Watoga, Part Two: Our arrival and firewood adventures!

I made it to Watoga with Mom and Zoey!  It wasn't easy. 

Picture us getting *slightly* lost.  Watoga may have a Marlinton address, but the "town" of Marlinton is NOT where the Park is...  like, we NEVER saw Marlinton.  We never saw the tons of places that I researched (aka restaurants...)  But I digress.... Picture us driving over a pretty incredibly beautiful mountain (it was mid-October, fall foliage time in West Virginia, mind you...).  As we drove over said mountain(s), dinnertime was quickly approaching.  If you know me, you know that I must eat.  I HAVE to eat.  regularly.  I had packed snacks, but I hadn't been keeping up with the snacks (and quite frankly, I forgot that I had packed cheese sticks!).  Soooo, blood sugar was dropping.  Spirits were slumping.  And Mom's secondary brake pedal was continually being slammed to the floor! 

At one point late in the drive, I pulled (slammed) over to the side of the road and got out of the car to get the "real" food out of the trunk:  the bread. We snacked on bread and apples and whatever else I found in the cooler - oh, there are those cheese sticks!  It was a quick stop - but a nice stop to eat and check the map again.

Ah, the map!  I should mention after coming down the MOUNTAIN... we found a gas station.  I ran in to ask directions and buy a MAP.  In the days of GPS, cell phones, MapQuest, yadda yadda...  one easily forgets the importance of a paper MAP!  There is NO CELL SERVICE anywhere!  And the TomTom (GPS) didn't recognize the address for the park...  it could get us to "city-center Marlinton,"  uh, but we covered THAT little part...

I asked the young "ladies" about buying a map...  They didn't have any to sell - only an old one from the tourist bureau or something.  I gladly took it and asked for directions (and a place close by to eat)...  The one girl (Let's call her "Meth Mouth."  For she did, in fact, have the worst case of Mt.Dew/Meth mouth that I have ever seen!  Even worse than the fictionalize/satorized depictions of Englishmen's teeth in the "olden days"...)  Anyhoo...  "Meth Mouth" basically laughed at me when I asked where Watoga was...  especially when I asked if there would be a sign somewhere. 

She then explained to me how to find the ONE sign that was near a white church.  "Oh, ok... Thanks...."  hmmmm...  what?!  Check out Mom's blog for the picture of that.  Her camera didn't work the first part of the trip.  My camera was full as we made the trek home. 

But after checking the map and resetting the GPS to a "citycenter" of a town that was close to the entrance of the park, we made it - with daylight to spare!!!

The Watoga State Park office, located 5 miles from the entrance to the park.  It had a space for a restaurant and a gift shop (both closed for the season).  It was pretty cool looking - larger than I thought - perhaps a bit like a 1950s lodge might.

Mom picking up our key!  The office was closed by this time and we got our key off of the wall.

 We had driven past Cabin #7 (our cabin) on our way to find the park office.  I must admit, at first drive-by-tired-and-hungry glance, I thought it was tiny and we were surely sunk.  So, when we picked up the key, I remember John saying Cabin #17 (or was it 12?  I remembered at the time) was a two-story cabin.  I found the keys for that cabin and contemplated switching...  but then, no.  ;) 



The awesome fireplace!!  Zoey checking out the rocking chairs (it came with three).  And, our reason for making the trek, Daddy on the mantle.  I think it was a nice place to let him hang out for the weekend - watching over us, if you will.


Arrival!!  Upon entering our fair Cabin #7, I was pleasantly surprised - shocked even!  It was much bigger than it looked!  It was actually pretty cool.  And, yes, now I can say I really liked it.  :)  I would do it all again.  (IF I packed better.  "When you know better, you do better," says my friend Christine.) 

 It was getting COLD in the mountains...  As soon as the sun went down... it got even colder.  We brought all of our bags and luggage and such in from the car... now what?!  Well, there was that whole FOOD thing.  So we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and snacked on our goodies - chips, etc. 

We thought about the fireplace... None of us had much experience with building a fire.  I love fire.  Always have, but I've not much time starting one.  We figured that our camping trio (The Strothers) would soon join us, so we waited and went to the next major step: BEER.

I brought a case of my seasonal favorite, Sam Adams Octoberfest.  I had been looking very much forward to a tasty cold beverage after our long drive.  (Which, by the way, Mom and I decided not to leave Dad's remains in Watoga during our drive into the park.  It is too far away. And, subsequently, not the park she thought it was...  not the park she and Dad went to with Grandma Bea and Pop-Pop.  I'm quite happy with that decision.)

But back to the beer, (wink wink - nod to Dad!),  I hadn't thought to bring an opener... surely a cabin in the woods would have a BEER OPENER!!!  NOOOOOooooooooo!!!  The rabbit-wine opener top was made of PLASTIC and had been broken. ... Most likely by some other road weary traveler clumsily desiring a tasty cold BEER. 

I can't remember if turned on Mom's iPhone for some much needed tunes at this point or not...  but we did during the evening.  Ah, They Might Be Giants....  The Flood album was a great spirit lifter - even without our anticipated "spirits"!  ha! 

While eating our dinners, we decided that if we didn't see (cause there would be no "hearing from" anyone without cell service...)  our fellow cabin dwellers by a certain time, we'd get to the fire ourselves... and we did just that. 

Me making a fire out of the parts left over from the previous tennants.  (Note:  glad I was drawn to the cool hand-forged fireplace tools because the old fire was still GLOWING hot underneath.  Evidentally the last residents left within hours of us.  We realized this when I found WET dishes in the cabinet - freshly washed.  AND one coffee cup with coffee and cream still in the cup - put away IN the cabinet!) 

My very first indoor fireplace fire! 

I learned SO MUCH during this trip!  As the fireplace was our only source of heat and I ended up being the ishkatay over night....  Tracy and Keith taught me about fire (the next day - but with my uninformed night before, the information made so much more practical sense!  And a MUCH warmer night the next night)!  My fire lessons could fill a post alone.  Just let me say, I love it all even more now!  :) 

The three of us sat by our little fire and enjoyed being - just being.  I made coffee for mom.  Zoey rocked her bunny in the rockers.  We waited for the rest to show.  (Hoping all was ok...)

The loft space - where Tracy, Keith, and Delia slept.

The ceiling.  Aren't the colors of the wood divine?!  And, I purposely didn't mess with the pictures (for time too!) **Note:  I have both flash and non-flash pix this trip.  I prefer no flash, but I'm just not very good with staying steady these days! So, forgive me if some are blurry.  I guess that's a good thing about the blog - this small, you can't tell!  ha! 

Zoey's dress for BED! 

Zoey in our room.  We took the queen bed because we thought John would join us the next day.  After we decided to bring Dad home, I called him (from the office pay phone) and told him not to make the LONG trip.  We missed him.  *And, no, we didn't use that crib.  Zoey was way too long for it and she just stayed with me!  Better all around!!

One of my favorite pictures!!  Ingenuity reigns supreme! 

After deciding that we were going to run out of wood very very soon...  Mom and I decided that we'd just take the bull by the horns and go gather some wood!  The wood pile/shed was back outside by where we parked the car.  Between Mom's two lanterns (bright LED or halogen or something BRIGHT) and my bright idea to carry wood back in with my super sized laundry basket, we made it work!  I hate spiders and bugs and what not... so I took out the super cool fireplace gripper tool to pull wood out of the pile and onto the ground (thereby not having to reach directly into the wood "house" without gloves).  Brilliant!  (at least in my mind) We made two trips, I think, maybe three...?!  Zoey stood inside the door and watched us some.  I figure she was just going up and down the stairs to the loft over and over and over.   That was probably her favorite part of the cabin.  :) 

In retrospect, we needed MORE wood - lots more.  (Like I said, I learned soooo much. Like how to properly stoke the fire and so one and so forth...)  So the next day Keith and I loaded up some more wood and that night we FILLED the floor and behind the door with wood. (Know better, do better.)  :) 

But enough of previews of the next installment.  :)  I think this post is quite long enough!!