It's All Connected...I Swear.: More Travels: Sights and Sounds in WV

My Memorial weekend was a little bit different this year. I headed down to Oak Hill, West Virginia for a bit of camping and whitewater rafting. I drove down with Angela, which was an adventure in and of itself. I'm an habitual over-packer when it comes to camping, and while it's a problem I've been working on for some time, I'm not quite where I'd like to be. So, we started off the first morning cramming more stuff into my Equinox than theoretically should have fit, complete with attempting to hold stuff from falling out of the car while attempting to slam the door in the nick of time. We finally hit the road and had a great drive down - thanks to Angela's fine navigation skills, we managed to stop at Sonic near Columbus for lunch. It was my first Sonic experience, and it makes me really wish we had one here. There's just something about tater tots that I can't resist... We made it safely to Oak Hill despite the incredible winding roads through the mountains. I was glad to have driven knowing I would have been horribly carsick otherwise!

We took a little excursion to drive to a waterfall that Mike had visited on a previous trip. The waterfall played into my obsession with all things water, and I took a chance to play with my camera's settings, messing around with apertures, shutter speeds, lighting and angles. Next time, I should remember to bring the User's Manual. I still haven't corrected the settings completely!

The waterfall and a picture of my favorite rock.

I think this is the camping trip where I cooked the least. All meals were provided on the day we rafted, and we decided to check out Mike's recommendations for some of the best barbecue ever at Dirty Ernie's. The food at Ernie's was incredible - Mike wasn't lying! The ribs fell off the bones, and Angela and Eric had both ordered a sweet potato on the side that came with the most amazing spiced butter ever. The atmosphere was fun and interesting, with dollar bills decorated graffiti-style stapled to the wall (yep - we left one there, too!) and t-shirts and flags from all over the country hanging with pride. I was pleased to see a shirt from my Alma Mater made it down there - nothing like a little Wayne State Pride in rural West Virginia!

Go Warriors, formerly known as the Tartars! The Angelas (left, my driving buddy) at Dirty Ernie's.

We also couldn't resist breakfast at Biscuit World! Angela and I passed one and almost stopped then and there, foolishly under the assumption that it was a one-time chance to enter an entire world of biscuits. To our surprise, it's quite the chain! There was one near the town where we were staying, and we ventured there to see just how good it was, and were not disappointed in the least.

Mmmm...biscuits and sausage gravy - all kinds of fantastic!

We had a blast at the Red Dog River Saloon. How convenient to have a saloon at base camp! The rafting trip included two tokens for beer at the saloon, which was where we got to watch the rafting video. Angela and I wandered up there one of the nights to see what was going on, and ended up chatting up the waitress and doing some serious people watching, whilst listening to a pretty decent cover band. We watched an incredibly inebriated lady for quite a while. She was the topic of conversation to be sure, and I'm surprised she didn't fall down the side of the mountain (which is actually a concern there!). We also played pool with Duane Cochrane. No, you shouldn't know who he is. But that's just how folks in the south introduce themselves apparently - first and last name. I wouldn't think it would be a big deal, but the fact that it stuck out to me like a sore thumb made me realize how much more casual we are north of the Mason-Dixon.