Autumn Harvest Festival and West Virginia Roadkill Cook-off

The last, and wettest, festival on my trip was the Autumn Harvest Festival and WV RoadKill Cook-off in Marlinton.

Before I left Lewisburg that morning I checked the radar and could tell that my window for dryly enjoying the festival was very small.  It started raining a couple of miles before I reached Marlinton and really started pouring about fifteen minutes after I arrived. 

Despite the rain everyone was having a good time.  There were lots of arts and crafts to see and roadkill to eat.  The only food I sampled was the delicious "Chunk of Skunk Innards" stew by last year's champions, the Roadside Remnants.  I also checked out the bear preparation demo for a couple of minutes and bought a souvenir t-shirt. 

The last picture is misleading!  There was a decent-sized crowd along the street that I thought would make a good "look at all the people despite the rain" photo.  I hopped on one of the picnic tables they had set up in the street and carefully extracted my camera while balancing an umbrella between my chin and shoulder.  When I looked up the crowd had scattered.  I swear!

It was another West Virginia festival with a beauty queen.  Sadly, I did not see Miss Roadkill.  I wish I could have stayed longer, but I was getting soaked and there was a long drive ahead of me.  I'll definitely consider returning next year.

Comments

[Dane]

"Bear preparation demo." I just wanted to type that out for myself.

A girl would have to have a great sense of humor and rock-solid self-esteem to put herself in a position where she could be called Miss Roadkill.

[Joe]

In searching for a picture of Miss Roadkill I found out that's "Fine Living Network and Food Network personality Adam Gertler" operating on the bear. Earlier in the day he had crowned Miss Roadkill 2009.

[judy]

If you have GI problems this week, don't forget to mention this festival to the doctor.

[Joe]

A little skunk stew never hurt the GI tract.