earth colors, and bring your own cameras/binoculars. You are also encouraged to refrain from wearing heavily scented perfumes or body sprays as elk have a very developed sense of smell and may run from strong scents. Imagine joining our experienced guides for a trip into the heart of Virginia’s elk restoration zone. In addition, we will witness the full splendor of the spring season in Central Appalachia. Time to return to Breaks Park for a restful night.
Day 3- Sunday May 26
Enjoy breakfast. We will be departing at 8:30 a.m. Our first stop will be at the Webb Grocery then onto Butcher Hollow. We will visit the Van Lear Museum where we will enjoy a Coal Miners Lunch bucket with Homemade Beef Veggie soup-and salad,-Chicken salad and Bologna sandwiches- desert and drinks.
This will be followed by a tour of this living museum. While at the Mayo Church tour the organist will play the pump organ donated by Andrew Carnegie. From here, we continue to the Country Music Highway Museum for a visit. Our final visit will be the 1850s Mountain
Home Place tour before dinner at the Paintsville Lake Pavilion overlooking the beautiful lake. Enjoy Hot Pulled pork- Pulled chicken, baked beans, Cole slaw, drinks and dessert. Dinner is followed by Live local music at the Pavilion and if rain we will have dinner and entertainment at the auditorium building at the 1850s mountain home place.
Return to Breaks Park for our last night.
Day 4 Monday May 27
Enjoy an early breakfast from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. We are scheduled to be aboard our coach by 8:00 a.m. Our first stop is the Big Sandy Museum where on display are the HatfieldMcCoy Relics. The Big Sandy Heritage Museum serves two audiences: Hatfield McCoy Feud enthusiasts, and those who wish to learn more about Pike County/Appalachian culture. While the Hatfield McCoy exhibits are the most popular, the Appalachian culture exhibits, which include exhibits on Daniel Boone, President Garfield, the coal and railroad industry, and the “8th Wonder of the World” Pikeville Cut-Thru, a marvel of manconquers-earth engineering, are also quite popular. The Hatfield McCoy Feud exhibit includes life-size wax mannequins of the two clan leaders, “Devil Anse” Hatfield and Randolph McCoy. These mannequins were custom-made in Philadelphia, and include authentic reproductions of the firearms they would have used during the feud era. Framed paintings of the two men by the late Bert Diamond, a Pikeville resident, are another museum display that you won’t see anywhere else. Printed articles on the feud are also on display, such as local newspaper cartoons depicting the two clans as hillbillies wallowing with pigs, and as well as other articles that contributed to the sensationalism of the feud.
Next on our agenda is the Pike County Historic Court House just next door. Here members of the Hatfield family were tried found guilty of the murders of Tolbert, Randolph, Jr., Pharmer, Alifair, and Calvin McCoy. In September 1889, the bloody results of the feud brought many of the participants into the courthouse in Pikeville. Here, eight members of the Hatfield group were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. These legal proceedings effectively moved the feud from the hills and hollers into the judicial system and newspapers. From here we travel to the Pikeville Cut-Through Project, an astonishing engineering wonder that has been called “the eighth wonder of the world” by The New York Times. Its purpose was to relieve the barrage of flooding that the City of Pikeville experienced each year. The Cut-Through
Project also provided the City of Pikeville with more room for development, due to the relocation of the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River away from downtown Pikeville, and relieved the city of congestion caused by the railroad and the three major highways that passed through it. Group photo at the Cut. We will then enjoy early catered Italian lunch at- The Pikeville Event Center featuring baked spaghetti, baked lasagna, salad, bread stick, desert and drinks catered at the event space. By 12:15 p.m. we will depart for home.