Day 10, April 25, Dixie Caverns, Salem, Virginia A Day of Exploration & Discovery

Today was indeed full of exploration and discovery -- both planned and unplanned. I will not bore you with a lot of details in this entry. Rather I will give you some short summary statements that will give you a sense of the day.

Today was a day of adventure, as we explored the depths and heights of Dixie Caverns. These caverns were formed more than 900,000 years ago and discovered in our modern era in 1921, when two young boys were playing on the top of a mountain with their dog "Dixie." Dixie fell through an 8x4 foot hole at the top of the mountain. The two boys followed to rescue her, and they subsequently discovered an enormous cave system with multiple chambers. We toured the Dixie Caverns today with our tour guide, Mauren. At its lowest point we were about 15 feet below the parking area; at the highest point where we were standing, the "balcony", we were about 90 feet above the parking area. The sights in between were spectacular: the wonder of caves on full, splendid view. Here are several photos from the morning cave tour.

(Patrise enters the Dixie Caverns.)

(Our guide, Mauren, explains how stalactites [growing down] and stalagmites [growing up] are formed.)

(Viewing tubular stalactites. The way they form creates a hollow, tube-like shape.)

(Roof of the caverns)

(Patrise walking up stairs at the Dixie caverns. The whole tour was only a quarter mile in length, but the steep ascents and descents made for a more arduous tour.)

(You can't tell from this picture, but this formation is called the "organ" stone. In person, you can see what appear to be "pipes", keyboards, pedals, and an organist.)

(The "totem" stone formation. This is actually about nine feet high. Above the totem and lightly to the left: the bluish light is the hole where Dixie and the boys first entered the caverns in 1921. You can tell from here, but on the surface, the hole is roughly 8 ft. x 4ft.)

(A pool of water in the caverns, which sits on a table of stone. The minerals in the water form the rim which will grow over time and eventually encapsulate all of the water. In this manner, a "geode" is formed. We'll have to return in 100 years or see to see how it's progressing. LOL!)

(This formation is called "Turkey Rock.")

(In this picture, the finger second from the left has a droplet of water hanging precariously at its fingertip. The minerals in the water will become part of the rock formation and increase its length. This is how stalactites and stalagmites grow, albeit very slowly. I may take as many as 80 years to grow an inch.)

(This is looking from one end of the same reflecting pool shown above. The pool itself sonly about four inches in depth, but when you look from this end, it takes on the characteristics of an "infinite reflecting pool." The bottom looks as though it is much deeper.)

(A very strange rock formation. It reminds me of me. LOL!!!)

(This picture is taken looking directly overhead at a seam of small stalactites in the cavern. This seam is the location of the Salem Fault -- the location where an earthquake gave birth to the Dixie Caverns some 900,000 years ago.)

(This is a good looking rock formation. Wonder if I can carry it back home?)

(When stalactites grow down long enough and stalagmites grow up far enough, they can join together and then become a column formation.)

After the cavern tour, we boogied into town to do laundry. WASH DDDDDAAAAAAYYYY!!!! Woohoo! We found the Laundry Basket, a full service laundromat on W. Main Street in Salem, VA. We had five loads of clothing to do. Fortunately, this being Monday and midday, there were not a lot of people washing clothes, therefore plenty of machines for us to work with. (Lots of quarters to use, too.).

While loading our clothes, a young man in the laundromat, Nathan, started a conversation with us. Noticing that we had pulled up in an RV camper, he asked if we were retired. We replied "yes", we had just retired, and this was our first retirement trip. He wanted to know how we had saved for retirement, whether we had used 401k's as our primary means of saving for retirement. We said that we had, plus the fact that I had a job that had given me a pension. Nathan expressed a bit of concern about staying invested in 401k's for the long term, because a family friend had "lost his shirt" in one years ago, during the Great Recession. We said that the Great Recession did indeed create problems for a lots of people who had just retired or were planning to retire around then. Still over the long term, if his 401k funds (and that of his employer's matching funds) were being managed by a professional money manager, we suggested Nathan would be better off in a 401k plan than not. He stated that JP Morgan was the plan manager. We said that was a good sign.

Then, we wanted to get lunch while the clothes were washing. We asked for a good place nearby. Nathan suggested that Frank's Pizza and Gina's were great places to eat, and those were "right down the road" on Main Street, further in toward town. A black woman, who was also doing her laundry, stated that Gina's was closed on Monday; and when that was the case, she often went to Frank's herself for lunch. Then she stated that indeed, SHE was GINA!! Nathan was as surprised as us, but pleased to meet "Miss Gina" in person.

We went walking to find Frank's Pizza. It so happened that, the restaurant really was not in walking distance. (Later we learned that Nathan and Gina thought we were driving, and in fact, it would have been a relatively short driving distance.). However, the walk to Frank's would have taken much longer than we knew we could allot. We needed to return to the laundromat by the time the clothes finished washing, so that we could transfer them to the dryers. Therefore, we settled for Moe's. (Welcome to Moe's!! only no one ever said so at this location.) After a quick, unsatisfying lunch at Moms. we hurried back to the laundromat and started our clothes drying. (Below are pictures of the Laundry Basket, Nathan, and Gina's.)

For the sake of time, Patrise went to a nearby Kroger, to buy some items we needed, while I stayed with the clothes. Nathan and I continued a great conversation about being dads, marrying women who made us much better men, his concerns for and his pride in his children -- 14 yr old son, 12 yr old daughter -- and hockey, for which he is an avid fan. The Pittsburgh Penguins are his favorite team.

After Kroger shopping, Patrise returned to the Laundry Basket, we loaded up our clothes, which were now dry and folded, and then headed back to the Dixie Caverns Campsite. We thought we were done for the evening. After we were returned however, we ran into some RV maintenance problems, for which we needed to return to town to pick up some supplies. So while I wrestled with the RV, Patrise took a shower in the campground washroom. Later, I did the same thing (using the men's side of course). Then we decided that we would make a major visit of the return to town. In addition to going to Walmart, we would eat dinner at Frank's Pizza first; we would stop at the local CVS pharmacy, for her to pick up a prescription refill; then we would get ice cream at the Salem Ice Cream Parlor; then go to Walmart; and lastly, we would stop at the BP station to fill our tank, while on the way back to the campsite. In this way, we would be ready, to head out for Harrisonburg in the morning without any major delays. And that's just the way it played out.

Below are a few photos taken at Frank's Pizza, which lived up to its reputation. It was an excellent pizza, one that I would put against any in Atlanta.

Now, I am shutting down for the night. Tomorrow, we head out to Harrisonburg, VA. Our brother, David, had been a visiting professor for many years, at the Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg. He has suggested someplace for us to visit. And our dear friend, Ann-Carol Pence, cofounder and music director for the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, GA (metro Atlanta) grew up in Harrisonburg and still has relatives there. One (or more) of them operates a winery. Thanks to family and friends, we have much to explore.

Good day, good night!