HERE WE GO AGAIN…Part One

When I was growing up there was a song that my dad always played (on a RECORD PLAYER, which tells you my age!) for us on March 1^st.  We would wake up to it every year, and we looked SO forward to it!  It was a song called “June Is Busting Out All Over” from the musical Carousel!  The song is sung to celebrate the arrival of summer in Maine.  Here are the lyrics that I always remember as the main ones:

March went out like a lion, A-whippin’ up the water in the bay.

Then April cried and stepped aside, and along came pretty little May!

May was full of promises, but she didn’t keep ‘em quick enough for some.

And a crowd of Doubtin’ Thomases, was predictin’ that the summer’d never come.

But it’s comin’ by gum’ , you can feel it come,

Look around, look around, look around!!!!!

These lyrics are perfect for this trip up to the Shenandoah Valley – we left Florida in the middle of March, and stopped for a weekend to see my cousins in Georgia for the weekend!  What a great time it was, and my cousin and his wife have a cement pad in the back of their BEAUTIFUL home that they put in JUST for us to come visit with the trailer – haha!  (we like to think that anyway!)

We had such a great time with family, reminiscing and telling stories for two days!  Thank you Darin and Laurie for everything!

We then headed up to the Shenandoah Valley and when we arrived at the first campground, it was definitely March!!! At night the temperatures hovered around freezing, and the trailer’s heater got plenty of use!

It was NO problem for me because I LOVE cold weather – winter is my favorite time of year!

Our first adventure was to the Natural Bridge State Park, which was amazing!  It’s exactly what it says – a natural bridge!

We bundled up and headed there and had such a great time seeing the bridge –  in order to get to it, you have to go down ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN STEPS!  Easy as pie!  UNTIL….you come back and have to go UP one hundred and thirty-seven steps!!  That’s a whole different story!  We did it and it felt great when we were done!

The beauty of the Natural Bridge is hard to capture, but here is my attempt:

Next stop…Monticello – the home of Thomas Jefferson!

Again, we bundled up and headed over there!  What a great experience that was – seeing and hearing about the history of Thomas Jefferson…the third president of the US…the second vice president…the primary author of the Declaration of Independence..and lots more!

After Monticello, we headed over to stroll around Charlottesville, VA and found a great burger place for lunch!  After all, you gotta eat!

The weather was still cold, but we felt like there was hope on the horizon for warmer temperatures! (like the song says, “But it’s comin’ by gum’ , you can feel it come,

Look around, look around, look around!!!!!)

Our second stop on this leg of the journey was Endless Caverns RV resort, in a town called New Market, VA.  When we were at the Hershey RV show back in the fall, some people told us that if we were coming to this area, we HAD to stay at this RV park – They were RIGHT!!!

Just driving up the road to the campground was beautiful, as you can see!  Even with winter just finishing up, it was still a beautiful place!

And…right in the park are the ENDLESS CAVERNS – thus the name!

We took a tour and it was amazing!  The history of the caverns goes like this:  On October 1, 1879, two boys and their dogs pursued a rabbit up the slope of a mountain pasture on Reuben Zirkle’s farm. The rabbit sought refuge under a boulder, prompting the boys to move it. To their amazement, a wondrous underground world unfolded before their eyes.

Soon after the discovery, the Zirkles began offering candle-lit tours. In 1919 they installed lights throughout the caverns. Endless Caverns officially opened as a show cave on August 14, 1920. Despite years of exploration, the labyrinth of winding passages and expansive chambers showed no signs of reaching an end. This subterranean realm was dubbed the “Endless Caverns,” which continues to live up to that name today.   ENJOY!

ENJOY THESE VIDEOS!

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We enjoyed it so much that we toured a SECOND cavern that afternoon – Shenandoah Caverns!  This was also discovered by two boys by accident – two DIFFERENT boys! Haha

I’ll just let you all see it for yourselves:

Each day on the trip, the weather started getting a little warmer!  (“but it’s coming by gum, you can feel it, look around look around look around!”…)

Guess what we did the following day?????

If you are thinking caverns, you would be right!  One more!  Luray Caverns, which is famous and way more people tour it, was our last cavern stop – wow!  I don’t think my words can do it justice, so let the photos speak for themselves!

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And here are a couple more videos!

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This next video is a pipe organ they put down in the caverns – called “THE GREAT STALAGPIPE ORGAN” – when a key is pressed, a rubber plunger strikes a stalactite and produces a tone that fills the cavern with music – if you listen closely, it was playing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God!” (It was hard to hear so you may not be able to make out the tune – still amazing nevertheless!)

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After the tour we stopped by the ROUTE 11 POTATO CHIP FACTORY to see them making potato chips – unfortunately they were not cooking that day – BUT…we were able to sample some of their chip flavors and see the store and enjoy something different and fun!

Before heading off to the second part of this journey (in the next blog post), we enjoyed one last day in the RV park and guess what!?!  It was 80 degrees and sunny!!  Like it said, “it’s coming! Look around, look around, look around”!!

This RV park has a sign partway up the mountain with its name on it – similar to the HOLLYWOOD sign in California – haha!  We hiked up to it and it was spectacular!  In order to get an idea of how big the letters are , see if you can find me in this photo:

It was a great bit of exercise and the view was incredible!

Here are a few photos and two videos that Leonard took with our drone!

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What a fun week we have had in the Shenandoah Valley – I highly recommend visiting if you can!  Such a beautiful place!

And the words to the song are ringing true – “March went out like a lion” – and April is coming!!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME: