On Friday evening, Oct. 1st, the night before the “October Sky” Festival in Coalwood, West Virginia with Homer Hickam and the other “Rocket Boys” of book and movie fame, Homer & Linda Hickam, and Randy Stripling (the actor who played Leon Bolden in the movie “October Sky”), came by the Elkhorn Inn & Thrilled our guests! It is always a joy when they come by the Inn, and Homer was kind enough to sign his many books that we have in the Elkhorn Inn’s Gift Shop: http://store.elkhorninnwv.com – including some rare First Editions!

 

Homer Hickam, Dan Clark, & Elkhorn Inn Guests




Dan Clark & Randy Stripling





Elisse & Dan Clark, Randy Stripling, Linda & Homer Hickam



Homer Hickam & Elkhorn Inn Guests



The Elkhorn Inn & Theatre has recently had some truly wonderful media coverage, including
Rail cuisine served up in Landgraff by Wilson Butt in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph,
a wonderful 2-page, full-color article in the October issue of WV Living Magazine: http://wvlivingmagazine.com/current.htm 
and a glorious, 5-page full-color feature by Bruce Ingram, in WV South Magazine:
 

Our other fun this week came with festooning the Inn for fall, with my giant table centerpiece of pumpkins, gourds, & cattails from our ATV trips, our little pumpkin plates & bowls and leaf place mats, and festive Halloween tinsel hanging from the dining room chandelier!
 The piesta de resistance, however, was “Decor Dan’s”  Annual Inflating of Elisse’s Fall Decorations, which enable me to refer to myself as THE “Appalachian Martha Stewart of Inflatable Decor”! Dan, with much gnashing of teeth and his trusty patch kit & drill by his side, managed to get them all blown up, screwed down, & lit up large, and so even when all the pretty leaves are gone, the Elkhorn Inn will still have glow-in-the-dark “curb appeal”!  
Part of the Autumn Decor at the Elkhorn Inn

Yes, I may finally have gone a little over the top in the inflatable decor department, but eBay ever has a wealth of inflatables at my disposable, many from people downsizing their collections, and this season I was lured by a bevy of inflatables that were truly irresistible: Our new Hunting Snowman, stacks of pumpkins, & Jack O’Lantern Ghosts, to add to our tractor-riding scarecrow & ghoul archway! And just you wait ’til December! 😉

I then took what I think is THE cutest pet photo, bar none:
“Pitty & Kitty, Asleep In Their Box”:

Have a happy, festive, leaf-peeping fall!