Loretta The Great!

Greetings from the road! Well...not exactly the road for me. I'm back home in Mass where I started. But Marco is still out exploring in Bean! He's currently cruising around Pittsburgh and checking out the city (Taylor, if you're reading this, Marco has rave reviews of your city after just two days!). He spent yesterday at the Carnegie Science Center. Fun Marco fact of the day--while Bunny weighs in at a whopping 155 pounds on good ol' Mother Earth, put him on the Moon and he's a super skinny minny, weighing in at just under 26 pounds. What a nimble little thing he would be on the Moon!

Marco on the Moon! (or a photo from our day at the Smithsonian)

As for me, despite the rampant predictions that I would ditch Marco in DC, that, in fact, is not what has caused our temporary parting of ways. Unfortunately, I had to catch a flight home because the world lost a truly vibrant and fiery soul this week...my incomparable grandma Loretta Oglesby. While I am generally not a very public person when it comes to sharing personal details about my life (I know...I just started a public blog yet I am claiming to be averse to public sharing--let's just say I'm getting my feet wet but am still quite skeptical of and non-committal to this whole facebook-obsessed-blog-happy-internet-crazed world), I would be remiss not to take a moment to honor my grandma for the woman she was. A true matriarch. Married to my amazing grandpa for the last 62 years, she was the mother of seven kids and grandmother of eleven grandkids (gotta love those big Catholic families). She raised a huge, loving family and instilled a sense of humility, hard work, respect, and, most importantly, humor in us all. So this entry is dedicated to my grandma, a true trailblazer and independent spirit who showed a gentle compassion and love for all who crossed her path. Here's to Loretta!

And now, on with the journey! We've been on the road just under two weeks. We spent the first week running errands in various cities...visiting family in Providence and NJ, dropping off a surfboard in NYC, returning a friend's guitar in DC, and checking out the amazing new climbing gym in Queens--the Cliffs at LIC (it's shaping up to be pretty incredible!). It was a great week filled with quick pit-stops here and there, but I wouldn't exactly deem it a roaring start to an epic road trip. Itching to get on the road, we left DC to check out Stratford Hall in Virginia, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee--what can I say, I got hooked on Killer Angels and Gods and Generals in high school. And, a few months ago, I read a magazine article about Startford Hall that described it as majestic and stated that it had a cliff walk in which bald eagles were as common as crows (which is totally the part that got me...I really WANT to see an eagle!). I will sum up the experience by noting that the article was entitled "Forgotten Virginia," a point which I should have paid more attention to when reading it. Marco and I have both already forgotten about Stratfod Hall (i.e., it was pretty boring and we did NOT see a bald eagle). Enough said.

But don't worry, after two failed attempts to really get things started, our third attempt was a success! Nothing says true road trip like spending the night in a Walmart parking lot and waking up to boulder in a beautiful forest in West Virginia! YES YES YES! After we left Stratford, we moseyed on up to a Walmart in western Maryland to dine and sleep for the night. In the morning we hopped on over into West Virginia and finally got to put our hands on some REAL ROCK (finally)! Per the expert advice of our personal travel agent, Mr. Andrew Salo, our first stop was Coopers Rock. The rock is gritty, the boulders are tall tall TALL, and the features are great. We got in a couple days of bouldering before the rain condemned us to the Walmart parking and some aimless hiking through wet woods.

Our First Dining Experience At Cafe Walmart!

U.R.S.T., V2

Ship's Prow, V5

Poundin' the Pooch, V3

Our opinion of Coopers Rock is that it's a pretty high quality climbing area that is well worth a visit. And to think we had never heard of it before! It is not at all crowded (at least during the days we were there, which included a weekend). The approaches are all pretty simple (an aspect I enjoy). There's a good variety of problems for all levels of climbers. And, most importantly, there are friendly locals! We made our very first road trip friend in Coopers Rock. John the Geographer--a very nice local climber that showed us the ropes. And, one more thing to love about Coopers Rock, the views are killer (and no, I am not talking about the sexy Guatemalan below, rather I am referring to the beautiful mountain scenery and river)!

In terms of van life, Bean is proving to be quite luxurious. We've had our fair share of rain thus far on the trip, and the drop leaf table has proven clutch with respect to cooking inside and staying dry!

Chef Marco hard at work...and yes, Chief Mann, the door is slightly cracked to let out any fumes!

Enjoying the fruits of his labor at our favorite dining spot along the river in Morgantown

I like to call this picture "Marco's Dilemma" (aka..."Another sip of delicious beer? Or another bite of dinner? Or maybe the avocado!? It's just...so... hard to decide!!!!"). You can tell he is putting some serious thought into his options.

One night we splurged and upgraded from Hotel Walmart to the campground in Coopers Rock State Forest. In addition to providing us with much needed hot showers, it gave us a chance to test out the awning that we purchased for the side of our van (great deals for cheap and sturdy awnings on http://www.busdepot.com/). It's an 8 x 11 awning that will really enhance our living space when we camp somewhere long enough that it's worth putting up. There are detachable walls as well, which we had to use due to all of the rain! They kept us dry and comfortable!

Cooking inside the awning with walls

And on that note, I should probably wrap this up. But first, a special shout out to some of our friends that either let us crash with them over the last couple weeks or just generally welcomed us to their respective homelands! Bill & Starr, Dylan & Sarah, Sarah & Ben, and Emily! It was great seeing you all and thank you for the hospitality! Nyle (someone pass this on to him), thank you so much for a tasty dinner and all of the guidebooks! For those with some vacation time and an itch to travel, we'll be around Summersville and New River Gorge for the next couple weeks! Come join!