Finding West Virginia Adventures

I'm settling in nicely in my new hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. It's a great place to live, I think. There are things I am missing about Richmond--mostly fancy grocery stores and the huge number of awesome restaurants. There's not so much of that here, but the cool thing is that there is room for growth.  And I pretty much really love my job.

We've been camping twice since we moved in six weeks ago. We've also had some great day adventures. West Virginia is seriously full of adventures, but you have to seek them out a little. Every single weekend, there's some kind of great festival or event happening in Charleston or in a nearby town. And if you're not interested in that, there's plenty of outdoorsy and cultural stuff to do. This weekend, the West Virginia Book Festival is going on, and next Saturday will be Bridge Day in Fayetteville about an hour away. There are always little small-town things going on nearby, Apple and Pumpkin harvest festivals this time of year, with parades and music and BBQ for sale. I love that these things are rarely so crowded that they become miserable. Another great thing about West Virginia.

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We camped in Audra State Park back in September. The park is situated on a small river, the East Fork River? Fork river something, can't remember. The campground is pretty nice (but not nice enough for the $20 price for a tent site, I don't think). There was a funny smell at our particular site, but I could never figure out what it might be. Some sites were very private but not on the river. We sacrificed privacy for our river spot. Here was our site and our view of the river.

It rained almost all weekend while we camped in Audra State Park. So we did a lot of indoor stuff. It turned out pretty great though. We went to a big antique mall. Had a nice meal in Weston at the Thyme Bistro. We toured the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV. It was $10/person for a guided tour of one floor. And it was pretty cool. Definitely worth that 10 bucks.

The weather was finally beautiful during the last day of this trip. On the way home (sort of), we went to the West Virginia State Wildlife Center. It's like a zoo, I guess, and I do usually hate zoos. This one was pretty neat, though. Animals that are native to or that are now found in the state live here at the Wildlife Center, and you get to read about each animal at their exhibit. I saw some animals I had never seen, like coyotes and fishers. There were also deer, bears, snakes, owls, bison, elk, foxes, wolves, raccoons, hawks, and lots more. This place used to be a "game farm" where biologists would raise animals and release them back into the wild to help increase their populations, but then it became clear that animals raised in captivity would not survive well in the wild. The Wildlife Center's goals have now shifted toward education. It costs $3 per person to walk around the Wildlife Center--absolutely worth it!

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A couple weeks ago, we met my parents at Bluestone State Park for a short camping trip.  I really like this park and wish we had spent more time there. The early October weather was great, but the campground was practically empty. Bluestone Lake is beautiful. You can rent a boat to enjoy for a few hours or for the day, but we didn't have the time to during this trip. It looked like there were also some nice hiking trails in the park. So I want to go back next season. We followed the New River on the way back to Charleston, making a stop at Sandstone Falls.

And on the way home, we stopped in Beckley for a meal at King Tut Drive In. OH MY GOODNESS, SO MUCH HAPPINESS HERE! It's just so much fun to go here. It makes eating in your car feel fancy or something! The food is mostly fried, but a lot of it is "homemade." I had fried oysters! Not bad. Matt had a BBQ sandwich which he really enjoyed too. We will definitely be eating here again when we're going through Beckley. They have a website with a menu, by the way.

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Tomorrow I'll be working at the WV Book Festival for most of the day. I'm starting to get busy, which is nice. It definitely took some time for me to settle in, and Matt is requiring a little more time than I did because he's figuring out the employment scene up here. I shouldn't really speak for him, but I do think we love living in West Virginia so far.

In the Midst of a Move

What an awful, stressful week. Moving is such a bitch. I've been struggling to find a house to rent in our new hometown. And it is sad to move out of my beloved little apartment here.

But, amid the struggle to find a new place to live, we had some fun on our West Virginia trip, too. A moderate amount of fun.

We ventured to the Historic Wine Cellars Park in Dunbar, WV. This is just what the name suggests it might be. It's really creepy, damp, and cold inside the cellars. There's also a nice fishing pond through the woods.

On the way back to Richmond, we stopped at the New River Gorge Main Overlook. I'm glad we did. We saw a breathtaking view from the overlook and we got some brochures from the visitors center that have given me really good adventure ideas. We will be going back to this area fo sho.

Food things we did: ate tacos and drank plenty (BEST margaritas!) at a fun little restaurant in Charleston called The Tricky Fish; enjoyed an Indian food buffet lunch at Little India; ate at Cracker Barrel twice because it was next to our hotel; ate too much fried food at Diehl's Family Restaurant; had beer and tasty pizza at Pies and Pints.

We also explored many neighborhoods, got to know my new coworkers a little better, and killed time at the awesome Capitol Market by people watching and eating chocolate. One of my favorite parts was when we accidentally saw a greyhound race because we got lost while looking for a restaurant and ended up at a casino. The greyhounds are SO FAST, it's amazing! I've been doing a lot of research to find out more about greyhounds and racing and whether it's inhumane. Oh, AND we got covered in fleas in a nasty little rental house. Yeah! Adventures!

So I'm now relaxing with a glass of wine and a book. And hoping hard that I'll have a place to live by this time next week. Or preferably sooner!

Cat Whispering as a Hobby

Jackson Galaxy, Cat Mojo Master

I'm trying out a new hobby recently: cat whispering. I'm not officially a cat whisperer yet, but I'm trying. It all started when I did a research guide at the library on resources for cat owners. I stumbled across Jackson Galaxy's memoir, Cat Daddy, which I honestly quite enjoyed. He had all these nasty issues with addiction and self-centeredness, but then he started working in an animal shelter and the experience centered him in a different place and he was able to change. As far as I can tell, he still might be pretty egotistical, but I can very much appreciate the message. He loves animals, and he especially loves cats because they're hard to understand.

Well anyway, if you don't know who Jackson Galaxy is, he's this cat guru that has a show on Animal Planet where he helps people with "problem cats." His book Cat Daddy included information on some of his cat handling techniques, which I found really interesting. After finishing Cat Daddy, I decided to read one of the books that influenced him. It is called The Natural Cat by Anitra Frazier.

The Natural Cat is just a little bit loony, but I kind of like it. The author believes she can sort of communicate with cats using thoughts. I think really it's about using your thoughts to level your energy--to ensure that the energy you're putting off sends the right message to your cat. If that makes any sense. And it does. Right?

I'm mostly failing at cat whispering so far. I have been trying the "Cat I love you" technique and it's not working yet. Not on any of the shelter kitties and not on Butter Bean. I'm still learning though, and I am finding this cat behavior stuff to be fascinating. I've always been a dog person, really. Dogs and horses. But I've found out that the cat is really way more interesting than the sweet, simple dog. They're all perfect in their own ways.

Now, here are some recent pictures of my own cat. Butter Bean is a year old now! How time flies.
Yes, I am that crazy person that has hundreds of pictures of her cat. And I like it that way.

Adventure in Pocahontas County, WV

So, it's July now? How did that happen? I feel like yesterday it was March.

Boyfriend and I took a couple days off before Memorial Day weekend to take a camping vacation to Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The drive to Seneca State Forest from Richmond is 3.5 hours and very lovely. We arrived on a Thursday evening to just a few people in the campground.

I read about this campground in The Best in Tent Camping: West Virginia by Johnny Molloy. It is a nice little campground with a small stream running through it, perfect for tent camping and rather uninviting for RV's. Each campsite has a critter-proof trashcan (which is nice) and a totally sweet stone grill. The campsites are big, and when the campground was only half-full on Thursday night, it felt a lot like camping in wilderness. The campground filled completely on Friday and Saturday nights, and though we had some obnoxious neighbors with terrible camping etiquette, they were pretty distant from us. Those neighbors would NOT have been bearable in a cramped Virginia State Park campground.

The Seneca State Forest Campground has a pit toilet, and a short drive away there are full-service bathrooms with coin showers. That was nice, because I do not care for pit toilets. The Park also has "frontier" cabins which I would LOVE to stay in some time. The cabins are on the Greenbrier River and on a small lake and provide plenty of activities for families. 
On Friday morning after breakfast, we went to the library in Webster Springs so that I could do some genealogy research. Then we went to Cass Scenic Railroad State Park for Ribs and Rails!

We had a nice train ride up to a mountain clearing, where there were picnic tables and a little picnic pavilion. For a reasonable price, we had all-you-can eat cookout fare, including pork ribs, boiled corn, potato salad, cornbread, coleslaw, baked beans... you get the idea. I don't eat pork, but there was plenty to eat even without the ribs! There was a bluegrass band, kids playing in the grass, and cold sweet tea. We had gorgeous weather and it was an awesome dinner out, West Virginia style. Seeing the company town of Cass was also interesting. The depot is on the beautiful Greenbrier River and there's an interesting little museum about the history of the town (see the picture above featuring the creepy stuffed baby bear). There's also a "company store" with knick-knacks, snacks, and train souvenirs.

The next day we went to the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area for a walk through the Cranberry Bog. This is a cool place and feels totally strange in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. A boardwalk runs through the bog to protect the plants.

We drove to the opposite side of the county to the Gaudineer Scenic Area where we followed signs for the "virgin spruce trees." There are about 90 acres of forest here than have never been timbered. The forest feels primeval. I never knew much about spruce trees, but they're fascinating. They have shallow root systems so they can grow on top of rocks. They also are prone to falling, and you can see the shallow root system of a fallen tree in the picture below. The forest here is mossy and wild. I loved it.

We also visited Beartown State Park, which features crazy and huge rock formations. People once believed that bears lived among the rocks, but I would think monsters lived here. This park is free, and there was a handful of families on the boardwalks walking among the formations.

Other highlights during the trip included a visit to the Green Bank Telescope, the largest moving telescope in the US. We visited the science center which wasn't very exciting, but we decided not to pay for a tour. I snapped a few pictures of the telescope, but pictures cannot really illustrate how big the telescope is. Pretty neat, right in the middle of the West Virginia mountains.

We also went searching for Pocahontas County's only covered bridge. I saw Locust Creek Covered bridge on the county tourism map, which didn't really give good directions to get there. So we had a little adventure and drove up and down some country roads to look for a road with Locust Creek in the name, and we finally found it.

We had a little rain on this trip, but it didn't get us down. Matt was sick with a cold, so our tourism was of the inactive sort--no climbing mountains or swimming because I was worried about his health and afraid he might cough up a lung. I wish I had planned a little better. I thought the Monongahela National Forest would be easier to explore without much planning. Next time I'll buy a map first.

So, I also have some news to tack onto the end of this post. Big news that deserves more than a tack, really. I've been offered a job near Charleston, WV. I'll be moving there, and I'm taking my boyfriend with me, too. I hope we'll be able to have mountain adventures all the time. I am really, really excited about this next chapter in life.

A Guide to Richmond Thrift Stores

After Butter Bean completely destroyed my last living room chair with her deadly weapon claws (it was pretty crappy anyway, so I just let her go at it), I went hunting for a new one, and I realized that I'm a damn good thrift shopper. I dragged boyfriend to two thrift stores and we had a new chair within 45 minutes. You may see the fine new purchase below. Butter Bean loves it, too.

So to share my expertise, I've created a Google Map featuring my favorite thrift stores and also the ones I've been to and wouldn't recommend to anyone for anything. I hope that it is useful to someone. May you find whatever thrifty goods your heart desires! 

View Richmond VA Thrift Stores in a larger map

Recipe: Campfire Quinoa Stew

Things have been crazy around here. That's why I haven't written. Boyfriend and I took a couple days off and had an extra long Memorial Day weekend camping in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. I also have a job interview in West Virginia in a couple weeks which has had my mind working overtime.

Anyway, while we were camping I made a tasty campfire stew that I want to remember the recipe for. I'm naming it Campire Quinoa Stew, and here are the ingredients:

- Half of a large sweet onion, diced
- Half of a bell pepper, diced
- A large carrot (or a bunch of baby carrots, diced
- a cube and a half of vegetable bouillon
- 2 tblsp olive or sunflower oil
- 1.5 c of water
- 3/4 c uncooked quinoa
- a big handful of uncooked lentils
- diced roasted red tomatoes (I bought the Kroger brand because it featured a pop-top can lid, requiring no can opener.)

Clearly these ingredients are pretty flexible, but I chose veggies I'd be using in other meals as well and other stuff that would be easy to handle while camping. It would be delicious with any bean but I didn't want to take a can opener so I used lentils instead since they can be cooked pretty quickly. The campfire smokiness is what made the stew special but I'm still going to cook something similar at home, I'm sure. My recipe yielded 3-4 servings and it's more filling that you'd expect.

In a campfire-safe soup pot, sautee the onion, carrot, and pepper in olive oil until they start to become tender. Throw in your veggie bouillon. Throw in your quinoa. Stir it all up and let sautee for a couple minutes.

Add water and canned tomatoes. Add lentils. Stir. Once the soup starts boiling, move it to a cooler part of the fire, cover, and allow to simmer. How long the soup needs to simmer depends on your fire. Mine simmered for 30-40 minutes and I just checked it every 10 mins until the lentils were tender.

I think this meal will go into our regular gourmet camping dinner rotation. It's healthy, filling, and highly nutritious. Like every other meal I make while camping, it took forever to cook! Get started early because it takes a good hot fire to get the veggies sauteed and the liquids boiling.

I will post more about the trip soon. It was fun but Boyfriend had a nasty cold so we sort of took it easy. Saw lots of beautiful things though and came home feeling refreshed.

Inspirational Blogging

It's funny, the ways I find inspiration to keep blogging. I teach computer classes for beginners at the library, and one of my students told me about his dad's blog. We went looking for it and found it through a Google search. His dad, who is in his 80's, blogs every day about the things going on in his life. I found it fascinating to read his news--church renovations, gardening, updates on his family. Before he started keeping a blog, he kept a journal and wrote in it daily. I really felt inspired by this man's voice and his drive to record his experiences. I wish I felt as comfortable doing this as he seems to be.

Post-wedding Brewery Pit Stop in Grandy, NC

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I spent most of last week in Philadelphia for the Public Library Association conference. It was inspiring and fun but also very exhausting. I think I'll write about that adventure next time, because last weekend, I went to a wedding in the Outer Banks with Boyfriend and haven't yet been able to write about it.

On the way back home to Richmond from the wedding, we stopped for lunch at the Weeping Radish Farm Brewery. It was a fun place place to have a beer and some German food. Or in my case, a chicken Philly sandwich. The best part is they have goats! 

Weeping Radish Brewery, Butchery, and Pub

The little one is pretty cool.

Boyfriend and I, who were both pretty hungover from a weekend spent drinking in honor of his friend's marriage, shared a sampler of the beer varieties they brew on premises at the Weeping Radish. Someone in our party also ordered an impressive sausage sampler. I don't like sausage and I didn't eat any but it looked like something a meat lover might enjoy--a giant plate of sausages, served with salty pretzels.

Beer samplers are always adventures in themselves.

The beer here was not really my thing. It all tasted a little watery to me. They have a German version of a Shandy that I liked, and the IPA was definitely drinkable. But I was underwhelmed by the Weeping Radish beers, even while I had a great time tasting each variety, eating some of the best onion rings I've ever had, and petting some super rad goats (I want one now.). It was a perfect hangover lunch experience--a cherry on top of a long weekend full of quality time with friends.