If you caught my blog post yesterday, you'll know that I'm desperately trying to get caught up with some 2022 events that I never got around to blogging about, particularly some of the guest speakers of the monthly St. Albans Paranormal Discussion Group! 

September was a REALLY hard month. With my mom's health quickly going down hill, she was admitted to the hospital, and it was soon apparent that she wasn't coming home. She passed away on September 24th, and a few days later, as a much needed distraction, I forced myself to pull it together and attend that month's presentation by Joe Perdue on everything Bigfoot in West Virginia and surrounding areas. 

Joe has been researching and investigating Bigfoot for quite awhile now, and is one of the premier experts on the subject in our area. He's been on several television shows and documentaries, and is one of the main guys behind Wild and Weird West Virginia and the West Virginia High Strangeness Collective (which actually just one the 2022 Best Bigfoot Researcher/Research Team from www.bigfootforums.com!). 

He brought with him a collection of casts, some tools of the trade, and plenty of stories from his own field research. It's always a pleasure to hear Joe Speak, as he's not only super knowledgeable about his topic of interest, but obviously passionate about it as well. His larger than life personality and hilarious story-telling style kept the group's attention throughout the entire presentation, and well after as well. Joe even had a few giveaways to share, and made one kid's day for sure. 

Bigfoot and cryptozoology in general is one of those topics that I enjoy, but since I've always concentrated my own research on ghosts and hauntings, I'm really enjoying learning about now, and Joe is an absolute awesome resource. I've listened to the Wild and Weird WV podcast since pretty much the beginning, and try to follow the team's work as much as possible. And, any time I can get the chance to see Joe speak in person, I like to be there. It was nice to get the opportunity so close to home...and it worked. For a few hours, the pain of losing my mom and the stress of preparing for a funeral melted away and I was able to spend an evening doing what I love best---learning about the paranormal field with those who share those interests.