West Virginia & Waiting for Warhol

This morning, Sister and I welcomed our West Virginia friends, H.R. and Carol Scott, to Cola Town. They were coming through town on their way back from Florida and stopped in our fair city for the evening. They got in too late to have dinner, so we met them for breakfast.

For those of you who don't know about my thing for West Virginia, I was invited to speak at their Association of Solid Waste Authorities Conference in 2005 and fell in love with the state and the people. It's something very hard to explain, but the hospitality, warmth and beauty are unrivaled. After just a few minutes, I felt like I'd known some of these folks for years, and I really feel like I have a second family there. I returned for last year's conference, where I did a couple of sessions and a trash to treasure sale. I've kept in touch with a lot of the conference attendees and hold a special place in my heart for West Virginia. But I digress.

Breakfast was a blast. H.R., who works in a position similar to a Clemson Extension agent in West Virginia, was full of himself! He's usually the strong, silent type - or at least when we see him at the conference - but he was like a different person this morning. His wife, Carol, is always talkative and fun, much like us, so it was a delightful way to start the day.

New things we found learned at breakfast:

The mafia is in West Virginia. It's a branch of the Pittsburgh mafia.

Old Man Bowden used to coach at WVU, and Tommy isn't his only son. We heard great stories about the other sons.

The Mothman was blamed for the collapse of a bridge in Pt. Pleasant. (Mothman is a legend like our Lizard Man, but it's really a big deal. Richard Gere was even in a movie about it called The Mothman Prophecies. We met a woman at the conference who really believes. H.R. said that it was probably one of his relatives - HA HA!)

It sounds like we'll be invited back to the conference for a third time! I'm so excited! This year's conference is very close to Pittsburgh, so I may finally get to make that visit to The Andy Warhol Museum! Yahoo! West Virginia and Warhol Sister Road Trip - can't wait!