Hole breaks in fuselage, Southwest plane lands safely

by Tom Johansmeyer on

A Southwest Airlines 737 landed safely in West Virginia last night after a 1 foot by 1 foot hole opened in the fuselage. Passengers could actually see the sky through the gape. Cabin pressure dropped, and passengers put on their masks quickly. Nobody was injured.

The plane was flying from Nashville to Baltimore but diverted as a result of the hole. The pilot landed the plane, to the thanks, applause and hugs of the passengers. As a precaution, Southwest is now inspecting all its 737s, the company announced. So far, the cause of the problem remains unknown.

Tamarack: One-of-a-kind-center offers top-notch handmade arts and crafts

by Jamie Rhein on

A couple years ago, when I was writing a magazine article on best fall foliage places in West Virginia, a person working at a visitors and convention bureau told me that Tamarack Art Gallery is a place to shop. Actually, not a place, but the place. If you’re looking for anything artsy, Appalachian and West Virginian, this is it. (Not all art is Appalachian in subject matter, but it does showcase Appalachia’s finest work.) I was interested to see a feature article about the place in The Columbus Dispatch.

Part of the success of this gallery, I think, is that the crafts and art for sale are juried pieces. This means that artisans have to apply to get their work accepted–it’sa more formal and strict process for selecting what will pass muster. The result is a collection of high quality pieces that represent more than 2,800 artists. Therefore, if you shop here, you can’t go wrong. West Virginia’s art bounty is huge and Tamarack reflects this. Usually for less expensive pieces the gallery also pays the artists upfront instead of the artists selling their work on consignment. I like that. It seems fair. The reason behind the gesture is so artists have a shot at making a decent living from their work and have the support to practice their craft at a higher level.

Tamarack also has a restaurant that serves up traditional Appalachian fare. I wonder if there are soup beans and cornbread on the menu–or is this a Kentucky specialty? There are also changing exhibits and demonstrations. Here’s an audio slide show designed to bring you there. I love listening to the accents. They remind me of where my mom is from. By the way, you can also shop on-line if driving to this spot in West Virginia is too far.

Cow Poop Bingo in Switzerland

by Justin Glow on

In the small municipality of Ruswil, Switzerland, a grassy field has been painted with a grid. This wasn’t done to test out some sort of new cultivation method, but instead as a game that pits man against beast. Each square is numbered (there are 750 of them in the field) and spectators bet on which the cow will eventually defecate into. Hopefully there’s more than one cow, because 1:750 odds isn’t that great, especially when it comes to feces bingo.

This idea isn’t new. A simple Google search of “cow chip bingo” brings up a similar event that has taken place the past four years at the Jefferson County Fair in West Virginia. Amanda Thomas was crowned the 2007 Cow Chip Bingo Queen by selecting the correct square of I-10. The fair’s website has several photos of the event, including some rare shots of a tortilla chip superhero and the post-game playing field. Mmmm….

Photo by Reuters/Sebastian Derungs [via]

Quick Road Trip: Washington, D.C. Part One

by Jamie Rhein on

As I struck out for Washington, D.C. two Thursdays ago today with my 14 year-old daughter and her best friend settled into the back seat of our car with their array of pillows, snack foods, MP3 player, head phones, Map Quest directions and who knows what else –there was so much back there, I felt that sense of freedom and adventure that gives me an energy boost.

I knew we were heading to Washington, D.C., but as we followed the Map Quest route, I turned the car in a direction I hadn’t gone before. The last time I went to Washington, D.C. I also drove. That was nine years ago. Back then, I followed I-70 East until we hit I-270 South. It was a fairly boring, tedious drive. This time Map Quest sent us down to Morgantown, West Virginia and on through Cumberland, Maryland on I-68. [I-68 is in the background of this Flickr photo by On Withering Hills. This is a section we passed through.) At first, I doubted what we were doing since I knew we were to hook up with I-70 further east. But, since I was driving, I called out a quick lesson to my daughter on how to read the mileage markers of the Rand McNally Road Atlas and to find the highways based on where we were. I wanted to make sure we weren’t going so far out of our way it would be the middle of the night before I reached my friend’s apartment in the Georgetown section of D.C. Since my printer was broken, I had scrawled the Map Quest directions on a piece of paper and, now that we were on the road, doubted my own writing.

This trip was to be a quick one–just two nights and one day–long enough to catch up with one of my cousins and meet his wife, reconnect with one of my friends who I taught with in India, and see some friends of ours from Vietnam who are visiting the United States. This was a lot of people to see in a short time, so I didn’t want to be wandering all over West Virginia by mistake. Plus, my husband and my mother thought I was nuts for making the drive, but being that I just read a series of essays about sudden journeys in National Geographic Traveler, and Neil’s post about his spontaneous trip to San Francisco, I figured I was in good company with my thinking. At least some people in the world would understand.

Sure enough, we were heading the right way. Instead of the tedious drive I remembered from the past, we traveled through gorgous mountains. Along the way I made some observations.

#1. If you only stop once at a gas station to: fill the tank, so everyone can pee, and so the driver can get a cup of coffee, you can make it door to door in 6 1/2 hours. (Most of the time we stayed within the 65-to 70 mph range. Hey, people were passing me.)

#2. There are some places in West Virginia where the speed limit says 70, but then it switches to 65 soon after.

#3. Cumberland, Maryland is a lovely historic town of red brick buildings and church steeples set into the mountains. You can only go 40 mph for a good part of the trip through it since the highway passes smack dab through the middle of downtown.

#4. At every county border across Maryland, the county has a sign that welcomes you. This makes Maryland seem like a very friendly place.

#5. Maryland loves to put elevation signs on each mountain peak. This was a very hilly drive so there were a lot of highway markers with the names of a particular mountian and it’s elevation.

#6. There are many signs in Maryland that say: Watch for Maryland’s Wildlife (or something like that).

#7. It’s a good thing there are the signs since a BLACK BEAR RAN ACROSS THE HIGHWAY in front of us!!!

#8. Once you get to Georgetown, just blocks from the endpoint, it will take you a long time to make it down M Street. There are a lot of traffic lights, people and cars. My daughter and her friend said it looks like Easton Town Center, a shopping mall in Columbus. I said, “Yeah, but this is a real town. Easton Town Center is fake.

#9. It’s great to sit down in a lovely apartment with friends and a glass of wine for some long overdue catching up time while the teenagers unload the car without even being asked.

Stayed tuned for Part Two this afternoon for the what we did portion.

Cabela’s – Wheeling, West Virginia

by Adrienne Wilson on

For the longest R.E.I. was the only outfitter that came to mind when pondering where to go to stock up on outdoor goods, but that has since changed. After breezing through West Virginia for a bite to eat at Cracker Barrel and visit to Cabela’s, I now know of another equally exciting place to gear up on gear. As me and my partners were pulling up into the lot, one of them was schooling us on how world famous Cabela’s was and low and behold there were a few visitors to the area snapping photo after photo. I thought I should snap a few too.

If I had to compare the interior to anything it would be a jungle, a tangled jungle of clothing, fishing equipment, hunting gear and almost anything and everything imaginable for the outdoor enthusiast. Cabela’s is more than just a store. One good walk around the showroom will reveal several small animal displays located throughout the store, but better than anything else is the area called Whitetail country. I’m not a huge fan of hunting, but it was interesting seeing this large display of deer in a realistic re-creation of their natural habitat. The buck doesn’t stop at animal displays though – swing in May 27-28, 2006 for French fries with Cabela’s seasonings.

Cabela’s in Wheeling is located at One Cabela Drive, Triadelphia, WV 26059. For a full listing of stores nationwide click here.