News Coverage - The Governor's Visit to Grafton

I have a lot to catch up on, but I'll start with the news:

• WBOY: New Businesses Open in Grafton
  We get a tiny bit of a mention:

"After the ribbon cutting, Manchin took took a walking tour of downtown Grafton to check out several of the town's new businesses.

He stopped by the Grafton 123 Coffee Shop, which opened a couple months ago, and a new Cajun restaurant that will open next week.

Manchin says he is encouraged by the investment he sees in communities like Grafton."

For the record: We've been open for more than 9 months now. :)

You can click to watch the video at that link, too.

• The Times West Virginian (Fairmont): Governor Finds Plenty to Like During Grafton Visit

His visit made the front page of the paper. Click here for a link to the picture.

• We made the front page of the Dominion Post (Morgantown), too, but there is no open link because everything is viewed by subscription to their site.

Meghan King Johnson

Meghan King Johnson has a beautiful voice.
It's taken me quite some time to post these pictures, but only because we've been busy (yay!).

If you didn't see Meghan last week, I'm sorry you missed it.
However, you're in luck:
We liked it so much, we wanted to do it again.

March 7 beginning at 7pm, Meghan has agreed to play for us again.
Don't miss it this time; it'll be worth it.

My favorite parts were the sing-along songs ;)

Caboose View: Snow!

This is what I'm talking about:

Tonight is Railroad Night

Remember:

7:00pm
Railroad Enthusiasts

See you here.

Need more details? Here's the link to the original post.

Live Music: Meghan King Johnson

Meghan King Johnson will be playing for us on Saturday January 31 starting at 7pm.

You can take a listen over at her My Space page (http://www.myspace.com/meghankingjohnson).

A perfect winter evening thing to do: relax and listen to Meghan's clear voice and unique musical view in the cozy comfort of The 123.

See you soon!

New Year's Wish

This is a wonderful New Year's Wish from Sam Simoes over at the Taylor County Blog Project:

"May in 2009 we experience the sense of community brought together by the desire of making Taylor County a place where fond memories are met with a vision for the future."

Thanks, Sam.
I second that wish.

Happy New Year to All!

Granny Sue

Thursday October 30, right after trick-or-treating, Granny Sue came to visit.
The Mountain Statesman covered it very well; I'll try to remember to post a link when it's available online.
Granny Sue covered it very well on her blog: Check it out here.

It was a chilly evening with a great turn-out; there were lots of little ghosts and goblins running around.

Thank you, Granny Sue!

Taylor Made

My Taylor Made pictures aren't the best.
I've got a couple here that are worth posting:




But I don't have pictures of the people dancing or the crowd spread out all the way across the parking lot and Main St and all the way over to the bank.
I don't have pictures of The 123 with a constant line out the front door.
I don't have pictures of the enjoyment of the day.
But it was a great day for Taylor County.
And the sun came out!

Thanks Taylor Made!
And Thank You to all the people who made this happen!

Taylor Made

Wow.
The Taylor Made concert on Saturday was magnificent!

The best part:
On such short notice, everyone pulled together to make it happen.
We had a great turnout (300-500 people) and the music was well worth it.

I'll post pictures soon.

Thank you!

Taylor Made Comes Home!

Taylor Made -Country Music Superstars- will take downtown Grafton for a ride!

On Saturday October 25 Grafton will rock to the sounds of Taylor Made, a country chart-climbing band whose roots extend to a back porch here in Taylor County.

What: A Good Time with some Great Music!

When: 3:00pm Saturday October 25

Where: Main Street in downtown Grafton - the City of Grafton property beside The Grafton 123 House of Coffee.

How Much: FREE.
Yes, really, I said FREE. The local trio -Brian Duckworth, Wendy Williams, & Greg Duckworth- are pleased to have an opportunity to bring their talent back to the community where it all began. There are, however, costs associated with the sound, stage, additional musicians, & transportation. Several local businesses have come together to share expenses, so donations will be accepted.

Why: Taylor County is proud of Taylor Made's success!
This is the perfect opportunity to showcase our hometown celebrities, the great strides that downtown Grafton has made recently (the new sidewalks and streetlamps look great, don't they?), and the growth of Taylor County!

Thanks for coming out to this Homecoming Celebration!

See you Saturday!


*cross-posted at http://www.taylorcountywestvirginia.blogspot.com/ and http://www.mkstover.com/

Taylor County Facts at the TC Blog

I have been posting the Taylor County Fact of the Day over at the Taylor County Blog. Go here to see all the 'Facts' in reverse chronological order.

Live Music this Saturday Night

Kevin Ford will be performing at The 123 beginning at 7pm on Saturday October 18, 2008.

More details to come....

Taylor County Facts

Taylor County Fact #1
Tygart Dam is 1,921 feet long, making it longer than Hoover Dam (Hoover Dam is still taller).


I was speaking with a prominent citizen of Taylor County Saturday night and he was surprised to learn that this is a fact. His surpirse has prompted me to start The Taylor County Fact of the Day. We have a ton of interesting, historical, unique attractions in Taylor County and I want to share some of them. There's enough to last a long, long time.

Maybe I should post these on the Taylor County site...

Tourism

Blogger's photo upload isn't working right now, so this post isn't what I thought it was....

Over at MKStover.com, I've been posting about my trip to Oregon.
I went to Oregon for a Coffee Business/Barista Training and took a gazillion pictures of neat things.
Mainly, I was interested in the little town and its history and attractions because Grafton has the potential to be a major tourist attraction (International Mother's Day Shrine, The B&O Railroad Heritage Center, Tygart Lake, Grafton National Cemetery, The West Virginia National Cemetery, and more - see The Taylor County West Virginia site for links and info) and it's good to see other places who have made that potential a reality. Grafton has made major strides towards realizing this economic foundation and I like to think I'm helping it along a little bit.
As a matter of fact, I've been posting so much about the little Oregon town that I have not even touched on the Coffee side of the trip; I plan to, but not in depth. Instead, you'll have to visit us when we open and taste for yourself.

Four Columns

Here are the pictures with all four columns:



My trusty old mini-van sits quietly in the parking lot.
I haven't been driving it a whole lot because it only gets about 18 miles (20 highway) to the gallon. At $4/gallon, that doesn't get me very far.
I'm fortunate to have a little-bitty car that gets almost 35miles/gallon, so my van only gets used when I need a truck because, although it only get 18mpg, PC's truck gets even less.








I can't wait to get the roof on this!

Front Door - Overhang Support Columns

Here's where I get to show you how those squares of concrete with anchor bolts are put to use.

PC stood these columns Saturday morning in the rain. He was happy to get them out of our garage and we are both excited about more visible progress (my interior progress is much slower, though not quite invisible - I'll tell you more about inside later this week).

Here's the first one standing:



He had the base plates of each column lined up perfectly on the trailer so that he could pull them over the edge and line them up exactly where they needed to be to get the anchor bolts in place before standing them.



Perfect fit!
PC did a great job planning everything out (I'm not surprised; he's very good at this type of thing).








Yep, they all four went up, but these are all the pictures for today. May is a very busy month and I have a million other things I have to get done today - including a couple of hours of sanding at The 123.

Check out the TaylorCountyWestVirginia.blogspot.com to see a sampling of the international attention Grafton has been getting and why May is so busy - and there's lots more to come!