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Hey There!
I wanted to give you all a heads up about an upcoming West Virginia Event – The Almost Heaven BBQ Bash. You’ll forgive me if I tell you it should be a crazy good time!
I needed forgiveness for that sentence because this BBQ festival is being held in a place that (strangely) holds some awesome memories for me – the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.
Yupp. You read that right. BBQ at an insane asylum.
Now, if I were you right about now I’d be wondering how an insane asylum is on my list of fun memories, and I can’t blame you.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (TALA) is one of the first WV trips I went on. Way back in high school, my WV Tourism and Hospitality class went on a field trip to TALA. We went on both the historical and the supernatural tours.
After that first visit, I was hooked. I went back with friends a few times for their Halloween festivities. (They put on a truly terrifying haunted house and a “Witches Ball” which is basically a metal concert on the front lawn). I even went on an overnight ghost hunt as a first date! (Ya know those early warning signs in relationships you should listen to? Yea, I was never good at reading those . . . )
I love old buildings, and there’s something phenomenal about standing in a place that has spanned years before your life and feeling the energy of that space. It’s breathtaking. But this energy is well, different. The grounds total 666 acres and since TALA operated from 1864 to 1994, it has a lot of dark history. From civil war soldiers to lobotomies, it’s no surprise that ghost hunters from all over have come to meet the former patients.
I’ll let you make up your own mind if you believe in spirits, but either way you should head over to Weston, WV for a beautiful scenic drive to some delicious BBQ, and if you’re in the mood for some history or a haunting check out the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, since you’re in the neighborhood.