June 12th - Done with the South

Our final destination today was Gettysburg. On the way we decided to stop at the Luray Caverns.  To get there we actually drove through the Shenandoah National park and through a part of the Blue Ridge Mountains – places that I had heard of but never thought I would visit.

 Luray Caverns was fascinating. You go down about 4 flights and then you are in a series of caverns of stalagmites and stalactites. As you go through, you wind your way down and are eventually 160 feet underground.  There were shallow pools of water, huge stalactites, and an actual organ. Years ago some guy hooked up an organ that actually tapped different stalactites to create musical notes.  The tour was enjoyable and would have been so much better without the screaming babies. There was a couple there with a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a set of triplets about 8 months old (I would have just killed myself). The mother had one baby on her back and one in her arms. The father had the other one and he was useless in terms of help. The grandmother was watching the older two kids. When one baby stopped howling, the next one started. They stayed to the back of the tour group and I stayed in the front, but, dang.  Sometimes you should just wait in the car.

On our way to Luray we drove through Chancellorsville, the location of another major Civil War battle. As we drove through the town there was an historical marker by the side of the road indicating where Stonewall Jackson was wounded. We saw signs for Manassas and Fredericksburg. We also passed several small battlefields that we had never heard of.  It seems like a lot of the war was centered in Virginia, probably because Robert E. Lee led the Virginia army.

I am glad to be finally out of the South. It was just too weird for me. Florida was fine. It was like being anywhere else that I am used to. It didn't feel like the South. But some of the other states, wow.  Don’t get me wrong, people were nice. But the areas we saw were so rural and empty. There were police everywhere. All the news people were fat with big hair. It was just so different. And clinging to the confederate stuff…these people will never let that go.