I Love Caves! Grand Caverns, VA.

I love caves; they are dark and cool and usually pretty calm.  When Jeff and I first moved to New Jersey, it seemed that we went to lots of caves and caverns on the weekends, especially in Pennsylvania.  They were nice, cool and we learned a lot.

As you may remember, I am not fond of bats.  I am referring to my post from April entitled "It's Kinda Like Camping".  However, even though the cave is a bat's natural habitat, it still doesn't scare me off.  I know that they are an integral part of our ecosystem, but they still creep me out.

Nothing we had seen prior to this trip prepared us for the Grand Caverns in Virginia.  We have passed through Virginia a number of times and seen the signs for the Grand Caverns as well as Luray Caverns but never stopped.  We were always too busy. So glad we have stopped "being busy".

Jeff and I try to split the days fairly evenly between his riding days and my sightseeing days.  It is a little painful for my soul that I can't go sightseeing without him, unless it's a guided tour with minimal walking. I checked out a number of things that I wanted to see near Harrisonburg, Virginia and the Grand Caverns kept popping up on my radar.  I looked into it and the tour was about an hour and a half of walking, but they would allow me to use my cane.  Even though there were quite a few stairs, there weren't too many at one time.  I figured I'd better go for it while I still could.

I am so glad we did this tour.  I understand why Grand Caverns is the #2 show cave in the country (second only to Carlsbad Caverns).  Not only are the caverns exquisite, they have been established so that you can have the cave experience without crawling on your hands and knees or being squished between the walls.  We already knew quite a bit about stalagmites and stalactites, but now we learned about draperies, shields and cave bacon!  I also love anything to do with bacon!

Above: a little slab of cave bacon.

There is a pool that reflects the stalactites above it that looks like the Manhattan skyline.  Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph well.  it is amazing to see.  There is a stalagmite in the middle of one of the rooms that from a distance appears to be George Washington.  Grand Caverns is also known as the oldest show cave in the country.  It has been available for public view since 1806 and was a place for Civil War soldiers from both sides to take their RNR.  Many of them signed one of the walls in the cavern.

The "ghost" of George Washington...not very scary close up.

In the 1800s, dances and soirees were actually held in the section of the cave known as the Grand Ballroom.  There are smaller anterooms adjacent to the ballroom where the women would change into their finery.  The room would be lit with candles, a table with food and drink laid out and the highest levels of society would be invited to these events.  Me, I would get a little claustrophobic in that kind of situation, but the romantic in me loves envisioning it.

The changing room for the Grand Ballroom.

My pictures cannot do justice to the beauty of this cave.  However, the ipad definitely takes better photos in this environment than many of the others in our tour group.

The Bridal Veil is on the right. I think every cave system has at least one of these, lol.

At the end I was tired and struggling to walk, but it was most assuredly worth it.  Amazing natural beauty.

Shenandoah River Valley - Amazing!!!

Jeff wanted to ride the Southern Traverse IMBA epic, located in the amazingly beautiful Shenandoah Valley.  We stayed at the Shenandoah Valley campground which was filled with nice and friendly people and located alongside the Middle River.  They had all the amenities for a non-camper like me, including cable TV.  And best of all...they had bunnies!!!  There were bunnies everywhere!!!

The campground also had tubing along the river, with a nice waterfall at the end.  I didn't go tubing, but it was so nice to walk along the river, seeing the bunnies and squirrels frolicking.  I wished my daughter and her family were there; I know my granddaughter Deanna would go bonkers for the bunnies.  Jeff and I had to Facetime his sister Colleen from the waterfall.  We wanted to share that with her.  If you look close, there is a turtle sunning himself on the log in the middle of the river.

The campground was also close to Staunton, Virginia, the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson, one of our most cerebral presidents.  Jeff and I went on a tour of the Wilson birthplace and his Presidential library and drove around Staunton.  The town had so many buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s in the Federalist style.  I started learning a bit about US architecture and feel a need to learn a lot more.

I have always been fascinated by Wilson, especially as President of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey.  He may have been before his time in that he really was a man of thoughts and not only a politician.  I wonder how he would fare as a politician in today's environment.

We found the cutest art in the middle of Staunton, Virginia.  As we were driving to the Farmer's Market (a weakness of mine) we passed a huge flowerpot and watering can display on the median at an overpass.  It was a garden dedicated to a local woman, Barbara Hunter Grant, absolutely gorgeous and a great surprise in the middle of a commercial district.

There is still so much to see in the Shenandoah Valley, it is on my list of repeat trips. 

Historical Iron and More Iron!

We felt pretty isolated in Pennsylvania; odd since we were so close to our home base of New Jersey.  The campground was so cool, though.  Tall beautiful trees and hardly any other campers.  There was not water at each individual sight, but we were close enough to a spigot to fill up as we needed to.

For me, the best part was that once again, we were actually staying in a historical park; oddly enough, another ironworks.  I have learned so much about iron blast furnaces and can even tell you how "pig iron" got its name. I LOVE HISTORY!!!

We stayed at the Greenwood Furnace State Park.  Our sightseeing was done within the confines of the park because all the history I needed was there!  We saw the iron furnaces, one of which had had a significant portion restored.  We also toured the iron master's house as well as the bookkeeper's.  These are usually the two nicest homes within the ironworks.  Who knew a bookkeeper could be so important?  In the late 1800s the glow from the blast furnaces could be seen for miles around.

If you look close enough, in the picture below, you can see a black snake outside the blacksmith shop.  I don't like snakes, I am very much a sissy that way.

Hmmm, I wonder if I will see more iron forges on our journey?

The First Real Mechanical Problem

Originally this post was going to be about State College, PA and how it probably would not exist were it not for Penn State.  When we left NJ, that was the first place we headed so Jeff could ride Roth Rock (IMBA epic).  We had a beautiful campground, but it made me really nervous.  We had no tv, radio, internet and not even a touch of a cell signal.  Our hot spot couldn't even get us communicating with the outside world.  I wanted to check in with my boss and my daughter so they wouldn't worry if they heard nothing for several days, and I found out pay phones don't really exist any more either; at least not as pay phones.  A calling card is now needed.  I was SOL.

So, since I need the internet to work, we went into State College.  Truly a beautiful college town; hustling and bustling with all the end of the school year parties and activities....and only 20 minutes from our wilderness campground, lol.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time at the Dunkin Donuts getting my work done.  Jeff managed to hook up with some locals for a good ride.  We will be back!

Currently, (as I am waaay behind on my blogging) we are in NW Arkansas.  One of the major goals of this trip was to meet my sister-in-law in Eureka Springs for her vacation.  She is much hardier than I and rode a motorcycle down here from Minneapolis.  A couple days before we were to meet her, the electrical system in the bus started acting up.  We only had power on one side.  Jeff spent a couple days diagnosing where the problem was and it turned out that our inverter/converter had gone bad.  Boy, for once am I glad we paid for the extended warranty!  Those things are expensive.  The catch is that since it's so expensive, an adjuster needs to see it before we can get it fixed.  We are currently guests of the Camping World in Lowell, AR.  They are letting us be hooked up to their facility while we wait for insurance approval.

This is not fun for Jeff. He has been staying with the bus, learning everything he can about the electrical systems.  By the way, did I mention it is in the 90s here?  Due to the electrical problems, the air conditioning is sporadic.  Fortunately, his dad worked for Northern States Power for many years and taught him a thing or two so he is keeping us in as much comfort as possible.

This is also not all that fun for Colleen.  We met here so we could do sightseeing and spend some quality time together; she spent yesterday sitting in the showroom at Camping World with me.  She got smart today and took her motorcycle out into the Ozarks.  I saw some amazing pictures posted on Facebook, so I know she had a good day.

Me?  I'm a spoiled diva.  I had breakfast with Jeff this morning and then convinced him I was well enough to drive to Starbucks to work, and of course drink coffee and sit in the air conditioning.

I am amazed at Jeff's patience and determination in figuring out what was wrong and what needed to be done to fix it.  I could never have the great life I have now without him.

I am indeed grateful for the family I got when I married  Jeff.  His dad has been a huge help to him and his sister keeps me as sane as I will probably ever be.  She is always great company, in good times and bad.  I tend to forget she is Jeff's sister and think she is mine.