WV Day 2- Movies, Maintenance, and Mothmen
Today was my first weekday in a while so I decided to take care of some much needed maintenance for myself and my car. For me, I slept until noon and for my car I got an oil change. For those wondering at home, I hit the 13,000 mile mark today. I got my oil changed at Kwik Lube, which is the first time I've gone to a non-Jiffy Lube oil change in a while. The service was definitely better than their spelling.
I got my brunch at the Bodega in Huntington, which is supposedly one of the best brunches in WV. I ordered their signature beer braised beef sandwich. It was stacked with flavorful tender steak slathered with melted cheese on a baguette with some au jus dipping sauce. It was incredible, and they gave me a great iced coffee and a side of buffalo chips to boot.
After brunch, I drove up to Point Pleasant. The drive up was really scenic along the Ohio River, but because it was overcast and a lot of the trees were losing their leaves it was a kind of ominous beauty.
The main reason I wanted to see Point Pleasant was that it the sighting of the infamous Moth Man Sightings of 1966-67. A couple driving near an abandoned munitions plant claimed to see a large man shaped creature with giant wings and glowing red eyes. After that there were a few more sightings, and then a bridge collapsed in the town killing 46 people and after that the mothman wasn't seen from again in the region, leading many people to hypothesize that he was somehow trying to warn them about the impending disaster. Others think he was just a heron. The strangest aspect of the story, to me though was that mysterious Men in Black would visit the town and try to shut down stories about the mothman. My theory as a skeptic, is that there was something shady going on either with the munitions plant or whoever built the bridge, and they were more trying to cover their own asses in case looking into the Mothman uncovered real things than trying to cover up some alien creature as more conspiracy minded people like to claim. We may never know.
I learned all this at the town's mothman museum, which isn't very big but is really well done and definitely makes for a fun and informative visit. Even if you don't really buy into the paranormal stuff, the stories are just pretty fun to hear and the artifacts, mothman statues, and old pictures are pretty cool. The coolest thing to me was that there was a letter from RFK to the UFOlogist who wrote about the mothman saying that UFOs were probably more likely to be military than alien.
On the way back to Huntington, I was struck by a roadside shop called Hillbilly Hotdogs and had to stop. If not for the massive road signs, you'd think it was some weird junkyard folk art installation instead of a restaurant. I can only describe the place as what it would look like if instead of being murderous cannibals, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family was really sweet and just wanted to sell good hot dogs and ice cream. The actual restaurant portion was an old school bus. I didn't get hot dogs because i was still full from brunch, but I did get an absolutely massive homemade moose tracks ice cream.
Back in Huntington, I had a night to kill to so I went to the local movie theater and saw the new Thor movie. I've always been a big comic book nerd, but Thor wasn't ever my favorite. I was excited about this movie though because it's directed by Taika Waititi, who has been known for making quirky New Zealand comedies, frequently collaborating with the guys from Flight of the Conchords. He also co-wrote the excellent film What We Do in the Shadows which is one of the weirdest and funniest comedies of the past 5 years. Because of this comedy pedigree, I was excited for a lighter touch than the average superhero movie, and I was not disappointed. The new movie is basically more like a super-powered buddy comedy than an action movie, with a particularly great side character played by Jeff Goldblum who I think just improvised every weird thing he says because he doesn't have to act to come across as a space alien.
After the movie, I called it a night finishing out my much needed day of maintenance.
Favorite Random Sightings: "Meaningless Life? Join us" (kind of harsh?); A dollar bill stamped with the message "Not to be used for bribing politicians"; Dr. Bogers (read it as booger every single time I passed it)
Regional Observations: The first time I saw more than one strip club on the same street was in Atlantic city which sort of makes sense to me, but the second time was in a small town in West Virginia and I have no clue how that can be sustainable.
Albums Listened To: Hello Nasty by the Beastie Boys (they were so innovative in terms of production, but it's a shame that they inspired so many worse "angry white boy rappers"); Help! by the Beatles; Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes; Here by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (I think this is their best album though I'm sure I'm in the minority there)
People's Favorite Jokes:
What's brown and sticky? A stick
Song of the Day:
