Heaven, No Almost About It

Saturday, Fuzzy and I got up early and packed the cooler, radio, little camp stove, and Zeke and headed back out to Arden. Words don't really do the place justice, so here are a few pictures:

The Road to Arden. Also, Very Long, Slightly Scary One-Lane Bridge to Arden.

Morning at Arden.

Crawdad! This guy was actually trying to get away from a little water snake that was coming after it. The snake went to hide under a log when I came up with the camera.


This little guy didn't hide from the camera, though! When I was growing up in North Carolina, we used to catch little green snakes all them time. This is the first one I've seen in West Virginia and it made me irrationally happy.

Fuzzy and I sprawled on the rocks, listening to the Coal Bowl (WVU v. Marshall, Go Mountaineers!), reading novels (Edward Abbey for him, Denise Giardina for me), and eating junk food. I fished with a new lure, catching a wee little rock bass. The Kingfishers did much better. We talked about bringing our hypothetical children out to the rocks, wading with them and getting them tiny polarized glasses so they can see the fish beneath the water.

And for those few hours, it was exactly the West Virginia I dreamt of two years ago in my moldering Louisiana apartment.