Sometimes, Travel Rears Back and Slaps you in the Face

Today's title is a little dramatic I suppose. But it's kinda how I felt last weekend. 

Theme parks close for the season. Christmas tree farms close for the season. Pools close for the season.
Apparently the southern half of my state also closes for the season.

Hmmmmpfffff.

Last weekend, a good friend and I set off for Part II of the Best of West Virginia Road Trip. The friend in question was the "I"m so stressed about turning 30 that I will take all of my friends to Istanbul, Turkey to drown my sorrows celebrate" and Part I was a journey I never wrote about.  (For some reason, I was too snobby to write about anything other than foreign countries when I first started writing this blog. I hadn't yet accepted the idea of adventures in my own backyard).

As I mentioned before, I grew up here, but did my best to ensure that I never saw much of the state, preferring the big cities and exotic locales of places like.........Philadelphia. But the first time I journeyed around the state, I immediately fell in love with my home and became a true fan of the Wild and Wonderful-the good, the bad, and the ugly. Anyway, this post is not about that trip. This post is about the sequel trip.

We set a weekend to go, made a loose itinerary, and then promptly made no plans, made no phone calls, nor did any research until the morning of departure.

And by morning of departure, I mean, we did not start researching vital details until approximately 30 minutes after pulling out of the driveway and headed in a westerly direction. I live in the far extreme eastern part of the state, just under an hour from Washington D.C. We were headed to the far western part of the state, clear over to the blasted Ohio River and Blennerhasset Island State Park.

The very same Blennerhasset Island State Park that had just closed for the season a mere four days earlier.

Since when do state parks close? Since Halloween, apparently. But that wasn't the only place that calls it quits post scary holidays.

It was at that moment that my friend tossed the Crackberry to me, accompanied by a gasp of dismay that did not make me feel particularly hopeful that Blennerhasset was to be our only bump in the road. On the contrary.  Our next stop-the exhibition coal mine-the ONE THING I had my heart and soul set on?

Closed for the season, a mere four days earlier.

I could feel a fit, as in hissy, coming on.

And so this is how the entire weekend went. Plan C, D, and E materialized, and then, just as quickly, vaporized.
The TransAllegheny Lunatic Asylum? You guessed it. Closed for the season, a mere four days earlier.
The glass-blowing demonstration in Weston, WV? Last one in  30 minutes, when we were still an hour away.
The Blenko Glass factory in Milton, WV? No tours on Sundays. We were there on a Sunday.
The Tex-Mex restaurant that my friend promised was well worth a stop? Not just closed for the season......noooooo..... closed permanently. FOREVER.

Various power and water outages at both overnight locations merely added insult to injury. 

Hawk's Nest State Park

SERIOUSLY?!!!

After the third travel slap in the face, all I could do was laugh. And find Plan F, G, and H.

We managed to salvage the weekend. Sulking is acceptable for only five minutes. Then it's time to buck up, and find the adventure in the misadventure. Enjoy a few pics of what we did manage to find to keep ourselves occupied.

It seems like I only have issues when traveling in my own state. Remember when I came home without any of my luggage? 

Pt. Pleasant Mothman pose. Creepiest little town in all of WV. Ever seen "The Mothman Prophecies?"

In case I wasn't sure where to pose in the glass museum

Our beautiful state capitol-Charleston, WV

Dressed and ready to kill.......something.

Hillbilly Hot Dogs. As featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. The bus is the dining room.

A Natural Wonder and a Naked Stranger

No, the natural wonder was not the naked stranger. That's another post on another blog. Before we get to the nudity part of this post on this blog though, let's focus on the important things. I visited a natural wonder last weekend, and it was pretty great. You might get jealous.

Yup, you might. And nope, it wasn't the Great Barrier Reef, Mt. Everest, or Victoria Falls. And the Grand Canyon was soooooo last summer.

West Virginia, Wild and Wonderful, as it just so happens, is chock full o' wonder.

I decided to see some of it for myself a few weekends ago, along with the Mr,  in honor of one year of wedded bliss. Despite the fact that I was born and raised in WV, I have barely touched the surface of what my home has to offer. 11,000 miles to Beijing, China? Check. 80 miles to a popular tourist destination in my own state? Not so much.

A brief aside: 
Somewhere around middle school, I developed this intense dislike for West Virginia, allowing stereotypes to creep in and formulate my thoughts on where I lived. I wanted to exit the state so badly that I began calling colleges and universities while still in the 8th grade, requesting materials on their institutions, using my best grown-up voice possible. I was determined to get out at the first available opportunity. And that is what I did, jaunting off to the big city of Philadelphia for four years of college, followed by two years of AmeriCorps in Hotlanta and our nation's capital. I was officially a city girl-far removed from the hills and "backwards" ways of WV.

Then, when I had to move back here so I could save money to go learn Spanish in Central America, I had to come to terms with my mailing address once again bearing the WV postal abbreviation.

One weekend, I invited some of my DC friends to come visit and as we were riding down a country road, one of them mentioned how beautiful it was. That was the exact moment when I realized that I was living in a postcard and that I needed to wake up and let the appreciation begin.

Then, in one of those things the universe does to prove something, I was hired to teach 8th grade West Virginia Studies. A state I intentionally knew very little about. During the first week of school, I taught a unit on the natural wonders found in WV. Out of 20 that I taught, I had been to one. One measly little wonder. I was going to have improve this record if I wanted to be worth any level of expertise and credibility. I made it my mission to visit the closest one to me at the earliest opportunity. Bring it on, Blackwater Falls. Impress me. 
                                                                                                                                                                                  
It was exactly what I hoped it would be, and then some. Located in the stunning and lush Canaan Valley, I found myself wondering what exactly it was that I was so desperate to escape in the 8th grade. This place could certainly hang with some of my adventures abroad.

It was a perfect weekend, minus the naked man that ran out of the woods while I was looking for the perfect spot to take a picture. I saw him before he saw me, I gasped and turned to alert Adam who was trying to alert me, (you may be wondering why it was so important to notify each other of a person without clothing) triggering naked stranger to stop short, look up, freeze, and then do us all the favor of covering up his manly parts. Once that was all taken care of, I snapped this picture above, trying to capture the "black" that gives the falls its name while simultaneously trying to erase specific mental images from my brain. Educational moment: the abundance of tannic acid in the water gives it a very dark appearance. Not black, but certainly different and very pretty.   

The falls drop 57 feet into the river and you can stand on a walk-out, eye level with the plunging water, angling for the perfect photo and enjoying a nice misty spray.

It was the icing on the cake of appreciation for the Dubya V.

I had a blast. Crowds were minimal, scenery was spectacular, and most importantly,  it didn't take two days and half of my bank account to get there.

West Virginia, I think I love you. 

What about you? Any moments that define how you feel about your home?

A Year Ago Today..........

..........I was frantically turning in the last of my schoolwork, adding unecessary last-minute items to my pack, sniffling over two weeks without Adam, pondering the stolen money, and finally, jamming on my shoes and comfy travel outfit in flash to hustle to Dulles Airport. Tanzania...here I come!

Well, there I went. What a blast that trip was, and a certain dream come true. I have been pondering my life in retrospect. And just so coincidentally in 8th grade this week, we are studying the early explorers of West Virginia. Perhaps not the most exciting stuff.

Or is it?

As I am lecturing this week and the kids are diligently taking notes, I realize--- these guys (and maybe a few gals) embody the very essence and spirit of travel. They were all about the adventure, the exploration, the unknown, and the excitement of a new place. Just like me!! It dawned on me after the first day of lecture-what a way to get the kids interested in what could potentially be a very dull subject. (Hey, I can't lie to you folks. I may teach it, but I don't have to love it!)

Long story short, I have just assigned them their second of four major projects this year. They are writing a journal from the perspective of one of the early explorers, with all the sordid details of mutinies, hangings, exultations, newly claimed land, and  formed alliances. Where do you think I got such an idea? Why, this blog of course! And along the way, we have discussed what it takes to travel, what kind of person just sets off into the unknown, and more importantly, what kind of traveler they think they would be, given the chance. Trust me, I am doing my part to encourage love of our globe, one WV 8th grade student at a time. To jumpstart their forming brains, I printed a post I wrote prior to Tanzania, removed some identifying details, and asked them to read and describe the traveler's attitude. They described me to a "T" and then I told them I was the author. I love a good surprise, and gauging from their reactions, it went over pretty well. I am currently awaiting their two paragraph essay entitled "What Type of Traveler Am I?" If I inspire just one kid, I have done my job.

Speaking of travel...........I have got something in the works and while I am not ready to share the details yet, it would be another dream come true! Hint: summer on a teacher's workschedule=GO GO GO!