Day Trip - Day 1 continued

Here are a few pictures from the town of Luray, Virginia. Don't hesitate to stop here if you get the chance!

Here is a bit of the Luray Caverns property. This is beautifully maintained.

I also had another camera in the caverns yesterday. The camera had a bigger lens, so some of the phots came out a little better. The most amazing thing to me is the depth of interest (new term). You can keep looking deeper and deeper into a scene and see more and more. You can also look closer and closer and keep seing more. See below.

Road Trip - Day 2

When you are on a big road (like Interstate 81)  you are really tempted to stay on the cruise control and just go. You have to stop along the way, though. Just take a side road that promises something unusual and follow your nose. A case in point below. Off I-81 is a sign pointing to Natural Bridge, Virginia. On land once owned by Thomas Jefferson is a really beautiful natural stone bridge, along with a variety of other natural features.

On the way down to the level of the stream that passes through the bridge is a 1600 year old tree (arbor vitae). These trees are beautiful. This one died in 1980 or so, after a long life. It grew very slowly (the estimate is 30 years per inch of trunk size).

A tribe of Indians (Monacans) once lived in the area. There is a demonstration village here. Sometimes there are some dancers and a native life show.

About 50 feet above the level of the stream is the "Lost River". This is a stream running through the cliff above the stream, completely enclosed until heard and excavated.

 There is a fair bit of wildlife in the area. We saw this turtle and a fat snake sunning on their separate rocks.

Follow the trail all the way to the end and find the "Lacey Falls", a multi-tiered, beautiful, but kind of dry waterfall.

Don't forget to stop and take a picture of the famous FoamHenge along the way.

Later in the day we went through two sets of thunderstorms, both of which were enough to slow traffic from 75 to 40. They forced us to put the flashers on. Fortunately, no one cracked up during these miseries. There were a bunch of bikers with camping gear that were not having a good time, however!

So far we are finding hotels for a decent price. They seem to be clean and relatively new. They have wireless (therefore these entries). Not bad!

Road Trip - Day 1

We're making this a 5 day trip. We'll average around 5-6 hours a day and take breaks when there is something to see. Today was full of observations:

• Route 78 has no pee stops - ouch
• Route 81 is better that way
• Favorite sight - a beautiful dark green corn field next to a golden field of wheat
• There are a lot of Civil War battlefields - we stopped at none (Antietam was close, but we were aimed toward Luray Caverns)
• Too many trucks are on the road. They clog things up a lot, along with idiots in cars. Why is my road crowded?
  
• Luray, Virginia is a nice small town. We were there a short time for lunch, but noticed how clean and presentable it was. It is the kind of town that America was filled with prior to the advent of the mall. It has small businesses along a main street. There is a stream going through town, with garden spots along the bank. There is a farmer's market. You can get barbecue here (we did for lunch). It was kind of pretty and normal.
• Luray Caverns is huge! We walked 1 1/2 miles through the Caverns, and there was more than we saw. This is one of the most impressive caves we have seen - not that we have seen all that many. Here are a few pictures.
• Hot as hell, though. We left 70 in Flemington at 7:30AM and here it was 93. Austin is reported to be over 100.

  

  

There is still a lot of running (and dripping) water in this cave. There are a couple of pools that have beautiful reflections. My photos don't do it justice. The flash disrupts the image by showing through to the bottom of the pool.

Road Trip!

There's going to be a road trip starting tomorrow! E & I will drive down to Austin, Texas, where our daughter has just moved. This should be a classic - 5 days down, stopping in Luray, Knoxville, Memphis, and Sulphur Springs.We'll have side trips to

• Luray Caverns
• Jackson,Tennessee to visit my Mom's 80+ year old sister
• Hot Springs, Arkansas and maybe to the Crater of Diamonds to try our luck
• Beale Street in Memphis
• and more

We'll spend some time down in Austin, then come back via Florida (to see grad school buds) and up the East Coast. ROAD TRIP!!!! Both of us are looking forward to it. We'll keep you up to date along the way when we can get net.

Father's Day

Had a chance to go in to NYC to visit Lauren on Father's Day. She has an apartment now, up near Columbia. It is a much nicer part of town than I used to think. So we have been dragging over stuff from her room at home to the new place. No exception on Father's Day. A vanload of stuff came over with me. Furniture, clothes, shoes, etc., it did'nt seem too much like a holiday carting all that crap.

Anyway, once we were done unloading we drove downtown to look for parking so we could go to the International Day Festival. That was a pain, parking is terrible down around 50th Street or so. After a half hour we got to park and go see the festival. This is mainly an excuse to have a bunch of booths to sell stuff, accompanied by mostly Italian food stands. Every couple of blocks there is a bit of strangeness, but not too often. It was a hot summer day and there were a ton of people out there.

Lots of interesting people watching! This poor guy had about an acre of rugs all spread out for sale. They looked really good. There was a pile in the middle that people could look through, too. One trick he missed, though. There was no cover over the booth!

A little later in the day we were forced under cover when the rain came pouring down. First I was fascinated to see the umbrella sales guy come in under cover, right along with his umbrella and wares. Then, as we passed back by the rug merchant we saw his entire inventory being rolled up wet. What a misery!