> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://herr-klamm.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Marietta, OH - Parkersburg, WV - McConnellsville, OH, 4.7.26 - URL: https://herr-klamm.ghost.io/marietta-oh-parkersburg-wv-mcconnellsville-oh-4-7-26/ - Published: 2026-08-11T10:48:34.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-11T10:48:34.000Z - Author: Stephen Bender Today was the day I discovered my capitalist buccaneer capabilities. For a day or so I felt like a pirate, a rapist of this economically depressed region. I have money now, after five years of effort building a business, along with supplementary legacy resources. I found this out at the Rinky Dink Flea Market in Marietta. In the end you're paying the local market price and putting money in people's pockets and they probably have more than you do, so it's not exploitative, it's just the way things are. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2743.JPG) I learned from two older guys cum colleagial friends there, Walt and Maka, eminent dealers in local and international curiosities, respectively. Over the course of a cumulative six hours, having purchased ample amounts of each of their wares, we got to talking and found we were copacetic. There's time to shoot the shit here. Sure, you do business but if you bother to find out, there's a damn interesting story to some of these antique gangstas. The details however aren't for this venue, because they're sad and this bullshit is morose enough as it is. Besides, it was a eventful and fun enough day anyhow. \[I just type this out in one draft more or less and there's no spell check on this so my apologies for any misspellings\] ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2744.JPG) Early in the afternoon I half-heartedly went in search of a famous haunt of Aaron Burr, whom Gore Vidal repopularized in 1973 in one of his best historical novels. I didn't even go to the island itself. I went to something even better than the thing in itself, the namesake fancy bar at The Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg, WV. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2765.JPG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2759.JPG) As with most fancy locations, it wasn't all that fascinating. Nice ambiance, to be sure. The historic venue was set among modern buildings and parking lots, as this down decided to urban renew it's way into aesthetic irrelvancy. Typically, the best thing at such places is the barkeep and the staff. True again here, as another thing dawned on me. Many American young people, particularly those in customer service – a line of work near and dear to me – are very impressive indeed. Much further along than I was at their ages, something I've noticed for I guess decades now. And if you'd like to know what raises the most towering spite and hatred in me, it is the condescention of the old towards them. It's not some passing romantic entanglement or personal foible of the moment – absurdity covers all these epiphenomena. No, it is the fact that my generation and the Boomers have left the Middle American young an empty husk of a country. And we dare to criticize them across the board? Well who the fuck made the world they grew up in, motherfuckers? Who addicted them to their magic phones? They learned it by watching their parents. Juvinile delinquency is always rooted in adult delinquency, as the lyric goes. These millions of homes where the parents are too busy to train their children respect. It's not their fault they were born too late. I think of my niece and nephew. What are their likely fates on this ecologically suiciding planet in a degenerate imperial technocracy most responsible for said? Is that getting a bit much? Back to the travel stuff in a minute ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2763.JPG) As for the customers, more olds, and sure they're interesting enough, day drinking their vacation away. But they're typically affluent and not so subtly bragging at you in the guise of conversation. "Conversation". In this country it typically amounts to listening to a monologue and getting next to no feedback from the occasional interjection. Far too few have developed a talent for listening, particularly in these kinds of places. As one talks, they're formulating their their next monological thing, not actually responding. So, after a while, you give up and just egg them on. The lime gimlets were outstanding, so there's that. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2754.JPG) By now it was mid afternoon and time to suss out where I'd be spending the night. I'd had my fill of fancy venues in town, so I picked an isolated town in the region and drove there. Doubling back through Marietta and up the Muskingum River I discovered a little gem. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2768.JPG) McConnellsville, OH is situated some 20 miles north of Marietta and like most towns here is sort of down on its luck. One thing I did notice however, is that Biden's infrastructure money is kicking in in Ohio. Half the time the interstates are construction zones, and the towns are refurbishing the downtowns with the good kind of pork barrel spending – the kind that stays in this country, rather than the other side of the planet in service to suicidal war and absurd genocide. You know, America First, but for reals. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2806.JPG) First stop was a fine new restaurant in town, catering to outsiders with money, a brew pub, but well executed with a decent menu at a reasonable price: The Old Bridge Brewing Company. Served up a steak dinner for under $20 and a pretty good Helles knock off to boot. Did the obligatory bourbon, which I find to be tolerable, but too strong for the purpose of prolonged semi-sober drinking. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2787.JPG) My first stop was actually a different bar, the River Queen Tavern, barely visible above underneath the bridge. Here another realization came: people here are extraordinarily caring, even where one would stereotypically least expect it: a bar catering to bikers. It was empty around 4pm. I ordered what there was: a Bud bottle. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2801.JPG) Of course, I was contending with stuff throughout this trip, and I briefly broke down. I went out to smoke and when I returned my half empty bottle had vanished. I intuited what it meant almost immediately. When I asked townsfolk about it, they all said a variation on this them: 'We look out for each other around here'. I may have mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2798.JPG) I traipsed around town some, but I was exhausted, so I found my digs for the evening, the Three Sisters Inn, a modest quiet venue hosted by a wonderful senior lady with an easy manner. I kidded her some and she laughed along, I hope not too much out of obligation. I'd stay here for three evenings, more or less. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2889.JPG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/f6/40f67c96-b14d-4bd9-be24-9e5bc4358f0f/content/images/2026/08/IMG_2897.JPG)