Luray Caverns
It was my birthday weekend, and I was asked “So what would you like to do this weekend?” Hmm, I wanted to go someplace and take pictures, so I had to think of a place that’s got something worth taking pictures of. I could go for a drive out into the countryside, to the shore? The mountains? Another city? Wait, go back… the mountains you say? We haven’t been in a mountainy area for a couple years now. I grew up in Upstate NY and spent most of my adult years in Vermont, so “mountains” is something I’m very familiar with, and I think that’s where I’d like to go.
The Blue Ridge and Appalachians are only about an hour or so away from me, but I just want to day-trip something without driving too far into it, and having to rent a room somewhere. A drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway would be great for photos, but it can get slow with traffic on sunny autumnal weekends and we’d most likely need a place to overnight – the ability to go at your own pace is a benefit of growing older, as your “F-It Bucket” gets bigger. You know what I’m talking about, “I would probably need to get up really early to get out there, and would not want to ride those unfamiliar country roads home after dark, but do I WanT to do that today?” (mimes tossing something over shoulder into an imaginary bucket) “F it!”
As we drive up 64, northwest from Richmond, the cityscapes and suburbs fall away from the rearview mirror and the horizon starts to get taller. The roads are no longer flat and straight but becoming hilly and twisty. We start to climb higher in elevation and there is a thick fog, and we’re driving through twisty foggy roads. No one can see a damned thing but there aren’t that many people out here so there’s no hurry. It was honestly one of the more enjoyable drives we’ve been on since leaving Vermont. It’s easy to underestimate the joys in driving roads with twists and turns, rising and falling, like a roller coaster trailing into a forest until you move to a place where it’s mostly city driving.
We put together a picnic lunch and met up with a friend for wine and picnic at a vineyard somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley. I forget the name of the place, but it’s very not-polished. More of a personal farm with three friendly housecats wandering around, and some less-than-friendly chickens wandering around. Wisteria Farm and Vineyard, that’s the place! Just remembered. Anyway, I like not-polished, personally. So many vineyards are a very polished, expensive “wedding venue with grapes” sort of feel. There are a lot of those around here. I like small and rustic – some of my best experiences have involved sitting with the owner in a tasting room, a few yards from their personal house, while their dog slept on the floor next to us. No dogs here, but the cats let me pet their bellies, chickens pecked at our ankles. I guess I really should be more annoyed at roving gangs of chickens using their peckers aggressively at tourists trying to have a pastoral lunch, but, you know… (gestures throwing something into an imaginary bucket).
The wine was really good, our friend contributed some sort of cookies that I was positively bonkers about. I wish I could remember what they were, but it’s probably for the best that I do not. After drinks and picnic we drive up to a place called Luray Caverns, in Luray, Virginia. I’ve been wanting to check this place out, it’s a mix of touristy with educational school-trip destinationy. No school trips today, just a few grown-ups. Wasn’t crowded, but it was pretty hot outside. Hot and sunny in late September – not a thing I experienced in Vermont, and I really don’t hate it.
We started by walking the hedge maze that they keep. My partner loves mazes, and anytime there’s a hedge maze or a corn maze someplace she positively won’t take “No” for an answer. So we sweated it up in the hedge maze for about an hour, then walked past these random museums they have on site – I think one was about the history of the region and another was a collection of antique cars or something, nearly every rural attraction I’ve been to always seems to have a section that could just be labelled “Some Other Random Shit.” The hedge maze was our only “Other Random Shit” we had time for, so we headed over to the caverns entrance.
The caverns were discovered in 1878 and commercialized maybe 20 years later. The caverns feature an impressive array of columns and stalagmites and stalagmites and mirror pools and flowstones and there’s even a pipe organ of sorts, placed in a large enclosed chamber and making music from strikers hitting various sized stalagmites to produce tones.
My partner was anxious to see this organ. When she was younger she had somehow acquired a record album of “The Great Stalagpipe Organ” recordings, and it wasn’t until I suggested this trip that she realized this was the place her record album was about. So we set aside plenty of time for her to enjoy this part of the tour. The organ in in a chamber referred to as The Grand Hall, and is listed in the Guinness Book of world Records as the world’s largest musical instrument. The organ would automatically play a pre-programmed tune every 15 minutes or so, when asked if anyone ever plays it for real I was informed “Yeah, but only once every ten years.” This seems like an oddly specific amount of time between live playings of the organ, I didn’t ask “Why” but I really want to know “Why.” I can get that they might want to limit use of the instrument to minimize wear and tear but why, specifically, every ten years? Is there a calendar they follow? Is it a grand event that 1%’ers buy extraordinarily expensive tickets to? Is it the same organist playing and, if so, how friggin’ OLD are they?
The Byrd Theater is my favorite theater in town, and it boasts an organ built into the auditorium. THEY play it every Saturday. So yeah – nice organ, Luray, but I guess you’re not quite The Byrd, huh? I guess I can’t judge too harshly, Hammond Castle in Gloucester, MA (locally pronounced “GLAW-stah” in case you were wondering) has an impressive pipe organ built into its great hall, but nobody plays THAT one ever! I’m not sure if they know if it even works or not.
All throwing of organ-related shade aside, the caverns were quite impressive. There is a staggering amount of mineral formations in there. Imagine making a grilled cheese sandwich with WAY too much cheese, and then pulling the sandwich partially apart with all the gooey cheese stretching from bread to bread – THAT amount of stalag’itude! The section of the caverns designated for visitation is completely built-up. There is brick pavement that serves as the walking path, and the entire place is wired for electricity. Thousands and thousands of people have been through here the past 150 years. Our friend said that there are plenty of other caves, still living caves that aren’t quite as built-up as this one, all over the region, that can be easily found and explored.
I had two cameras with me. I packed my Canon A-1 loaded with Ilford 3200-speed film to get some grainy B&W regardless of the lack of available light, as well as a small pocket camera loaded with color film for all other shooting. First shot in the caverns and the shutter wouldn’t fire. “Dead battery? Really? Now??” So this foiled my plans for a day of photography, in the cavern at least. I find out later that the Canon’s battery wasn’t dead, nor were the other two brand new batteries I tried in it. Something in the electronic shutter just decided to crap out. Shame, it was a nice camera. Sure, I could drive to Charlottesville to get it repaired (the closest camera shop with technicians), but that would likely cost twice as much as just buying another A-1 on eBay. To be honest, I liked this camera but didn’t really use it all that much. I’ll probably sell it for parts rather than repair or replace.
I shot some of the color film in the caverns but, for the most part, I just used my cell phone like every other ordinary person, wishing I had an actual camera to work with. Oh! Here’s a thought! I could also just enjoy the moment for that moment, rather than treating it as a background subject in some photo project!
Whatever – you’re not going to shame me because I love photography! I only partially travelled here to enjoy the majesty of ancient natural beauty. My main interest is finding creating photographs in everything my eyes land upon. Why’s eva’body gotta shame people taking pictures? I’ll grant that the majority of people snapping pics are only fishing for “Likes” on their InstaTubes and their FaceyToks, but so what? What do YOU do for fun that gives you a sense of validation? Are you proud of everything you said and did when you were 17? No way! I SUCKED at 17!!
I seem to easily trail off into tangents today, I think that’s part of getting older also. “Keeping focus” is something else that gets tossed into the F***-It Bucket when it suits me.
