Return to Point Pleasant

2009-09-27: Returning to "normal" life was considerably difficult. You don't sleep when it's dark or when you're tired. You don't eat when you're hungry. You don't do and go as you please. Rather, clocks and schedules regulate all things, forcing conformity to the numbers. Finding a new car, sorting out insurance claims, resupplying - these were all distractions that were more difficult than they would have been had I become re-acclimated to the flow of civilization. I did, however, have the opportunity to tell some of my stories to friends and family, and that was something that in the past had been straining. Now I had more tales to tell than I had the time to tell them.

Finally, everything was in place and I was ready to return to the highway. I had replaced my vehicle with the same model and year, as I was quite comfortable with it in many ways. I packed my things up as they had been, left behind the things I hadn't needed, and added the new ones I did. I was more ready than ever. One month after I had limped back home, I was back on the road, on my way to where I had left off, specifically, Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

I made my way through Indiana and Ohio with nothing to note, aside that the weather had become a bit more cold and rainy. Autumn was coming, but I thought of it as an opportunity. Surely New England would be extraordinarily beautiful in this season. I greatly anticipated that. I stopped for the night in Richmond Dale, OH, at a rest stop. I was close enough to Point Pleasant that I would be able to get started right away in the morning.

I had done some research on the Mothman events and found that much of the activity had been reported in what is now the McClintic Wildlife Management Area. It was easy to get to, and more or less deserted. Gunfire from hunters could be heard in the distance but it was otherwise very quiet. I found a muddy trail that may or may not have been open and began my exploration there. There were very few easy paths through the overgrown brushland and wetland, and the rains from the previous days ensured that my boots and pants would be soaked from shuffling through the undergrowth. Eventually I began to see signs warning of buried explosives, left over from World War II. In some places there were the remains of structures of various types, but I could not find any of the "TNT domes" described in the accounts of the Mothman story. I was slightly disappointed that the domes seemed to be so well hidden, or perhaps, so heavily overgrown.

Aside from the slightly unsettling history, the land itself was rustic and peaceful. There was a pleasant mix of brush, low trees, and wetland plants. Many different kinds of flowers were found randomly all around the site. As I made my way back to the main roads, I encountered some flooding along the narrow roads of the Area. I made the decision to see what my Jeep could handle. I plowed through the mud and water and made it by, though it absolutely covered everything. Nonetheless, it was new and fun, and that was one of the primary themes of my entire journey.