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