Another great day in the under-rated state of West Virginia.  Many hours of pure driving between cities & shooting.  And I fear this might be the last I see of the sun.  Weather forecasts for the whole state are non-stop rain, hour after hour, for the entire weekend.  Uh oh.  It’s raining as I write this at 11pm.  So…  I might be heading back to Brooklyn early if that’s how it seems in the morning.  Maybe I’ll give it a few hours at least before hitting the interstate.

Highs in the upper 80s — so much for spring.  I found lots of water for the dogs to play in.  Fast moving rivers so I carefully choose the shallowest and safest spots.   I haven’t turned the A/C on yet.  Partly worried that there will be something wrong with it (again) and partly just trying to give hard-working Sparkle some slack.  I’ll have to test that A/C though before venturing off to the Southwest next month.

Let’s start with Webster Springs.  No restaurant, no hotel… but there’s still this sign:

 

From Cowen — this place is now known as the Hilltop Diner.  I’m glad they left the sign alone:

 

It was a big day for vitrolite (i.e., glass tile facades).  This storefront in Richwood.  The glass reflects the blooming tree across the street.  The sad sign in the window was a “thanks loyal customers for many years…” sort of thing and identified this as a former J.C. Penney store.

 

On to Charleston where I spent a good chunk of the day.  The clouds rolled in around 3pm but at least I got a lot done before that.

I’m happy to report that this place is still in business:

 

On to one of my fave places in town — yepper not only vitrolite exterior…

 

… but loads more inside.  This entire menu board-y structure — all faced with the stuff:

 

Terrazzo floor — with this lone bulls-eye detail in roughly the center of the room:

 

Around the corner on a side street, more shiny glass — cream (flesh?) and black; and to the left — black & white:

 

Another favorite stop when I’m in town — the Peanut Shoppe — a former Planters Peanut store.  A great little video about the place:
http://www.wchstv.com/traveling/2007/twv070816.shtml

The peanut roaster (still in use):

 

And my bag ‘o Mixed Nuts — sold to me by “Debbie” in the video —

 

I’ve got a bunch of Planters Peanut shops at this page if you’re interested:
http://agilitynut.com/eateries/nuts.html

 

Let’s move on to Beckley where I’m calling it a night.

 

And the not-to-be-missed King Tut Drive-in — which I’m happy to report was jammed full of customers:

 

And the perfect opportunity for some food porn.  I’ve been such a good girl — for the past month, 100% salads and fruit.  No sugar and no processed nothing.  Time to indulge!  This is King Tut’s banana cream pie.  All the pies made fresh daily (or so says the sign).  It looks huge in this photo but really it wasn’t all that big — but unreal good:

 

OK then  — let’s see what the weather gods give us tomorrow.

 

And don’t forget my faithful blog-followers, there’s more photos from today over at the Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/