Take me home, country roads…
A few years ago Jake and I took a hastily planned trip from Norman, Oklahoma to New York City, New York. After a full day of being awake we began our journey around 7pm. The mission: to gather my sister’s things in uptown Manhattan before she was evicted from her student apartment. The trip was long and the trip was fun. In the Smokey Mountains Jake saw a scary pig-like animal from beyond the grave that nearly killed us andateourfacesapartwithitsawfulteethofdoom.
It was scary… for him.
Later on in the journey we encountered the best part of our journey: Wheeling, West Virginia. Wheeling is the worst town I have ever been to and that includes East St. Louis (which we also ran into during this trip). Before we can properly bash Wheeling, WV we should learn a bit about it’s storied history.
The name “Wheeling” is of the American Adena tribe derivation for “place of the skull.” At the confluence of Wheeling Creek and the Ohio River near what is now 16th and Main Streets, a white settler was scalped and decapitated, and the severed head displayed.
In 2000 31,419 people lived in the great city of Wheeling but the city hit its population peak back in 1930 at 61,659. Wheeling is split between the West Virginia side of the Ohio River and Wheeling Island. On the island is a large residential area plus a casino and racetrack known as Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack which has a tropical theme despite it’s location. It does flood in the summer, though.
The people of Wheeling are aloof and backwards. We tried several places in the city but were unable to find gasoline. Resorting to asking the townsfolk where to get gas we went into a McDonalds where everyone eating and working there were related. I wish I were kidding. They couldn’t help us either, go figure. We eventually had to leave Wheeling and get gas outside of town despite running on fumes but not before we toured the lovely downtown. Downtown Wheeling is quite large once you take into account that only 30,000 or so people live there. The buildings are tall and almost all of them are boarded up. The best part is that it all nestles up to a groady river that doesn’t look potable. It is truly picturesque.
We made the trip in around 22 hours of straight travel taking turns driving and running the radio. My sister treated us to a nice italian meal and Jake got to meet up with his crazy (in a good way) sister, Mandy. I don’t remember much of the return trip because I was too exhausted from driving and moving but we refused to go back through Wheeling; we went through DC and Memphis instead.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Having been to Memphis and DC multiple times, I’m truly frightened that they were preferable alternatives to Wheeling… more reasons for to stick out my fear of flying so I don’t have to drive between nyc and okc.