Wild and Wonderful West Virgina - State #23

To be honest with you, I have no idea how my friend Noah and I came up with the idea to go to West Virginia.  It really isn’t one of the first states you think of when you want to get away for the weekend.  I do recall that we wanted to get out NYC and I was pushing for somewhere new for the 50 State Project.  We checked out a local bus company and found crazy cheap prices.  I told him if we were close to Pittsburgh, we could slip into West Virginia and see what there was to see.  Having been there, Noah said “there wasn’t much.”  Here’s the thing, Noah had been there when he was a kid on a family trip, so he didn’t remember all that much.  Nothing really made an impression.   

I decided to do some research on local activities and something amazing caught my eye.  The Mothman Festival!  Yes, the Mothman Festival!  There it was like a shining beacon of hope!  I have been a fan of Mothman since I found out about him about two years ago when I stumbled home from a late night out on the town.  I don’t recall what channel, I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but there on the screen was a special about the Mothman of Pleasant Point.

A little history: Mothman is a large 7 foot creature that looks suspiciously like a moth and has large red eyes.  He apparently also has this really loud annoying screech that he uses if his appearance doesn’t make you take notice of him.  Mothman was discovered on November 15, 1966 by a group of teenagers near the old TNT factory.  They tried to outrun the Mothman in their car, but the Mothman followed them by flying after them at speeds of 100 miles per hour.  Huh…  Okay, I didn’t know cars back then could go that fast, let alone the whole 7 foot moth thing.  I am not going to lie, it seemed a little suspicious. 

Apparently, the Mothman continued to make a few sneak appearances here and there until 1967.  He appeared by the Silver Bridge before it plunged into the water killing 46.  Some believe he appeared to warn people of the danger of the bridge.  Well, if he was trying to warn people, he didn’t do a very good job in my opinion.  Also, how do they know he didn’t cause it?  Anyway, after the bridge fiasco, the Mothman never appeared again leaving behind the mystery and making him a local legend.

Grr...Wild and Wonderful!!!

There are several theories about Mothman.  Some claim he is a mutant created by the run off at the TNT factory, others claim he is a large Sandhill Crane as they were a huge nuisance in the area during the 1960’s.  My personal theory is this.  Remember, these were teenager couples roaming the streets late at night during the1960’s…that says a lot right there.  Turn in, tune in, drop out.  But I do not know these people so I have no proof of anything so it most likely was a damn Sandhill Crane!

Still, the legend lives on and once a year, Point Pleasant has the Mothman Festival to celebrate the mystery that is the Mothman.  Look, I knew this was gold and something I had been looking forward to since I saw this program.  As soon as I brought it up to Noah, he was in!  I mean, this was too good to pass up!  So we bought our bus tickets, secured a car and our hotels and we were ready. 

We ended up climbing onto the bus early Friday morning.  We had decided that we were going to go to Philadelphia instead as the bus had really cheap tickets and the ride was less than two hours.   From there we would borrow a car and then drive to Parkersburg which was about 6 – 7 hours away depending on who was driving.  The bus ride was pleasant enough as it was surprisingly clean and empty.  But we were both happy to finally get to the car as it gave us more freedom to do what we wanted to including shopping in Delaware to get some snacks for the road.  Does spending an hour in Delaware count for the 50 State Project? 

The drive from Philly past Baltimore was crazy!  It didn’t help that it was an early Friday afternoon, but luckily after we passed Baltimore, the ride became a lot less stressful.  Before crossing into West Virginia, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Hagerstown for a late lunch early dinner.  As usual, the Cracker Barrel did not disappoint, though the portions are crazy large!  There also was a Waffle House across the street, but nobody was in there and it looked shady.  It didn’t matter as we were satisfied with the Cracker Barrel and after eating continued towards West Virginia.

Dusk

The sun was starting to descend as we finally made the cross into state #23 on my project! Yay West Virginia!  We decided to stop at the visitor center even though it was closed and take some photos.  I had no idea before, but I soon learned that the state motto was Wild and Wonderful!  I kept confusing it with Wet and Wild for the rest of the trip which made it sound like a crazy water park or cheap hourly motel.  Sorry West Virginia, you’re better than that!

We continued on.  There are some interesting names for mountains and towns in West Virginia, some confused the hell out of us and to this day we question if they were real as they seemed a little out of place.

Soon it turned dark and we still hadn’t hit Parkersburg, West Virginia.  A little something I noticed about the locals driving.  They drive one of two ways in West Virginia; 10 under the speed limit or 20 over.  I have been known to be a fast driver myself, but some of these people would tail you even if there were 50 cars in front of you and there was nowhere to go!  And I don’t mean sort of tail, I mean full on 2 inches away from your bumper at 85 miles per hour tail. 

Also, many people drive with their high beams on as well.  When I learned how to drive, one of the first things I was taught was to turn off your high beams when there are other cars present unless you are in the front of the pack.  Then, when someone appears in the opposite direction, you turn them off so as not to blind the person sending them off a 100 foot drop off.  Nope, not so much in West Virginia.  There are hardly any street lamps on the freeways, so you will need the high beams, but most people would tail you with them full blast even if you were going 20 over.  Finally, I had to adjust my rearview mirror so I wouldn’t careen off a cliff.  The night driving in West Virginia was stressful.

We finally got to Parkersburg and to our beautiful hotel the Blennerhassett.  We had been told that if you had to stay in Parkersburg, the Blennerhassett was the place to go as the other hotels in town could be questionable.  It really is a beautiful hotel and very reasonable.  I will say that the person at the desk was not the warmest towards us.  We got a very odd feeling while there from the staff, maybe because it was a no no to wear jeans in West Virginia in certain hotels?  In NYC, millionaires wear jeans in the ritziest hotels, nobody cares, so we didn’t quite understand if it was us or just how the staff behaves.  Even so, the hotel is gorgeous and I would definitely recommend it, but just be prepared.

 It was 11PM by the time we got to our room thanks to a few stops along the way and we realized that nothing was open this late for dinner.  So we cracked into our snacks, cleaned up and headed to bed.