Luray Caverns

We woke up and found that the rest stop we were at was among some beautiful scenery and were pleased to find that this continued as we drove along. The countryside in Virginia is rolling hills, large lakes and lots of trees and hedges, I didn't realise how much I'd missed the smell of 'green' until now and was happy that apart from the road, we were away from concrete finally! At just after midday we stopped at a MacDonalds and I was able to catch up with the gossip back home as I talked to Matt on Skype...once again making him late for dancing...oops lol! We shared our recent congress experiences, ours in New York and his at Bahtuke in London and I managed to get a look round the flat to make sure the pink curtains were still up ;) After an hour he really had to go, but at least we had a good laugh together, cant wait to see him in Cuba!!

From here we made our way on to the Luray Caverns which are the largest in the East of America (there were several other caverns along our way we could have visited but at $23 a shot, we went for these ones!) and apparently the most visited. They were discovered in 1848 by a local tinsmith and are absolutely spectacular! The tour took about an hour and was very interesting, the lady obviously knowing what she was on about and having a passion for the place. The most amazing thing out of all the wonders of the cavern was actually a man made piece...an organ which is wired up to 36 stalactites via a solenoid which taps it to produce the corresponding note being played!! The man who built the organ spent 3 years tapping over 3000 stalactites to find the ones that would reverberate to give the right pitch for his masterpiece of an instrument...they play a programmed piece whilst you are there and the sound is incredible. In fact the guide was telling us that many people choose to get married there in the cavern and have the ceremony in 'the cathedral' with the organ playing....WOW talk about an awesome venue!! The last stop on the tour was at yet another memorial plaque (the Americans are a little obsessed with memorials I think, every highway is a memorial for something/someone as are most public buildings!) which we were told they decided to put in the caverns as it was the most visited place in the region and therefore the most people would see it...they didnt think to put it above ground where you could see it for free of course...!! After climbing out of the caverns and through the gift shop (surprise surprise!) we had something to eat before heading off again to do a few more miles before bed.