It’s Deer Season in West Virginia

Honey, I’m telling you…deer season is a religious holiday in my home state. Lawsy…the number of trucks with muddy ATVs on the back is staggering. Day Glow Orange is the new black. Men named Bubba and AJ and Jim Bob are sitting in their tree stands before dawn, quietly waiting and watching for the deer to start browsing the woodlands. There are several sections of deer season…bow/crossbow (which we’re in now), buck firearm, antlerless-1, antlerless-2, antlerless-3, antlerless-4, muzzleloader, etc. You get the drift. Hunting is big here. It’s a right of passage fathers hand down to sons (and daughters.) A lot of schools close sure the first week of rifle season because the kids will be out there with their dads.

The people who hunt in West Virginia are largely subsistence hunters…that is, they aren’t necessarily hunting just for a trophy to mount on their walls (although, that is prevalent. Mostly, people hunt for meat for the table and for preserving. Some people do hunt for the meat, but not for themselves…they donate it to food pantries. Personally, I am not a big fan of venison. I did fry up some deer tenderloins a couple of years ago and they were just…ok. Some people are just crazy about it. People who hunt on their own land feed the deer corn for a while before hunting season and fatten them up to make the meat less “gamey.” It’s a big deal in these parts.

We camped in the Greenbrier State Forest Campground last night. It’s a very small, somewhat rustic campground however, it DOES have electric. We emptied our fresh water tank before we came down to keep the weight down but we just stayed here one night so we did without. We had plenty of bottle water so it was fine.

October is such a great time to camp. The days are warm, the nights are cool. It couldn’t have been a prettier day driving down. The colors are really changing up closer to Marshmallow Ranch, but the farther south we went, the trees were just starting to change. I think it’s going to be a beautiful trip and driving back through Virginia will be stellar.

We were both pretty tired last night and turned in early. We got a late start because there was still so much to do. We’ll have two nights at the next campground so we can rest up for the big push to the beach. Back in the day, Mr. FixIt would pack up the family and leave at their bedtime. Then he would drive straight through while they slept. Once they got to the beach, everyone was refreshed and ready to go play on the sand…except Mr. FixIt who had to take a nap! That does NOT sound like fun to me. When we drive, we make it to Williamsburg the first day, then drive on down to the beach on the second day. That way neither one of us is exhausted from too much driving. Mr. FixIt, Jr. had never done that till they came down to meet us at the condo one year. They’ve learned something from the old folks!

I’ll share more photos tomorrow. It was almost dark when we got to the campsite!

🍁