Watering Your Roots

Sunday, 12 June, 2011

9:00 should exist only in P.M., but it was 9:00 a.m. and Woodhick803 (aka Dan, my brother) was knocking at my door.  Another day of geocaching was planned and time was wasting.  After the requisite teasing about stopping at Tudor's Biscuit World (aka Craigo Cafe), which he likes to say that he detests although he's apparently become quite a devotee of their ham and cheese biscuits, we were in the car and off.  What adventures awaited us?

A cache found us near Tams, an old coal camp in the Winding Gulf area, but to get there we passed through Stotesbury.  Our dad was the manager of the company store there, so we have some "roots" in Stotesbury and were not totally unfamiliar with the area; however neither of us had visited the area in a half century (yikes! How'd we get that old?) and very little is left of the community now.  I found what was left to be quite pleasant and quiet and well maintained; not a bad place to live maybe.

This church now stands where Dad's company store was located.  One of my fondest memories of my childhood was visiting the store during the Christmas season.  Dad would take me up on the freight elevator (that in itself was an adventure!) to the third floor where the toys and other holiday treats were displayed.  Can you imagine how a 5 year old must have felt, standing there in what apparently was Santa's warehouse?  Wow!  I get chillbumps just thinking about it!  No wonder I believed in Santa until I was 10.  My dad stored his stuff!

 Later on in the day, after dining at the best sit-down restaurant in Mullens (the Dairy Queen), we found ourselves on the top of Tater Hill (not kidding - that's its name), without the car, in the middle of an honest-to-goodness gully washer.  We scrambled down the hill several feet (neither of us particularly enjoyed the thought of being struck by lightning) and took refuge at a rock wall. 

That's Dan, acting like he's not wet. -------->>>

We just waited for the storm to abate, maybe 15 minutes, wrung out our clothes and carried on.  We weren't going to let some old rain put a damper on our day. 

We found several other caches that day, with Woodhick logging his 200th find (Congratulations!) at "Camp Creek Crash Cache".  (Try saying that three times; fast or slow, your pick.) 

Actually, Woodhick discovered ALL of the caches that day (not fair, I know....).  I was just there to do the driving.

A delicious dinner followed at Aangan, the Indian restaurant in Beckley.  Yummy food, fun day, good times.  We watered our roots and enjoyed ourselves in the meantime. 

For more about the day, read Woodhick803's blog: http://cachingin--geocachingme.blogspot.com/.
To learn more about geocaching in general, visit http://www.geocaching.com/.

In the meantime, get outside and play!