My trip to DC was rushed but wonderful. My friend Pam only half suspected I might be crazy and come crash her party, so that surprise was joyous and the weekend filled with craziness including a piano bar, so much good food, Wawa coffee, a successful wedding dress purchase (not for myself, don’t worry), and me petting all my friends’ soft outfits. I guess I needed extra sensory input after all that driving? Anyway, it was good to be back and see my friends and reclaim my little bed indoors.
The next stop was to Delaware to spend a few days binge watching TV and reading at my parents’ house. I successfully converted them into Masked Singer viewers (so that’s 4 at least, I’ll be awaiting my commission, Fox), did laundry, sat around in my pajamas most of the time, so pretty much reverted to being a teenager. My mother loaded me up with canned goods before I took off, then it was time to get back on track westbound.
party shenanigans 
Bay Bridge views 
snowy Morgantown
I left the Delaware coast and made it by evening to my friends Craig & Annelee’s new home outside Morgantown, WV that evening. It was a little reunion from my days staying with them in Charlottesville. We watched our ridiculous show, I scarfed down Craig’s excellent mac & cheese, and Yurtie remembered me after maybe 10 minutes of stranger danger. I got to give Yurtie a bath and have a night indoors while it snowed outside. Win-win all around.
I took off from their place pretty early to get ahead of the snow, and for parking logistics. The mountains of West Virginia are one of my favorite places, and even on a gross snowy day it was a pretty drive. I stopped off in some little town which had a visitor’s center devoted to a local UFO legend. It was pretty crazy. But props to them for the thorough and expansive exhibit.
Later on I stopped off for lunch in the state capital, Charleston, for lunch and to browse a bit. Obviously, as a bibliophile I was drawn to a place called Books & Brews, described as a pub in a bookstore. I was super excited, as these are two wonderful things. Alas, the bookstore part was not profitable so they dropped that half and went full restaurant with lots of books available to read as an decor. I also discovered that this wasn’t even the original location, so it never was a bookstore, but no matter. I had a good sweet potato burger and got to listen to the young-20s employee share his half-informed, half-xenophobic ideas for coronavirus end of days, so that was pretty entertaining.
I stopped in at a market, too, before heading out and had a decadent spicy Mexican mocha while perusing the locally made wares and foods. Just the thing for another stretch of driving out of the Mountain State and onwards to Kentucky.
The Van is Go 