Our Fabled Nest

Middle of the week dates are not our thing… we love waiting for adventures and exploring new places on the weekends! This little date was kind of planned but kind of an unexpected midweek trip. Laveena finally had her spay surgery. The rescue only utilizes K.E.Y Animal Hospital in Wheeling, WV. A good five hours from home for us. We decided to make a day trip of it… she has the surgery, and we will take the other three on a small adventure.

Knowing my doggy mama nerves would be a wreck, I knew we needed something to keep us all entertained. After dropping her off for her appointment, we headed to a local park to start our adventures off right! Or so we thought, we aren’t from the area and from our little drive to said park, we realized it wasn’t in the safest part of town. That’s a huge factor for me especially with wrangling three huskies and backpacking the fourth. We made a quick U-turn and started searching for plan b…. we were all a little hungry and were wanting our late breakfast sooner than later. Across the tracks (literally), we found downtown Wheeling, WV. Free parking for two hours, we settled on the Wheeling Heritage Trail. It runs along the river and looks across to Ohio. We knew we didn’t want to do the full 17 miles offered but a good leg stretch was needed! Forrest loved walking around the paved trails, Atticus loved his water views and Magda was just happy to not be crammed in the truck with her sibbies…. girlie thinks the world revolves around her. She also thinks she owns the entire backseat and doesn’t like when her sibbies use her fluffy bottom as a pillow. Forrest enjoyed this little excursion especially when we let him attempt the stairs. They were a little longer and wider so he could balance better with his wheelchair. This place is also ADA friendly! There are plenty of ways around the stairs. We didn’t adventure too far from the truck, but it still was a lovely little pit stop. After noshing on our breakfast, we headed to our next stop! This one we booked online for a fun spooky tour!

Originally, we planned to head over to Pittsburg but last minute, we wanted to stay as close to Wheeling as possible. Pittsburg has a nice park called Settler’s Cabin and right next door is the botanical gardens. Both are super pet friendly destinations and we thought our crew would love that! I hated the thought of exploring those places without Bean- she would have loved the Botanical Gardens! Then the nagging worry of being an hour away if something happened. It’s okay though! We pivoted and I am so grateful we did!

About twenty minutes south of Wheeling is the West Virginia State Penitentiary. I found it on Bring Fido and the day tour is dog friendly! As long as you are a good dog mom/dad and keep pup on a lead, clean up any messes and make sure they keep relatively quiet – they can join you for the hour and half tour of the buildings and grounds. I am a huge fan of anything haunted, spooky, ghosty and the likes! This place did not disappoint! I love how affordable the tour was too -reasonably priced at only $15 per person! Our tour had room for up to forty people, luckily, we only had fifteen to twenty. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable even though I am sure he has told the tales hundreds of times. When you first walk in the penitentiary, you’ll notice it is now housing a small museum, gift shop and receptionist/check-in area. The receptionist was an absolute doll and went on and on (and on) about the kiddos. She was over the moon thrilled and told them to enjoy themselves. Forrest was tucked in his backpack and wasn’t too sure of her overly attentive oohing and ahhing. We heading to the small museum next while waiting for our tour to start… lots of really cool, interesting and scary memorabilia littered the walls and cabinets. Everything from handmade ropes to shanks. Yikes- this place sure used to be dangerous. One of the inmates actually came and asked for his shirt back a few years ago… he created art on it and wanted it as a token. Of course, they said no since it was property of the state…. it now says, “donated by” even though I am sure it was not a donation.

Another incredible fascinating tidbit about the penitentiary is the unbelievable amount of artwork. This artwork is mostly murals, and they are detailed. All of that was crafted by inmates. In the area, at the beginning of the tour, where families could come visit their incarcerated loved ones, some inmates thought how scary it would be for a child visiting so they painted the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the walls. Another beautiful tribute created by the museum located in this first area is for the indigenous souls resting across the street at the Grave Creek Mound. While it has nothing to with the prison, it kind of does. It was their native land, and I love that the museum is paying their respects to these souls. Across from that is a thirty-foot-long mural. Incredible in photos but actually seeing the insurmountable mountain with the peaceful lush scenery was kind of awe inspiring.

Behind this wall, is a dining/mess hall. It is more of a “free range” style and there’s semi-truck painting on a partition wall… the guards would eat on the other side. These inmates weren’t as bad… on this hall the inmates would actually be the ones cooking the meals and were paid for their labors. There was something so eerie about the halls and the silence. After this, we headed to the yard. This place is humongous! Inside, it is large but outside it looms over. As we walked down to Wagon Gate, we learned they kept the geriatric prisoners separate over to the right of the Gate. They had an electric fence, but it wasn’t to keep them in. It was to keep general population out.

Back inside, we heard of how inmates turned on one another. Walking through these halls felt vastly different from the start of the tour. The heaviness was palatable, and it honestly felt like someone was watching us. Forrest and I were hanging out at the back of the tour. He would give a quick shiver and look back… it was such an odd thing for him. But for real, I felt it too. Cells here were painted different colors because instead of tossing the paint when they were done with projects, they would send it over here to the penitentiary. Inside the cells, there was dark artwork, and writings on the walls. This is the creepy part of the tour, you could see shadows out of the corner of your eye but there is nothing there, you would feel the heaviness and despair and a sense of panicked chaos but obviously we were safe.

The guide elaborated on how loud this place would twenty-four/seven. His voice echoed through the halls, and he was like imagine thousands of prisoners at once along with radios and televisions blaring. These cells would hold two to three inmates. Horrifyingly, the poor soul on the ground would, out of necessity, sleep with their head towards the sink… otherwise they would run the risk of a fellow inmate reaching through the food slot and shanking them. The prisoners here were a rough crowd. Correctional Officers would walk under the concrete walkway that jutted out just above just to make sure no one threw objects down. Almost a thousand men lot their lives here; the guide was rather nonchalant about all of the gory details. At one point, we are all standing around listening to one of the stories and he points to our feet and says something along the lines of yep, three were murdered here. This was the perfect way to kill time while we waited for Laveena. Everything about this tour was great! Very interesting, great guide, great price and the tour was the perfect way to start up October! Laveena came out of her surgery without a hitch and has rested up for the past week!

Cheers to our next adventure!