My husband and I got back from our road trip yesterday. It was such a fun and much-needed vacation. Similar to my other vacation posts, I’m splitting this up into three entries: West Virginia, Virginia & North Carolina, and South Carolina & Savannah, GA. This way, I don’t end up writing one long post. In this first post, I’m going to write about West Virginia and seeing Mothman.

We began our trip from Madison, Wisconsin, as my husband’s twin brother lives there. It was a nine-hour drive from Madison to Charleston, West Virginia. For the most part, driving through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio is flat and boring. Once we reached the Wayne National Forest in the Southeastern part of Ohio, it turned into a beautiful drive. The trees were so green, and there were hills we drove through.

Throughout our drive through the Wayne National Forest, I saw a sign for the Mothman statue in West Virginia. One of my favorite parts about driving is seeing the tourist things along the way. I knew we had to stop in West Virginia to take a selfie with Mothman. From what I know, Mothman is an urban legend stemming from sightings and events from the 1960s in West Virginia. I bought a non-fiction book about this at a bookstore to learn more. As we arrived, we were too late to go through the Mothman museum, so we took a picture by the statue instead.

After another hour of driving, we reached Charleston, West Virginia. Charleston is the capital of West Virginia, and both my husband and I were surprised at how small the city was, especially since it’s the capital. Charleston was surrounded by the river and rock formations on either side. Before this trip, I thought West Virginia was more of a “flyover” state; however, I was blown away by how beautiful the city was.

After settling into our hotel, we drove to 1010 Bridge for dinner. It was located on a hill overlooking Charleston. This came from a recommendation from a coworker to eat here. It was easily one of the best restaurants we went to throughout our whole trip. My husband and I both ordered the Beef Tip Bolognese. It was tasty! My husband and I joked that we would visit Charleston solely to go back to 1010 Bridge.

West Virginia was such a surprise! I wasn’t expecting much, and I was surprised at how pretty Charleston and West Virginia were. Charleston is on a list of cities my husband and I would love to come back to.