On August 21, I took a day trip to Luray, Virginia, with the DADA group.
We arrived separately, so I spent the morning snarfing on my way there. I targeted Front Royal, a town I’d been to a few times before for work, though I’d never noticed any of the historical markers. I realized I needed gas for Love immediately, so I immediately took the first exit with a gas station on the sign. What a surprise to find my first snarf of the day–a bonus snarf–at the gas station I’d randomly chosen! There were some great snarfs after that and a few hard ones to find as well. I kept passing a family who were following the Civil War Trail route by car; they probably thought I was crazy jumping out, taking a photo with Eeyore, and jumping back in the car. But they were friendly, history-hunters and waved hi to me each time we met (I wasn’t going in chronological order, I was going to ones based on their locations). There was also a moment where Gillian wanted me to ford a river to get to a snarf. Really, Gillian? I tried an alternate location for that snarf and ended up in a town waste disposal (dump) center. Third time was a charm, though, and I finally found it.
One of my favorite finds of the morning wasn’t a snarf at all. There were a few stores in Front Royal–a general store and a market–by the name of Stokes (a fictional town in Maryland where I set a series of stories I write). The general store especially was something Pit (one of my characters) would have LOVED as he’s a Harley boy. I had intended to get all the snarfs out of the way on my way to Luray, but I didn’t have time to even snarf a single Luray snarf before meeting everyone at the caverns. I did, however, manage to stop at a Subway and grab lunch, which I ate on the way.
I hadn’t been to Luray Cavers since elementary school. I remembered four things: 1- the fried eggs, 2- I went on a guided tour, 3- it was COLD!, 4- there was a fudge or ice cream shop next door. Some things have changed–there are additional museums and a new garden maze, and the guided tour has been replaced by an audio tour. And it was a little chilly but not as cold as I’d remembered.
It was such a great experience to see the great caverns again. Pluto’s ghost, the pipe organ, the underground cave, wishing well, and all the other amazing formations. We all soon learned it was more entertaining to listen to the children’s version of the audio recording. It explained things in much more fun ways and in easier-to-remember terms. So for each of the audio stops, I would listen to the kids audio and then I’d listen to the adult one afterward if there were time. I learned a lot and even got a great plot bunny idea. But more important, I had a really fun time sharing these great views with friends.
After the cave, we headed over to the Garden Maze, a new feature at Luray and something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. The idea was to find 4 different goal points within the maze and get a stamp at each one. It was fun but frustrated some. We met a woman and her daughter in the maze who had no idea where she had gone or where she needed to go. We let M’s children lead us, choosing the paths to take. There were little fountains, sculptures, topiary, flags, a fake small cave, and even misleading signs along the way to help us realize when we were going in circles. We made it through in the end without too much trouble (for a while there, we were stuck on a bridge, unable to make it to the big fountain at the center (which could have been a little more impressive, honestly, for the center of a maze). We didn’t run into a sphinx or any blast-ended skrewts, though.
After the hedge maze, I popped into the Car Museum and took a quick walk through it, before joining the group for food in the cafe. We had a nice chat and snack and then broke up–some of us going home, some heading to the car museum, and two of us going to the history museum also on the Luray Cavern grounds.
After that, I snarfed as much as I could in the Luray area before the 8pm concert at the singing tower. I didn’t make it to all of the snarfs, so I’m definitely going to have to do another road trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway next autumn. But I found pretty much all the others that I’d intended to find. My favorite was this little cemetery on the edge of the mountains. What a beautiful spot.
The Singing Tower was definitely worth sticking around for. It was a beautiful bell concert and a variety of different songs (classical, hymn, polka, Christmas, etc.). It was wonderful watching it slowly get darker and darker around us. And I got to talk to a bunch of nice people who parked beside me in the little area across from the old tower.
In all, it was a great day trip.