Recap: Bridge Day 2009 - Day 1
Off to Fayetteville, WV
Friday, Oct. 16th Dustin and I made the trek from Yankee Lake, OH to Fayetteville, WV. Though the weather was a little nasty, rainy and cold, it was still a beautiful ride through the mountains. All of the trees were turning bright orange, yellow and red. The total driving time only ended up being about four and a half hours long.
Bad Food
We stopped in Summersville, just north of Fayetteville, and grabbed a quick lunch at Applebees. I have to admit, it was probably one of the most tasteless burger and fries that I ever had. The onion rings were okay, but super greasy. At least I was less hungry when we left…
Arrival
From there we rolled on to Fayetteville and arrived at the New River Gorge Visitor Center at 1:30pm. There was a light mist in the air and the temperature was a bearable 42 degrees Fahrenheit. Visitors were pulling in and the lot was crowded, signs of the day to come.
First Sighting
Dustin and I walked down the long stairs to the lookout point. Here we got our first glimpse of the magnificent New River Gorge Bridge. Until that point I had only seen the top of it as our family drove over on our way to Myrtle Beach. The reason this bridge stuck in my mind all of these years was the fact that my mother would always freak out as we went across. My mom is a little terrified of bridges, barriers and the like :)
The New River Gorge Bridge is 876ft high at its middle. That’s where the jumpers would be leaping from. As I gazed upon it I became a little woozy. For myself, I knew that there would be a lot of fear to conquer before I could get my legs to throttle me from that ledge! Maybe one day…
Media Meeting and Tasting
After perusing the information center and getting some ice cream, we made our way down the road to Smokey’s on the Gorge. This is where the media meeting took place at 4pm. We signed in and received our media passes, wrist bands, and binder of information. There was a crowd of around 30 people when the meeting began.
Ci
ndy Dragan gave the introductions and laid the ground for Bridge Day 2009. We also got security information from local law enforcement, learned that we could take a boat out on the river and shoot some video, and were given the details on Bridge Day’s move to go digital.
Bridge Day goes Digital
Pat Strader of Matterhorn Marketing explained that there would be a team of photographers and videographers capturing the days events and posting them online. There was a constant feed on Twitter where you could view the images, links to blog posts, and ask questions using the hashtag #bridgeday. They also encouraged everyone to attach #bridgeday to all of their own photo, video and blog posts so that they could be shared with the community. Traventure Man took advantage of this and we posted several photos and links to blog posts with the accompanying #bridgeday hashtag. It was really fun!
From all accounts Bridge Day’s move to go digital was a success. I’m sure next years event will take the online interactivity to a whole new level!
Sleep!
After mingling and getting some food, we retired to our hotel in Beckley, WV. It was a beautiful Holiday Inn just off of the freeway, chalked full of amenities like a gym, pool, bar, and restaurant. We didn’t have much time to take advantage of them, but our room was very neat and clean. We unpacked all of the gear and prepped everything for Bridge Day. I wanted to keep everything as compact and carryable as possible.
We finally got to bed around 11pm. Bridge Day 2009 would start for us at 4am sharp! Zzzz Zzzz Zzzz
