Watoga Part 6: Saturday Night is All Right!

So, WOW, can you believe I started this post...  months ago and forgot about it?! 

I figure I had placed the photos in here and thought I'd get back to filling in the details...  oops!  Well, thank goodness I captioned the photos way back when.  So, here are MORE photos of WATOGA!!  Funny, how this all came back right as we were discussing the next epic family cabin adventure.  (This time with HEAT... and perhaps a hot tub?!?! or at least a good shower.) 

ENJOY!

Roasting marshmallows is FUN!

Zoey and Bunny Bunny.  (Update: She now, months later, calls him "Bunny Bun Bun")

Yummy marshmallows!

Tracy knitting.



The sheet we were going to watch old slides on... but the projector didn't work...or we forgot them or something...

I'm pretty sure this was a breakfast picture, but I hadn't added it yet.  Aren't they adorable?!  :) 

This - worst picture in history contender - is simply entitled "me fooling."  Keith was checking out my camera and we were messing with exposure times/whatnot and moving around like mad fools. 

Watoga One, Two, Three, Four, Five.

Watoga Part 5: Lewisburg

Have you forgotten about our epic trip to Watoga yet?!  I'll never forget it, but truthfully, I've gotten past the blogness of it all...  at least for a bit.  So, here is a much condensed memory post of our time after we finished lunch on Saturday. 

Mom decided she wanted to see Lewisburg.  We were close and, hey, why not.  I didn't know much about the little town (still really don't), but I had heard good things from Nikki even before we set our sites on this adventure.

2011's Coolest Small Town.  Dig it.

Since we had already eaten lunch and had planned on dinner back at the cabin, there wasn't a whole lot for our varied group to do.  (Remember ages 3 to 64.... various interests, you can see.)  We did check out the visitor's bureau.  I thought our friends had had a hand in designing or at least conceptualizing the media in the area, but alas, I was wrong.  They don't have Greenbrier County as a client.  Oh well, it was still a pleasant place to look around with a clean bathroom and two people behind the counter that just didn't know what to make of us.  They were nice however.  :)

Zoey on the "stage" at the visitors' center.

Miss Zoey was happy as a clam on the wee "stage" in the corner of the place.  It was literally 4-6 inches off the ground, but a stage none-the-less!  She danced and pretended to sing.  We have quite the thespian on our hands...  gee, go figure!?  ;)

Once we finally convinced Zoey that we should actually walk around and see part of the town, we headed off to window shop.  We stumbled upon a book shop with fancy toys and some other various kitschy places.  I think there are some galleries there, but we missed them.  (Mom did find a church key to help with the beer opening problem!)

Window shopping

The walking was taking a toll on the spectrum of us.  The Strothers headed in one direction, Mom took a seat on a bench outside of a shop, and Z and I walked on to find the car.

Right near where we parked the car, Zoey and I found this beautiful site.  The trees were magnificent and there seemed to be a wedding set-up in progress.  We decided to take full advantage of our time and play in the leaves!  We even saw a praying mantis.  And, of course, we had to sit in at least a few of the pristine white wedding chairs that had been assembled in rows. 

Watoga Part One.  Part Two.  Part Three.  Part Four.  and yes, more to come...  ;)

Watoga Part 4: Lunch at The Pretty Penny

For our first full day on the adventure, we had eaten breakfast and now (in usual family form) were preparing for lunch.  We decided to venture out into the world around us and find a fun restaurant.  And, boy, we did!  The Pretty Penny.

Our crew (I'm taking the picture)

We took the advice of a man we met at the park headquarters.  Evidently he and his wife stay at Watoga quite a bit.  He recommended the restaurant and told us that the woman that ran it also did the Park restaurant - when it was in season.  (This man is also the reason we learned to order kindling! Ah, yes!  Good call.)

The restaurant was one of the only things in the town - or so it seemed.  It was owned and operated by a lady that focused on fresh, local products.  The food was unique and tasty.  Keith ordered the bbq sandwich, I think?!  They boasted to having the best anywhere.  He agreed. Not being a barbecue fan, I'll take his word for it. 

I can't remember exactly what I ate.  It had goat cheese and chicken on it and was tasty!  The sandwich breads were made there too.  Yummmmy!

The building was a general store at one point, I believe.  There was also a small stage complete with upright piano!

 The front of the building was full of windows.  It was really cool.  The light was lovely.  I think these are some of my favorite photos - simply because of the clarity.  ah, natural light.  :)

Keith

Tracy.

Mama.

 After our leisurely lunch, we decided to walk a bit and see what we could find.  Right next door to The Pretty Penny was a little antique place that had...  Fiesta!

Yes, I found some Fiesta to bring home.  (And later on, my sweet sister picked up some MORE mugs at the outlet on her way home - since when Mom and I drove by it, it was closed.) 

I also picked up some old blue glass bottles for my bathroom.  Milk of Magnesia, I believe - though the labels were gone.  One still had a rusty metal lid and dried stuff inside. 

Cousins, knit hats, and a bench!

the side of The Pretty Penny - just for fun

From this point on...  we decided to drive on to Lewisburg.....

Watoga Part 3: Pancakes on McNickle and a walk.

Cabin #7.  (It is actually much bigger than it looks!)

 I believe it has been long enough since I sat down to update the ol' blog... well, that I can't remember much detail now!  ha!  No, seriously, I made an outline of what happened and which pictures to use the first night I started this whole Watoga saga.  Now, I have lost it.  (Outline?  What?  Yep, I am an English teacher's kid and I'm a geek, yo.)  So, I'll settle my future-me brain to remember via pretty pictures.  :)

 After the first night of me waking up every single hour to put more logs on the fire, we all got up to eat a yummy breakfast!  Tracy brought home made pancake batter and cooked it up on cast iron.  We also had bacon! And coffee (using bottled water to try to change the taste this time...  no luck, must've been the coffee pot.)  And toast from the Bakery!  weeee.  And cereal, just in case.

Zoey likes pancakes.  nom. nom. nom.

So does Aunt Tracy...  I kept the photo of her shoving a fork-full into her mouth off of the web. thankyouverymuch. ;)

The two pictures here on the left are specifically for Mom and Barbara.  Mom just loved that we ate on McNickle China and kept saying how much Barbara would like it too.  So I took some snaps of the dishes.  They have the WV state seal on the top and various outdoor/animal scenes on them.  Pretty cool. 


After brekky-poo, Mom hung out at the cabin and the rest of us walked up to the lodge.  We needed some activity and to call John.  We had decided not to leave Dad at Watoga and needed to tell him he didn't have to  drive the 5 hours to get there.  We did miss him (especially now that he's not in any of the pictures of our fun family outing), but it was best because Mom, Z, and I ended up leaving on Sunday anyway. 

Me calling John on the pay phone.  It was a bit gross... and I was a bit peeved that it was the only source of communication (beside smoke signals, I assume).  It worked.  **Keith, you never did tell me how much it cost?!  Hope it wasn't $10/minute!  eek!

 Our walk was pleasant.  Zoey walked part of the way, ran part of the way, and was carried most of the way.  Too bad she refused to let anyone else carry her.  Everyone offered... she made me do it. Oh well, we had fun.  It was just one of those moments where I wished I had a toddler backpack or Ergo or something! Even my old-school Moby knock-off - although I don't know if it would have fit her nowadays.  (If I actually hiked in my real life, I'd consider buying one for a big kid.) 

The CCC worker statue.  Reminds me a bit of Grandpa Buss. 

We took many pictures on our little walk to the lodge.  Delia took some too (while I carried Zoey).

The happy hiking couple.

Cousins playing at the lodge.  Leaves are FUN!

Mom drove up and "rescued" some of us...  from a walk back to the cabin.  :)

Poor Tracy forgot her "Very Important Parks Person" pass to get stamped.  I felt bad - espcially since I doubt we'll ever go back.  But who knows?!  Now that we know how to get there - it wouldn't be bad.  (**Knocking out Mom for the drive... however.**)

We did have a most wonderful morning...  just hanging out.  Cooking.  Setting off the smoke detector...  oh wait, I didn't mention that?!  :)   After the walk, we decided to look for lunch in town... 

**This is where you see the screen fade to black and "...to be continued."  flash across.  :) 

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!!