What West Virginians Do

We loaded up the truck

 

 

Cause that's what West Virginians do.

 

We rode the hills

 

 

Cause that's what West Virginians do.

 

We took along our visitors

 

 

Cause that's what West Virginians do.

 

We counted deer, spotted turkeys and looked for other wildlife lurking

 

 

Cause that's what West Virginians do.

 

But then, we got a few funny looks.

 

 

They made us stop and ponder,

 

 

"Is that what West Virginians really do?"

 

"Come to think of it," mentioned the only one born & bred,

 

 

"Perhaps that's not what West Virginians do!"

 

Ah, well. Not to worry.  We've made a good many memories. 

 

 

And that, no doubt, is what West Virginians do!

Hinkle Mountain Road

Travelling with a gps (aka a global positioning system) can definitely lead to some interesting adventures.  In my travels this year, I've found that the further one gets away from civilization, the more likely the gps is to steer me wrong.  Such was the case on my way into the hills of West Virginia.  I didn't have a good state map with me so I was pretty much relying on the gps to get me up into the hills where we were staying.  It began by taking me down a nice two lane paved road.  But then it insisted that I turn left on Hinkle Mountain Road.  With one look to my left, I quickly ruled out the possibility of ever ascending the steep gravel road with my little Saturn.  So I resolutely set my eyes to continue on the paved two lane road all the while listening to my gps recalculate and continue insisting that I turn around and take Hinkle Mountain Road. 

Days later, my brother was kind enough to take us all out on a drive through the country and down Hinkle Mountain Road just so I would know what I missed. 

 

Loaded Up & Ready for Our Adventure

 

 

It is hard to tell in this picture how steep the road was but it was precisely at this point that the wisdom of staying off this road with my car was validated. I mean for goodness sake it was so steep that we were sliding forward in the bed of the truck!

 

My brother calculated that it was roughly a 1200 foot drop.

 



Beautiful sights to be seen along the way.

 



 

But heed my warning, no matter what your gps tells you, 

this is not a road for the faint of heart or car!

Still Making Me Laugh

As I was giving a presentation today this picture stood out to me.  It might have been because her current teacher shared a funny story about her and her class.  Imagining the scene made me chuckle and you know how I like to share the things that make me laugh! So in Miss M's words, here's what went down.

N was asking me about dinosaurs and when they were on the earth.  I told her that they were probably on the earth before the flood.  The whole class got very quiet and after a few seconds, Naeva asked, 'Which flood?'  I told them the flood in the time of Noah, recorded in the Bible.  She started laughing and told me that she thought I meant the flood at the beginning of the school year.  The whole class had a good laugh about dinosaurs being on the earth before the school flood!

Now all I need is a kid writer to write me a tall tale about how the Sahel Academy Flood wiped out the dinosaur population.  That would just be awesome!

Speaking of kid writing, guess what I got for my birthday?  Kid writing from one of my former students.  Is that not an awesome birthday present?

The cool thing is that it's a comic book.  I have been collecting books all year to explore this genre with my students next year so someone's birthday gift is going to get added to the mix of mentor texts.