Highlights

Prices Per Person

$389 Double

$369 Triple . . . $359 Quad . . . $499 Single

Rooms are also available this weekend at both the Wheeling Island Casino and Oglebay’s Wilson Lodge at a slightly higher rate.

Motorcoach Transportation & Professional Tour Managers are available.

Limited Availability – Special Event Terms:

Groups blocking space must deposit $10 per person by Nov 1, 2018

Second deposit $100 pp and tentative room list due on Feb 1, 2019

Final Payment and Rooming List are due March 1, 2019

Cancellation Terms:

Full Refund until March 1, 2019

$100 per person penalty after Mar 1, 2019

50% Penalty March 15

No Refunds after April 1, 2019

Hotel Assignments are made on receipt of second deposit.

Seating assignments are made on receipt of final payment.

Space is limited to 500 people.

Itinerary

Day 1 –  Friday – Tribute to The Highwaymen 

Arrive Wheeling, WV check-in to your hotel.

Featured hotels: Holiday Inn Express, Springhill Inn & Suites, or similar.  For this special event, hotel assignments will be made after receipt of your second deposit.  

This evening’s show, at Wheeling’s Capitol Music Hall is a fabulous tribute to “The Highwaymen.”   It is music composed by some of Country Music’s biggest artists, the pioneers in the outlaw country subgenre:  The show features songs by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson performed by tribute artists.

Day 2 – Johnny’s Cash Outlaw Prison Concert and The Wheeling Jamboree’ 86th Anniversary

Morning activities are to be scheduled as each group planner desires, you have an opportunity to put your own personal touch on the trip.  There are also optional sightseeing tours available and we are happy to add any of these into your tour package at the costs listed.

Independence & Incarceration     $25
This 3-hour tour is titled with a bit of humor and irony, it features Wheeling’s Independence Hall where the vote to secede from Virginia was won in 1863; followed by a visit to WV’s Gothic-looking prison, that was once on a list of the top 10 most violent correctional facilities.

Wheeling Island Casino Buffet Brunch     $30
This 5-hour tour provides you with a visit to the Wheeling Island Casino with $25 in Free Play Gaming and a very nice Brunch

Oglebay Mansion, Carriage House Glass Museum & Antique Show     $49
This package includes a guided tour of the elegant 1846 Mansion Museum, The Carriage House  Glass Museum, and Lunch at Wilson Lodge.  Plus, your groups also visit the annual Oglebay Antique Show that is scheduled on this weekend.

Today is a country music Double Feature. Beginning at the Old West Virginia Penitentiary, a Gothic style structure built in 1876 that once held over 2000 inmates.  Unlike many of them, you may rest assured you’re getting out after dinner.

Excitement begins with our matinee as Johnny Cash & June Carter thrill you with their re-creation of Johnny’s “Outlaw Prison Concerts. With a live band behind him this show will feature Johnny’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “San Quentin,” and “Ring of Fire,” plus duets with his wife June Carter on such songs as “Jackson,” and “It Ain’t Me Babe.”

Historical Note: The song “Folsom Prison Blues” was recorded in 1955,  became an instant hit and was very popular among inmates who actually wrote to Johnny.  While his famous live albums at Folsom Prison (1968) and San Quentin (1969) are now classics; what is interesting, and much less well-known, is that those were two of many, many prison concerts Cash played over the course of almost 30 years.  His first Prison Concert was at Huntsville State Prison in 1957.

The concert is followed by a Costumed Convict & Cop Competition.  We encourage your travelers to get in the spirit of the day and dress as though they are guards or guests.  There will be several prizes awarded such as a file in a cake, handcuff keys, plus a few commutations and paroles.  Prize categories will be created spontaneously by our eccentric Warden who maintains a strict, but happy discipline here at the Pen.

Today’s show and the Costume Contest are produced in the renovated Machine Shop.  Your bus will drive through a high arched entrance under the North Guard Tower and into The Yard.  This building, in the shadow of the Guard Towers, has been renovated in recent years, has good acoustics and serves the local community as a meeting facility.  After the concert and costume competition you’ll get a kick out of The Jailbird Feast.  It’s a menu of comfort food, in a prison cafeteria atmosphere, served by the usual suspects.

At the conclusion of your dinner, all groups will load their coaches and depart for the world famous Capitol Theatre and another great show, the 86th Anniversary of The Wheeling Jamboree.  It began in 1933 in the grand tradition of Barn Dance Radio Shows and is still known as “The World’s Original Wheeling Radio Jamboree.” It is one of the last remaining shows of its type, being second only to “Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry” in longevity.

This evening’s show is, as always, a variety show with the house band, local and regional artists who precede the headliner, Marty Stuart. He is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music. Yoyu’ll recognize several of his best songs, “Cry, Cry, Cry,” “Hillbilly Rock,” “This One’s Gonna Hurt You (For A Long, Long Time)” and “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin.”

Day 3 – Parole or Escape

By whatever method you release your Country Music Lovin’ Inmates, following breakfast you will depart for home.  Any groups who want to add a morning sightseeing tour before departure have only to ask.