Mothman festival was cancelled this year due to increasingly high numbers of Covid cases. I was both disappointed and relieved to hear this. Even fully vaccinated there is still a fear of breakthrough cases. I did decide to go to West Virginia anyway, and just enjoy being there and see some friends, do the tourist things I didn’t previously get to do because I was so busy at the event. I also could hand deliver the latest installment of products to the Mothman Museum as well as the Hodag store (because Ben also decided to come out just for fun). I also wanted to use the time to market myself elsewhere. The first day I arrived was Thursday and I went to the Point Pleasant Trading Post. I was delighted to see a few of my items on the shelf there. I met Julie, the shop owner. She is married to Jeff, of the Mothman Museum. I also spoke with Jeff briefly, but he was in his way out and I’d already planned to meet with him the next morning. I wandered around the area and came to another cute shop, which turned out to be run by their daughter. Basically they run the town! I also wandered into M & Z boutique and they bought some of my items to test out in the shop. The majority of my items I brought with me sold to Jeff and Julie to restock the shops.
Friday night the Frick brothers, who are sort of local legends around point pleasant met up with Mystic Novelty Co, Robin and Brian and myself at Village Pizza, famous for their Mothman pizza. Robin, Brian, and I were staying together at an Air bnb in Bidwell, OH.
The following morning I spent the morning with the Hodag crew, we went to the museum and got coffee, wandered around the shops. We were supposed to meet back up with the Frick brothers around 1 to go tour the TNT area, but they wanted to grab food, and they seemed to be enjoying engaging with the crowd outside the Mothman museum, so we all just kind of wandered around independently, then later met back up. The TNT area was ama big. The sound of the echos inside the igloos there was awes. The graffiti and strangeness of the area was great. Sunday I made the 2 hour drive out to Flatwoods West Virginia with the intention of going to the museum and meeting with Andrew about potentially carrying some of my items there. Despite knowing I was coming and even telling me to not come Friday because he wouldn’t be there, he wasn’t there on Sunday. I was frustrated by this, after making the 2 hour drive out there. I did all the Flatwoods sightseeing though, do it wasn’t a total loss.
I then drove 2 hours to Parkersburg, WV to meet up with Heather Mosier, and that made the entire day better. Although it was our first time meeting in person we talked for hours and felt like old friends. Her entire family came along and they were all wonderful. We had lunch together then went to a cemetery to walk around and let the kids run off some energy before they made the long drive back too. getting to meet such wonderful people has certainly been the highlight of my adventure so far.
