| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
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August 16: Departure, Skyline Caverns, Shendandoah National Park VA, Waynesboro VA (392 miles)
August 17: Booker T. Washington National Historic Monument VA, Knoxville TN (475 miles)
August 18: Oak Ridge TN (American Museum of Science and Energy), Dayton TN (Rhea County Courthouse), Lawrenceburg TN (291 miles)
August 19: Shiloh National Military Park TN, Memphis TN (Beale St; exteriors of The Pyramid, Danny Thomas ALSAC Pavilion, Graceland) (256 miles)
August 20: Memphis TN (Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, National Civil Rights Museum, exterior of the Pink Palace) (57 miles)
August 21: Little Rock AR (Central High School), Hot Springs AR (Mid-America Museum) (246 miles)
August 22: Hot Springs National Park AR (driving tours, Fordyce Baths), Hope AR, Dallas TX (Event Horizon) (347 miles)
August 23: Dallas TX (Silent Wings Museum, Frontiers of Flight Museum, Biblical Arts Center, The Sixth Floor) (130 miles)
August 24: Fort Worth TX (Kimbell Art Museum, Museum of Science and History), Dallas TX (Mimic) (95 miles)
August 25: Austin TX (LBJ Presidential Library), Johnson City TX (LBJ Ranch), San Antonio TX (373 miles)
August 26: San Antonio TX (Edward H. White, Jr., Museum, San Jose Mission, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, Half-Price Books, Witte Museum) (40 miles)
August 27: San Antonio TX (Spanish Governors Palace, Fort Sam Houston Army Medical Department Museum, Fort Sam Houston Museum, The Alamo) (29 miles)
August 28: San Antonio TX (LoneStarCon 2) (0 miles)
August 29: San Antonio TX (LoneStarCon 2) (0 miles)
August 30: San Antonio TX (LoneStarCon 2) (0 miles)
August 31: San Antonio TX (LoneStarCon 2) (0 miles)
September 1: San Antonio TX (LoneStarCon 2, Kull the Conqueror) (0 miles)
September 2: La Porte TX (San Jacinto Monument), Houston TX (274 miles)
September 3: Houston TX (Houston Space Center) (74 miles)
September 4: Avery Island LA (Tabasco Plantation), Thibodeaux LA (353 miles)
September 5: Thibodeaux LA (Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center), New Orleans LA (Jean Lafitte National Historic Park), Baton Rouge LA (191 miles)
September 6: Baton Rouge LA (State Capitol), Vicksburg MS (Vicksburg National Military Park, Historic Vicksburg) (210 miles)
September 7: Biloxi MS (Beauvoir-Jefferson Davis Shrine, Gulf Coast), Mobile AL (270 miles)
September 8: Mobile AL (Fort Gaines, Fort Conde, U. S. S. Alabama), Montgomery AL (249 miles)
September 9: Tuskegee AL (George W. Carver Museum, Tuskegee Institute), Montgomery AL (First White House of the Confederacy, Alabama Archives and History Museum, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Alabama State Capitol, Civil Rights Memorial by Maya Lin), Birmingham AL (198 miles)
September 10: Birmingham AL (Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute), Anniston AL (Anniston Museum of Natural History), Huntsville AL (216 miles)
September 11: Huntsville AL (Space and Rocket Center) (19 miles)
September 12: Chattanooga TN (Chickamauga National Military Park, Lookout Mountain), Calhoun GA (200 miles)
September 13: Marietta GA (Kennesaw Civil War Museum, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park), Atlanta GA (94 miles)
September 14: Atlanta GA (CNN Tour), Warner Robins GA (Museum of Aviation), Vidalia GA (248 miles)
September 15: Vidalia GA, Savannah GA (Savannah History Museum, Fort Pulaski National Monument), Charleston SC (256 miles)
September 16: Charleston SC (Beth Elohim Synagogue, Patriots Point Maritime Museum) (26 miles)
September 17: Charleston SC (Fort Moultrie, Fort Sumter), Pineville NC (251 miles)
September 18: Pineville NC (James K. Polk State Historic Site), Greensboro NC (Greensboro Historical Museum, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, F. W. Woolworth's, Kress) (179 miles)
September 19: Raleigh NC (North Carolina Museum of Art), Kitty Hawk NC (Atlantic Ocean) (318 miles)
September 20: Kitty Hawk NC (Wright Brothers National Memorial), Newport News VA (Mariners Museum) (118 miles)
September 21: Manassas National Battlefield Park VA, Old Bridge NJ (434 miles)
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Well, this is our longest vacation yet, and includes a World Science Fiction Convention, so if I write my usual amount, this log will be enormous. (Working against that is the fact that I won't have a lot of spare time riding buses or trains.) Other than a couple of one-week trips to Canada, and various trips moving from one place to another, this is also our only vacation taken without flying somewhere.
Books we used for this trip include all the pertinent AAA books, The Civil War Sourcebook by Chuck Lawliss, Unauthorized America by Vince Staten, the 1930's WPA guide to America, and a lot of stuff off the World Wide Web, as well as several books specifically about the Civil War.
Note: If you're reading this for advice, let me just warn you that I'm the one who thought a five-week trip covering 6000 miles in 90-to-100-degree heat in a twelve-year-old car during hurricane season sounded like fun.
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We managed to leave almost on time at 8:15 AM. We drove south on the New Jersey Turnpike, crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge at 10:15 AM. Continuing on I-95, we went through the Fort McHenry Tunnel (Baltimore) at 11:30, and reached the I-495 turnoff about noon, right on schedule. We took that to I-66 and got to Front Royal, Virginia, about 1:30 PM. After a quick lunch at Long John Silver's (bleh-who puts deep-fried shrimp in a wrap?), we drove to Skyline Caverns.
We had planned to go to Luray Caverns, but it turns out that Skyline Caverns has (have) the only viewable anthodites in the United States. (Anthodites are a fifth form of cave formation. The four better known ones are stalagmites, stalactites, columns, and flowstone.)
We arrived at Skyline Caverns just as one tour was leaving. No problem-the tours leave every five or ten minutes and take slightly under an hour. You get to hear some of the history and the geology of the caves, though the more interesting facts were in response to people's questions rather than part of the standard explanation. For example, there were holes in the ceiling caused by upward whirlpools when the caverns filled and the water was under pressure, and mineral discoloration that was caused by wave action against the ceiling, though all the standing water we saw was completely still. In fact, the two seepage pools we saw were both 'mirror pools' which looked several feet deep but were in fact only two inches deep. We didn't see two of the three streams because the weather has been so dry that they have (temporarily, one assumes) dried up.
In terms of stalagmites and stalactites (and hence of columns, a joining of the two), Skyline Caverns has nothing on Carlsbad. It is perhaps unfortunate that I saw Carlsbad before seeing any other caves in this country, as they will not seem as impressive now. (I was sick when our group went to the Reed Flute in Guilin, China, but have been to caverns in Israel and in Postojna, Slovenia.)
However, anthodites are different. They look very much like the crystalline structure you often see growing in time-lapse photography, with quill-like extensions. I think they look more like sea anemones or some other sea creature, and Mark said the same thing. The cave that they grew in was sealed with mud and clay and a vacuum had formed which apparently had something to do with their formation. When they were discovered (and hence the vacuum was broken) they stopped growing, at least as far as people can tell. According to the guide, many theories have been proposed as to how these formations occurred, but each has some flaw in it.
An additional advantage of the caverns was their 54-degree temperature. With the temperature outside in the mid 90s (and a heat index of 105), it was definitely a refreshing break!
The caverns are right near the northern end of Skyline Drive (http://www.gateway-va.com/pages/guides/bluridge/parkway.htm), which runs through Shenandoah National Park (http://www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinfo/sh/). (All Eastern National Park Service sites also have a web site at http://www.EasternNational.org.) It also runs parallel to I-81, but while the latter is faster, the former is infinitely more scenic. First of all, it runs along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains overlooking the valley. Second of all, there are no gas stations, restaurants, motels, or anything else, except for a couple of Visitors Centers that sell the basics. And thirdly, wildlife does not wander across I-81 the way it does on Skyline Drive.
For example, we were driving along and I noticed a bear up ahead looking out from behind a rock, obviously getting ready to cross the road. So I said to Mark, 'Bear!' while stopping the car, and sure enough the bear, followed by a cub, ambled her way across the road right in front of us. We also saw several deer (not even counting the dozen or so hanging out by the Visitors Center), and a huge number of butterflies. Unfortunately, another denizen of the park is the gypsy moth, and you can see the results of this in stands of dead trees, and dead branches cocooned by them on other trees.
We bought a Golden Eagle Passport at Shenandoah. This is a pass good for one year for all National Parks, Monuments, etc. It's $50, but since Shenandoah was $10, we figured it would probably pay off. Even if we don't use all of it this trip, we have some places closer to home we can visit. One change from previous trips is that the fees at parks have pretty much doubled (as has the cost of the annual pass). But the fees are good for longer periods. (For example, the $10 Shenandoah fee is good for seven days.) The National Parks Service wants people to spend more time at a park, preferably out of their cars and walking around, than just driving from park to park. We are more in the latter category, I suppose, though out west we did do some hiking. But here many of the places we will be going will be battlefields and such, not parks conducive to long stays.
We arrived at Waynesboro and checked into the West Lawn Motel, which has a 'Heavenly Notions' shop attached (mostly angel stuff), and a Bible verse on the wall. At least it was an Old Testament verse.
For dinner we went to a nearby barbecue place and had fairly humdrum barbecue. They didn't even have ribs (they seemed permanently crossed off the menu) and were out of iced tea. Well, it was somewhat late.
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| We got a somewhat late start this morning. Breakfast was at the Coffee Mill, then we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway for more scenic driving. This is much like Skyline Drive, but is not part of a National Park. We saw more deer (including a buck standing by the side of the road), woodchucks, vultures, and a turtle three-quarters of the way across the road. There wasn't much traffic, so I figure he probably made it okay. |
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| Copyright © - "Evelyn C. Leeper" |
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