After we got back from Ethiopia, my fathers started talking about all of the
other places that they had been too. They ended up getting out an old map
that papa’s mom used to hang in her home office. They hung it in the
basement, and each of them picked a color of stickers, and started marking
where they had been to. My dad has been to several states, but my papa’s
stickers were all over that map. They realized that there were not many
states left that he hadn’t been to yet. The closest one was Pennsylvania,
but he decided to make a trip to West Virginia instead. He and my dad wanted
to go down there for their anniversary, because it was really close to that
museum in Virginia where they had first gotten to know each other. I went on
the trip to West Virginia too, but I was 8 years old already, so I could
take care of myself a little without too much help. I let them spend some
time together without me. I even went to a puppet show next door to the bed
and breakfast alone. We only spent one night there, and then we went back
home, because I had to go to school on Monday.
