We (John and Chris Baum, Barbara and I) drove the RV to the Road Kill Festival in Marlinton, West Virginia last weekend. The trip didn’t start out so well – trouble with the slider on the rv but I’ll go into that in another post. Just before we left we wanted to put some things in the bedroom drawer – but the slider wouldn’t move so we did the whole trip with the slider all the way in. It was a bit tight.

The festival has been going on for over 10 years. It’s actually Marlinton’s October Festival with a Road Kill Cook off. Different teams compete in a cooking contest using things you may find dead on the road – but fresh, not actually found on the road.

It’s a great ride through the Allegheny National Forest. It’s also a real challenge to drive a 9 ton motor home (it’s listed at 9 tons, had it weighed and it’s 13 tons loaded) through the winding roads going into to 25 mph turns coming down from 3,853 feet! I got a bit of experience under my belt. At one point there was the slight smell of brakes. I did get quite a bit more comfortable driving it but still it’s was little tense which maybe is a good thing.

We stayed at the Riverside Campgrounds that is within walking distance of the festival which is held on the main street. They close off about 6 or 7 blocks and line the vendors up and down and also on a couple side streets. All kinds of arts and crafts and food available. The cook off has a $5 charge for tastings at the various booths. Chris and me hit all of the booths, I think there were 12 or 13, Barbara and John weren’t that excited, I think they said “Ugg” or was it “Eeww”. It was mostly venison, most everything was pretty good. For me the outstanding ones were the gopher gravy (very tasty), the roasted boar (always loved boar) and the possum stew – not ‘bad’ but a very different and strong flavor. I’m not sure if the possum was the actual possum or just a bad recipe.

On the way down the camp site we stopped at on the way down had a big bear trap setup on entrance road. There was some bear that lived in the area that they were treating and would catch it every once in a while to have a veterinarian check it out. They used a dozen of Dunkin Donuts (colored sprinkle ones) as bait. We didn’t see that one but did see one run across the road on the way down.

It was a great first big trip with great friends.