Officially it’s “Wild & Wonderful West Virginia” but we were welcomed to “Wild & Wooly West Virginia” by the wrestling coach and I like that one better so that’s what I’m going with.
Last month Mom and I made the trip to West V to check out Munchkin’s new home-away-from-home and catch a few of her college games. We were there Friday thru Monday, which was unfortunate since everything happened to be closed on the weekends.
We did a pretty good job keeping ourselves busy though! We checked in a headed to the college where Munchkin gave us a walking tour of campus and we got to meet some of her friends – who were hilarious. A super great, fun group of ladies who seemed to be comfortable talking to me and “Grams” – yes, Mom’s name was simply “Grams” for the duration of the trip, even the coaches called her Grams. After hanging out in the dorms, all went out the dinner at The Pizza Hut (everything starts with “the” by the way: The Walmart, The Kroger, etc… you must be careful or you’ll find yourself doing it, too). It was really fun to spend so much time with Munchkin’s friends and get to know the support group she has so far away from home. I’m hoping some of them make it out to the PNW for a visit!
The next day we met up with munchkin after her practice and watched the boys baseball team’s double-header. The weather was fantastic!! We totally lucked out – we had high 70’s and clear skies just a week or so after it had been SNOWING. I even got some color. Woo hoo! After the games we took a ride into town to The Michael’s to get some ribbon for the team; the games that weekend were Breast Cancer Awareness so Munchkin and another teammate were looking for some fun pink ribbon for their hair. After an excruciatingly long time debating over this ribbon or that ribbon, the girls settled on some hot pink, pale pink and black breast cancer ribbon. We finished up with a late dinner at a steakhouse and got the girls back to the dorms just before curfew.
The next morning mom and I drove into town and had pastries and beverages at a local coffee shop, Moxee Coffee – loved it! Cute place that introduced me to IngenuiTEA which was fabulous. We then went on a drive about trying to find something interesting… anything interesting. We saw the Parquette Museum, which was a standalone structure on a random corner at the edge of downtown, but it was something and it bought us time. During our regroup, we decided to go to a slave graveyard that mom saw in a brochure. Well, let’s just say we never found it and leave it at that. But it was a good idea.
Off to the game! We looked good in our pink and grey tees (we liked them so much we work them for two days straight – may as well milk it, right?). The team won both games on Sunday by quite a bit. Monday’s games were fun to watch and they stayed in it against a team that beat them earlier in the season. Munchkin hit well and it was so nice to see her play again! And love that the other teams all come out to support.
We did get a bit o’ culture – we found a place that Daniel Boone had been, and found a lovely house near the river that saw action during the civil war.
It would have been great to be there during the week so we could see a bit more of the history – we don’t have anything like that here on the west coast. And Mom was OBSESSED with coal mining a Black Lung (something about a nun from grade school telling the class a lot of Black Lung stories). However, since most things were closed while we were there or a longer drive than we had time for, we’ll have to wait until next time.
We did, however, visit the state capital museum which was incredible!! We rushed through the end so we could make Munchkin’s game, but we could have spent hours there for sure. While the exhibit was awesome, the “dead body” added a bit of excitement. It seems an individual chose one of the exhibits to use as his personal nap space. He took out his teeth and sprawled out on the floor and was passed out when we stumbled across him. I stepped up and asked if he was okay and he was not responsive so I let security know and they came down to checked and he was, in fact, sleeping. Whew.
We finished off the trip by going to a bar (since Munchkin is 21 now) so she could have a beer with Gram (since we already went out when Munchkin turned 19). We were kicked out of the first bar, though, since my ID was bent and they wouldn’t accept it. Yes, you read correctly. MY OLD SELF GOT US KICKED OUT OF THE BAR BECAUSE OF AN INVALID ID. The place we ended up was way better anyway – Adelphia was lively and had good food. And Munchkin got to have a Bud Light with her Grams!
Fox on the Run 
Looks like you guys had a great time! Thanks for sharing, Ces!