Wild Wonderful West Virginia Trip – Fairmont and Morgantown

It’s been seven years since we visited my hometown of Fairmont, WV so we used the 80^th Birthday Party of my cousin’s wife (Ruth) as a good reason to go.  It’s a 450 mile and 7½ hour (plus stops) trip on interstate (I-40, I-81, I-77, I-79) and divided highway (US-19) for the entire trip so pretty easy driving.  This is our trip plan:

	2025 WV Trip
day	Leave	Arrive	Lodging	Activities	Food
1	Greenback, TN	Morgantown, WV	Hotel Morgan	Drive to WV	Colasessano's
2	Morgantown, WV	Fairmont, WV	Hotel Morgan	Ruth BD party	Bourbon Prime-breakfast
3	Morgantown, WV	Fairmont, WV	Hotel Morgan	Tour WVU, visit Dick & Ruth
4	Morgantown, WV	Fairmont, WV	Hotel Morgan	Tour Fairmont, Dick & Ruth
5	Morgantown, WV	White Sulfur Springs, WV	Greenbrier Resort	Drive to Greenbrier
6		White Sulfur Springs, WV	Greenbrier Resort	Bunker tour	Sam Sneads
7		White Sulfur Springs, WV	Greenbrier Resort	Croquet, Lewisburg shopping	The Forum
8	White Sulfur Springs, WV	Greenback, TN		Drive home

During my freshman year at West Virginia University, the school was short on dorm space so they leased two floors in the Hotel Morgan which is where I ended up staying.  Since it was just a little further from Ruth’s house to Morgantown, WV than to the hotels in South Fairmont, I decided I’d like to stay at the Hotel Morgan to see what it was like these days - it is now a Wyndham Hotel and the outside looked just the same for the 1925 hotel.

The lobby has changed quite a bit and there is now a bar area but I’m not sure what was there in 1964.

Our room was the same size as when I was in college but the layout was much different.

One of the must-dos in Fairmont over the years has been to eat Colasessano’s pizza and pepperoni buns  which are still good.  I can remember when Johnny Colasessano’s beer joint (long gone) starting selling pizzas and then pepperoni buns.  Ruth picked up some pepperoni buns and a pizza for us to eat at their place when we got in.

Saturday was Ruth's birthday party but before it, we stopped for one of my favorite meals for brunch – Marion County hot dogs from Woody’s Restaurant where they come with mild, medium, or spicy hot dog sauce (not called chili), mustard, and onions for $2.50.  For most of my life, these were the only toppings but they now offer slaw, kraut and nacho cheese. 

Before the party, we drove around Fairmont for what is also likely to be my last time.  When I was growing up in the 50’s, Fairmont was a bustling town of 29,000 with a vibrant downtown (no empty buildings), a half dozen major industries and many operating coal mines. The area now has just one of the mines, all of the industries are gone, and the population is down to 18,000 (Marion County from 72,000 down to 56,000) – it’s sad to see that the town of my childhood is dying.  In the same time Maryville, TN has gone from 8,000 to 32,000 (14,000 to 32,000 since I’ve lived here).  Blount County has gone from 55,000 to 142,000 since 1950.

I grew up in a suburb community of Fairmont called Bellview and this is the house where I spent the first 16 years of my life - new siding and new porch, otherwise the same.

Ruth’s son, DIL, and grandkids made her birthday party happen and they did a magnificent job with the planning, food and decorations.  Here is the birthday girl with her husband, a guest, and Bev.  

Ruth, Bev, and me.

The party was especially fun for me as I got to see a few other cousins for the first time in years.

While we traveled, our neighbor, Steve, mowed our grass and the dogs lined up at the living room window to keep an eye on him.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/18/25 event date