Spruce and Guns

So what else did I do on my trip to West Virginia? Some things that I thought were very West Virginian. And a good sign of things to come.

In the afternoon after I had 'looked' at some houses, my one host Evan, had been reading about a section of red spruce forest that had been missed by surveyors around the turn of the century. The result is a piece of virgin forest with 250 year old trees! Because red spruce cannot grow at a lower elevation, the one replanted section of forest creates a stark contrast to forests I am used to. The spruce, with their thick, coniferous needles, block out almost all sun light and prevents anythig except moss from growing on the forest floor. The virgin forest has started to change, which the interpretive text panels kept saying over and over again, leaving spruce mixed in with maples, beeches, and other hardwood trees. It was amazing to see these huge trees and realize that it was only because of sheer luck that it wasn't logged with the rest of West Virginia. It was great to be able to just on a whim go look at something and experience something new.

That evening I talked with my other host Russell about hunting and shooting. I had never shot a gun, but hunting seemed to be a favorite topic of conversation. He agreed to take me to the old quarry on Rich Mountain the next day for target practice. I was really excited. Along the way we stopped by Beverly and looked at some work the historic preservation team had been doing and met some volunteers. When we got up to the quarry, Russell went over gun safety, how to load, hold, and shoot his single-barrel 20-gauge shotgun. My excitement turned to nervousness. Guns were a thing of movies, T.V. and videogames. Not shooting at green glass bottles in a quarry in West Virginia. After Russell shot, I gave it a try. I couldn't shoot one he threw in the air. That was a little forward. So I tried shooting a bottle sitting on some rocks a distance away. With the first one, my hand was steady. As I shot, I got more nervous and shaky rather than more relaxed. Finally I was able to shoot some bottles and feel like maybe target practice would be a source of fun in my new West Virginian life.

Finding a house...

I am a planner. I like to have this organized and ready before I start anything. With school work, this often manifested itself with writing an outline, getting quotes, and organizing a whole paper before I started working. [Well, I guess that's only true when I was serious about writing something...]

In the case of moving to Elkins, I wanted to be sure I had a place to live before I moved out there. My first trip with my mom was intended to start that, but it was pretty unsuccessful.

My first instinct in finding a place to live was craigslist.org and the Internet. When I realized the Internet is not how things get done in Elkins, I was stuck in the conundrum that so many of my generation are: what do you do when the information you want isn't online? Needless to say, it means you have to look in print materials (like the local newspaper) and actually call people (like local real estate agents and people I know in Elkins). I also realized that I needed to see Elkins to figure out where I would want to live and find some of those non-Internet resources.

When my mom and I got to Elkins, I wasn't ready to look for a place live. I needed to work out the contacts, and then it was too late to actually go look at properties and it was almost two months until I would be moving anyway. But it was nice to figure out the layout of the town and meet some key people I would be working with.

Last week when I went to Elkins, I had scheduled to look at some houses and had a better idea of what the market looked like. But even after my first appointment at a property management office, I was left disappointed. Although I wanted to go look at two three-bedroom houses that would be available September first, the woman basically refused to let me see the houses because the previous renters had "left them in such bad condition" and they were painting and putting in new carpets. I went and tried to look into the windows of the houses, but it didn't work too well. I felt like I had driven all that way and my best two options were not working out.

Then, I met my hosts, who are both AmeriCorps with AFHA right now. They lightly tried to convince me that in Elkins, things just happen; you can't plan too far ahead. They had come to Elkins without a place to live and found a decent apartment quickly. But that's not my style!

My next adventure was looking at a house that belonged to the mayor. I had been to Elkins before and thought I knew where it was. I drove around for about 1/2 hour before I realized that I didn't know where it was and I couldn't contact the mayor to ask him where it was. [Yes, I haven't even moved to Elkins yet and blew off the mayor. I went the next day to his office to apologize but he wasn't there.]

My last viable option was that Becky, a friend of my hosts, had found a five-bedroom house for rent and needed one more person to live there. Becky came over and gave me the landlady's number, so I was able to set up an appointment to see the house the next day. In the end, it was exactly as my hosts had described it. I found a place to live and it just kinda happened. Although I am indecisive, I just went for it because I knew that it meant I was leaving Elkins with a place to move in September; organized and ready before I got there.