FUN West Virginia facts and trivia!
Did you know...?
- West Virginia covers about 24,000 square miles and has a population of about 1.8 million
- 25% of the nation's total coal production comes from West Virginia
- THEY HAVE CRAY-SEEEEE WEST VIRGINIA PRIDE!
Thursday, July 4th
For the record, and this will be relevant later in the blog, I have two Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter shirts. I wore one on this day because it was Independence Day and the shirt says on it "Are you a patriot or a vampire?" and is therefore the most patriotic shirt I own.
Every year on the fourth of July, my family hosts a picnic for friends and family. Thinking back, I think the only one I've ever missed was three summers ago when I went to West Virginia the first time! Anyway, every year the picnic is a little different (some new people will come, some regulars don't make it, and the weather is subject to change) and a lot the same: my dad sits in a chair by the BBQ, drinking beer, surrounded by a bunch of guys with boisterous laughter, my grandma never EVER sits and instead flits around from person to person, table to table, literally forcing people to eat, demanding "Are you having fun?" and worrying because her head count is three off from last year, and the rest of us eat, drink, and try not to get sunburned.
Anyway, this fourth of July didn't disappoint. One of the only notable differences was that David's family came this year and he and his brother Buddha got involved in a water gun battle with my cousin Brian and his friend, and David and his brother dominated so heavily it was kind of hilarious.
Another difference was that after the picnic, my sister, David and I didn't hang around and watch Raton's firework display, but instead got in the car and drove down to Albuquerque!
Friday, July 5th
Friday was just kind of a long day traveling. We got up at 4:30 to get the 5:15 shuttle from our hotel to the airport, flew to Dallas, waited a few hours, got on a plane, waited about an hour while they fixed the "secondary power", which provides the plane with air conditioning, then flew to Charleston, WV!
We were picked up by Leo and three border collies. We went up the holler and hung out for a bit, then went downtown and listened to a concert right by the river. It was loud and lively and there were a bunch of people dancing like crazy. My mom and Leo kicked off their shoes and went dancing too! I'd say the majority of the crowd was more than a little intoxicated and it was pretty funny. My sister and I especially liked a guy that was twirling a lit-up baton- he was pretty bad at it but seemed to think he was pretty badass.
Afterwards we checked into our hotel by a guy at the front counter named Bob. Later that evening David went back down to ask a question and Bob was sitting out in front of the hotel with some buddies, smoking and drinking beer. Ahhhh, West Virginia!
Saturday, July 6th
On Saturday, we visited the Capitol Building in Charleston and then went fishing! Well, David went fishing while we watched and sat in the shade. It was kinda crazy because a car that was parked right next to ours got broken into while we and it's owners were about fifty feet away. Luckily none of us had left anything valuable in our car! Anyway, the police were called and it was then that we discovered West Virginians do not use the term "Po-po".
Sunday, July 7th
Sunday we went white-water rafting! West Virginia had been getting a whole lotta rain and all the rivers were really high. It was a great day for because it was kinda overcast and not too hot. Leo took his kayak and paddled alongside our raft. He thought the high water didn't make the rapids quite exciting enough but we all had a pretty cool time. Since we had to drive a ways to get to the rafting place, we got to see lots of the countryside and it is so unbelievably green and beautiful!
Monday, July 8th
I'd never been to a Cabela's before, or even known what it was, but Charleston had one so we went! It is this humongous hunting/fishing/camping kinda store. To state the obvious, I'm not a hunting/fishing/camping kind of girl but it was still pretty cool. They had tons of taxidermy on the walls and Em and I spent a good twenty minutes looking at all the bright, sparkly, stinky, gross kinds of fish bait.
That evening we went to see the Lone Ranger and sat through all of the end credits just to see New Mexico credited!
Tuesday, July 9th
My mom, David, Em and I drove from Charleston to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The first thing I thought when we entered the lobby of the Gettysburg hotel was, "Wow! It smells like grapes and maple syrup in here!" because it did. Well, I thought so. I don't think everybody else really did. They agreed about the syrup and thought maybe chlorine, cuz of the pool, but no. It was grapes.
That evening we ate dinner at a brewery. David and my mom had some beer and I had a vodka cranberry or two. We tried pierogis for the first time and they weren't bad.
Wednesday, July 10th
When packing my suitcase I planned ahead for this trip and brought my SECOND Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter shirt specifically for this day. It is black and has the likeness of a penny on it, just with some blood and an ax. Where better to wear an Abe Lincoln shirt but Gettysburg? I put it on and my mom appraised me thoughtfully. She said, "I can't decide if it's a stroke of genius to wear that here, or just tacky and in bad taste."
The first thing we did that morning was go to the Gettysburg Visitor's Center. It's a huge building absolutely filled with civil war history! They have displays with weapons, soldier uniforms, medical devices, pictures, documents, you name it! They showed a short film about Gettysburg and in the visitor's center they also had something called the "Cyclorama" which was a massive, 360 degree oil painting from the late 1800's depicting the battle at Gettysburg. It's been restored and they light parts of it from behind while describing what's happening in the painting. It was incredible!
Afterwards, we went to the cemetery, where they have lots of memorials and countless gravestones, many unknown. They had a monument where Lincoln actually delivered the Gettysburg address and that was absolutely awesome!
We went to see the Wax Museum and then walked around from shop to shop looking at an unbelievable amount of merchandise. In front of a business that ran late-night Gettysburg ghost tours, a young man was dressed in Civil War-era clothing and handing out fliers. He gave us one and told us a little about it. He suddenly broke off his spiel, staring at me.
"I love your shirt!" he told me. "That was such an awesome movie!" I grinned at him, overjoyed to have someone appreciate the effort.
In the evening, we were getting ready to have dinner and my sister's phone rang. It was a computerized message kindly letting her know that our flight out of Harrisburg had been canceled. That was it. So after dinner we went back to our hotel room and Em spent literally about three hours on hold with Expedia, and then a few different airlines, trying to get a flight back home!
It was a long, stressful few hours but we managed to have a pretty good time anyway. One of the TV channels was playing Sleepless in Seattle on repeat and we had a bag of pretzels and some Dr. Peppers so while Em was on hold from numerous travel agents we just kind of hung out. We are now able to brag that we have heard Expedia's full "music while you're on hold" playlist!
Finally, we secured a flight from Baltimore to Houston to Albuquerque.
Thursday, July 11th
Thursday was another really long day of travelling, made even better by the fact that I lost my wallet somewhere in the Houston airport.
But we made it home. I really, really missed my dog and my kitties. What I didn't miss so much was work. The very next morning...
Sarah
with lots of credit to ELIZABETH RECORD for helping me remember
