Date: 2003-07-29
From: Luray, Va.

To: Luray, Va.
Miles today: 0.0

Date: 7.29.03Location: Luray, Va.Mileage: 0- zero day   Well, to celebrate me hitting 500 miles day after tomorrow, and Bumpkinhitting 1000 miles in about a week, we wanted to do something special.Aftermuch debate, we decided to take the afternoon and go see the LurayCaverns.I have never been to any caverns at all, and these are said to bespectacular, so I was really excited! After a quick breakfast, we headedoff down the road. It was a mile from our hotel....a long walk, but wethought we could handle it! :)   If you have never been in a cave before, I seriously doubt that I candoit justice! However, I will give it a shot. The first thing I noticed isthat it was not at all claustrophobic! I was a little concerned aboutthis,but the caverns themselves are so huge, that one does not get the feelingthat you are 150 feet underground. From the moment you start descendingtheramp, the air grows cool and wet, and you immediately find yourself thrustinto a world that looks like it came out of a science fiction movie. Greatcolumns of melting rock flow from the ceiling to the floor, or, stranglyenough, from the floor to the ceiling! They look like the rivulets of waxthat run down chianti bottles in Italian restaurants, and their colorsrangefrom rust to white.Many of the formations appear to have ben dipped in frosting, and after anhour of 'Krispy Kreme' jokes, Bumpkin and I could have both jumped overtherailing to taste them! :)   Even the theme-park atmosphere with its 'no touching the formations'signs and carefully placed spot lights could not take away from themagnificence of the caverns. At one point, there is a pool that is socrystal clear that it reflects perfectly the ceiling above it. It doesn'tseem so special til you realize that the room you are looking at is halfwater! And you cannot even see the water til you bend down and get eyelevel with it! It is truly remarkable!   My favorite part of the caverns, though, was the stalagtite organ. Backin the 50's, the caverns allowed a man to come in and build an organ usingthe formations as pipes. They gave us a small, quiet sampling of themusicthat it makes. The sound it produces is eerie and soulfull, and I canjustimagine it filling the caverns with its music.   After the tour guide congratulated us on completing the 1 1/4 milewalk,:), we headed over to the maze. This was another first for me, as I hadnever been in a garden maze before. The hedges were eight feet tall, andthe maze itself was more than two acres big. Bumpkin and I laughed ourwaythrough as we ran into deadend after deadend. Finally, we emergedunscathedand declared our afternoon complete. Town chores filled the rest of the day, and before we realized it, itwastime for bed. We are leaving early in the morning for a two-day canoetripthat will continue taking us North. One final note....our friend Submansummited Mt. Katahdin yesterday morning at 9:30 making him the first ofourgroup to complete the AT. I am so proud of him!! Several more of ourfriends, Dimples and A-Train are just days behind him. Congratulations tothem all!! I am so proud to know these people!Love, Anna aka Mud Buttwww.trailjournals.com------------------------------Local access to PocketMail mobilee-mail now available in Europe, NorthAmerica & Australia http://www.pocketmail.com