Please note that this is titled “Wildlife Day”, not Wild Life Day. I don’t really lead a wild life. I do, however, travel with a family of animal lovers. At one of our planning sessions, our son discovered a 5k race that was happening in an area that coincided with a location we would be at. This particular event was title “The Goat Gallop”. I made all of the precautionary commentary regarding watching where you step if you actually run with the animals (shades of running with the bulls in Spain). Spencer ignored my warnings and signed up anyway. He was the only one actually running but the entire family enjoyed the event. (Word to the wise – “relatively flat” in West Virginia is way different than the same term uttered in Indiana.)

While Spencer made us proud by jogging to a second place finish (in his age group), we enjoy hanging with the cutest baby goats we have ever seen.

All-in-all, it was great fun (especially since I didn’t have to climb Mount Everest while trying to run).

As much as we wanted to, no baby goats were actually KIDnapped. (get it? kid). We did discuss how much room we would need to adopt a couple. We drove some of the craziest back roads I’ve ever seen on our way to Sutton, WV – home to both the Bigfoot Museum and the Flatwoods Monster Museum. I must admit that I had not heard of the flatwoods monster before today. Bigfoot is real-ish.

There aren’t any pictures from inside either museum. I’m going to let you use your imagination as you plan your own trek to Sutton, West Virginia. We did score a lapel pin and a smashed penny at the Flatwoods Monster Museum.

The combination of the extremely twisty West Virginia backroads and the continental breakfast at the hotel did not sit well. We needed some other sustenance. One of the local eateries was highly recommended (it was within walking distance of where we parked). The food at the Braxton Bistro was enjoyable right up until the axe throwing cage fired up right behind us. It was a little unsettling.

Fully refreshed we hit the road again. Charleston, West Virginia was the location of our home for the night. We ended up getting separated and tried to use our radios to communicate. Unfortunately someone (me) forgot to charge our radio and Spencer wound up talking to himself. Two-way radios really only work if there are two participants. We ended up reverting to the age-old communication method of cell phones. Reconnection occurred.

We got checked in and discovered that housed in the lobby of this Holiday Inn was a cute parrot named Abbie. The bird supposedly can say a few words but no amount of coaxing or baby-talk could get even the slightest sound out of Abbie. I suspect there was a hidden camera recording people as they looked silly trying to have a bird-conversation.

We spent a little while in the hotel hot tub. We evacuated when the noisy-child volume level prohibited further conversation. We were all looking for something to munch on and this hotel offered a bar that offered a small menu. Adult beverages were somewhat available. The server notified us that they had just installed a new beer system and it wasn’t working. Also, they were out of Miller Light. This really wasn’t much of a bar. We ordered some appetizers. It took at least 20 minutes to get what little food we ordered. We were the only customers in the bar so I’m pretty sure neither the server nor the kitchen staff were overwhelmed.

Hey – it’s our family, of which I am very proud. We had great conversation and once again threatened to go back and kidnap those baby goats. Maybe next time. I enjoy every minute with my family.

No animals were harmed (or kidnapped) in the making of this blog. Tomorrow is another day.