Tat’s Bizarre Travels

Hopwood, PA - I’ve been to Laurel Caverns loads of times in my former life a a Girl Scout, but it’s been a good 20 odd years since I’ve been there and it had yet to be viewed through my cynical eyes. So I jumped in the car for a quick drive up to the Laurel Highlands in order to revisit the only cave I’ve ever been in.

The first thing I noticed was that as a Girl Scout you don’t really get to enjoy the slightly out of the way scenery (Import Export Tire’s Muffler Man), or the cool sights you may see as you drive along Route 40 (Searights Toll House). Instead you stay on course until you get to your camping spot and then spend the evening building fires and singing songs about bears chasing you up Redwoods. This trip was much more informative. I also haven’t built a fire in 20 odd years…well unless you count the one’s I built in trash cans in college, thus proving that the camp fire badge was less than worth the effort.

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Moundsville, WV - The Grave Creek Mound is the mound that the town of Moundsville was named after. Although there were several burial mounds in the area, none was comparable in size. At 62′ tall and 240′ across the widest part the mound is rather large. One of the only real perks of visiting the museum is that you can walk the stone stairway that leads to the top of the mound where a 6′ obelisk lives to tell you what direction is North, South, East and West, as well as which teenagers love each other forever! It gives you a nice, although rather unimpressive, view of all of Moundsville. You get an especially nice look at the West Virginia Penitentiary right across the street.

Unfortunately the mound climb is the most exciting part of visiting the Grave Creek Mound, which is an especially big letdown after viewing the lovely dioramas that show the native Adena people building the mound. There are some nice graphics depicting the mound in cross sections and boasting about the burial of the two people who were found in the mound. There are quite a few stories that talk about various excavations and a room where you’re led to believe archeology happens. But all of this is a tease. While walking through the museum I got excited about the possibility of walking through tunnels that lead into the mine to view the tombs of these very important Adena men. Sadly the tunnels are gone and the mound just sits there, tall and uneventful.

Linesville, PA - The Pymatuning Spillway was probably my favorite stop this weekend. I can’t exactly explain why, but there is something so absolutely revolting, but utterly fascinating about it at the same time.

To get to the spillway I needed to ask directions, which made me come to the following revelation. If you need directions to any offbeat attraction, just stop at the nearest convenience store and ask the teenager behind the counter. They know where all of the strange stuff is. In my head I pictured the teens of Linesville parking their cars at the spillway and making out on Friday nights. This is a disturbing thought. And let me tell you why.

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