Our trip to Watoga

Idyllic Lake Watoga

Watoga State Park is located in the south eastern part of our fair state, or as my mother so eloquently put it "in the middle of nowhere." Not entirely true, in my experience visiting WV State Parks over the years (have you been to Twin Falls? THAT is as close to nowhere as I have been), but I can see from whence her sentiment comes. It took us something like 4 hours to get there from Morgantown. Hitting the road at 5 pm, we didn't have much daylight left, and the sun set on us somewhere after Weston, but not before giving us the gift of a fantastic double rainbow!

Rainbow, captured by Delia from the backseat of the car!

We took I-79 as far south as we could and then took Rt 19 to Summersville. It got a little hairy right around there, as the road signs directing us to Marlinton didn't jibe with what I had gleaned from Google Maps... and a recent iPhone update wiped out all my presets and data - ahh technology! We took out along State Road 55, which isn't particularly well marked, and ended up driving in a big circle around Muddlety WV. When I zoomed past the gas station where we filled up our tank 45 minutes prior, I almost cried. It was really quite lucky, because were it not for that neon landmark we might have driven on into the depths of the wilderness for hours before realizing our mistake. After a quick map check we were back on 19 and certain of our route once again.

About two hours later we found the lonely sign directing us into the park. Mom, Zoey and Seester were already there in spite of the harrowing journey they took down Rt 33. It was late but we made time for some sweet catching up around the fire that Trisha expertly kindled from coals the previous occupants of Cabin 7 left in the hearth for us.

The Park Office, Keith and Trisha

In the morning after a pancake and bacon breakfast we took a nice long walk up the park road to the office to officially check in. The building was quite breathtaking in it's State Park kind of way. It looked to be a lodge maybe at one point but now there are no rooms in it to rent, only a restaurant and gift shop that were both closed for the season. A fellow traveler we met in the office told us about a little cafe in Hilsborough just up the road, run by the very same woman who keeps the park restaurant in season. We made plans to visit the Pretty Penny later in the day.

"The C.C.C. Worker"

This statue commemorates the boys of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who built Watoga State Park and most of the other facilities of the West Virginia State Park System. There is a museum of C.C.C. history in the park too, which we never made it down to see.

scenes from the shore

Stealing the internet and other fun escapades at the beach

So for a while we had some free Wi-fi at our beach house, but whomever had an unprotected network soon got wise to us and it went away. So the Girls and I drove out to a Starbucks to use the internet, but THEY MAKE YOU PAY FOR IT. Of course, I just won't do that. I'd rather drive around till I get a signal and park and work from my car.

So, we've seen the boardwalk, it is impressive, but it is not made of boards. It is a vast swath of concrete that runs as far as the eye can see up and down the coastline. Lucky for us, our house is 3 miles away on a nice residential street with a whole lotta nice sparsely populated beach to enjoy.

I am trying to learn to use a Boogie Board, and although I have received expert tutelage from Trevor (who despite his vast expanse of knowledge, refuses to surf with me), I caught exactly 3 good waves in two days. I did get knocked on my face a couple of times and once was flipped head over hindquarters with a Boogie Board jammed into my abdomen at a very uncomfortable angle. That was exciting. But I persevere. We got rained out today, but the kids are there right now with Keith, while I sit in the inhospitable Starbucks and squint into the glare of my computer screen.

I didn't upload any more photos, which stinks, I know. I'll try to get some up here soon, if I can pirate some internet. I mean, we are at the beach, and ARRG, I can be a pirate if I want to be!

The Garmin may not be your friend

All the inhabitants of Beach House 2009 met up in front of McDM's house by 10 AM Saturday. McDM had a magical little dashboard navigator and he was going to drive the lead wagon in our train. We also decided that the other drivers needed some kind of direction just in case we got separated or lost cell phone contact. So we copied down the directions Map Quest spit out. I kinda despise MapQuest, but didn't have time to argue, because we needed to get on the road. Usually I like to have a map unfolded on the dashboard in front of Keith and make him navigate (which he hates), so I thought I'd avoid that unpleasantness and just follow the route someone else picked this time.

By the time we got on I68, McDM's Dashboard Navigator was telling him to go a different way than MapQuest had told the rest of us, and so we folded our hand-written directions and put them away under the sun visor. This was fine and dandy with me, and the first hundred miles passed without incident. Then we stopped to pee and switch out drivers.

Then, unfortunately, and because I accepted someone else's dictation of the route without checking myself, Keith was driving when we hit the DC area. F-word. MapQuest hadn't suggested we take the Beltway, but McDM's Garmin did.

I love my husband, and I think he is a very good driver. But he was so personally insulted by the existence of traffic and other driver's habits (no one uses turn signals, people merge in and out of traffic rather abruptly, no one uses turn signals) that his bad waves filled the car with noxious hate. And then he turned his hate vision on me when I suggested he relax, so I just shut my mouth and worked on my knitting till it was my turn to drive.

We got lost from the wagon train about 200 miles into the trip. This freed me to drive at whatever speed I preferred, and I took full advantage. I LOVE driving 80 mph in and out of 5 lanes of crazy traffic! As I have said before, I drive a TURBO, baby! Keith went to sleep out of self preservation. Eventually the others caught up with us in the 4 mph traffic que heading under the bay. And within half an hour we were safely ensconced in our luxurious beach house, and in another half an hour we were on the beach in the dark. Oh Gods, how awesome. The vast empty expanse of sand, and to top it off, THE OCEAN WAS RIGHT THERE TOO.