Towanda Visits West Virginia

After finding a beautiful campsite in Dolly Sods Wilderness, and spending a fun night with bugs attacking our faces, we decided to head to our next climbing destination. Driving to Seneca Rocks we were met by thunderstorms and a down pour of rain. Although the rock was beautiful, it wasn't safe to climb so we decided to go a little further down the highway in an attempt to find WiFi and our next location. That is when we found Elkins, WV and that is also where our story really begins.

For those who do not know, Towanda is my Subaru and my baby (for those who do not know the Towanda reference go watch Fried Green Tomatoes and be prepared for your life to change). Anyways, Towanda, my faithful and beautiful Subi, got into a little accident.

No one was hurt and only my car was damaged but she was no longer drivable. Fast forward past the multiple breakdowns of having her broken, towed, and finding a place to stay.

Elkins does not have much but what it does have is people. There are not that many but they are the kindest, most helpful people you will find. The man I got my car rental from pretended I was old enough to rent a car despite me informing him I was not and and basically told us "just let me know when you find out how long you the car for and give me a call, no hurry". Then there was Kevin and Melody who ran the auto shop Towanda was towed to. Not only did they explain to me how everything works with insurance but let us camp in their backyard until the car was fixed. They let us use their deck, WiFi, told us we could fish in their pond, and basically opened their home to us. We are forever grateful.

Our temporary roommate Oscar. I renamed him Pickles.

Chase attempting to catch bull frogs.

As we waited for the insurance company to do their paperwork we explored a climbing area called Bear Haven. The climbing area was large and much of it undeveloped. We spent a majority of our time hiking throughout the forest finding boulders and cliffs, contemplating on developing new areas.

 

After four days of waiting for paperwork to go through Towanda was approved for repair! Because she is an '03 there there was concern that she would be considered totaled but she squeaked by. In only two days Kevin and his crew fixed her up like new! (If you haven't noticed Towanda is very important to me so knowing I will have her for years to come makes me very happy.) We are now on our way, running from the flooding once again.

After much stress we treated ourselves to the best BBQ, Pappy's.