Luray Caverns

On my Mom's birthday, after giving her stellar presents and goodies, and making her breakfast, we got in the jeep and prepared to go to Luray Caverns, which Mom said she wanted to go to.

Luray Caverns is reachable by going through the wide, big Shenandoah Mountains, into the town of Page, on the far side of the mountains. You go on a parkway called the Skyline Drive.

Unlike Mt Washington, the Shenandoah Mountains were leafy, wide, and big. They were shorter than Mt Washington, and less menacing.

Unlike the Shenandoah Valley Mountains, Mt. Washington was bare, had little to no plant life at the top, and was very, very tall and slim. Although, we are comparing a mountain to mountainS.

Anyway, we came out of the mountain range, and parked at a nice looking complex. It had a garden maze, a car museum, a history museum, and of course, Luray Caverns. All of the building were somewhat connected, but the history one faced the Caverns, dividing the too by a road. The parking lot was by the caverns. They were all of a beige color.

We went into the Caverns building, and got tickets for the next tour. While waiting, we looked around in the gift shop for anything that might catch our eye (you should say eyes, but oh well). I found a fake ID card saying I was an FBI agent. It is funny.

A girl named Paige told us she was the tour guide, and opened a big door and showed us down a staircase. Going down the staircase, I opened my eyes to see a big chamber, with many different formations. On the right of me, I saw a cross firmly planted on the ground. On the left, through all the people I could see a beautiful formation. In the center of the room, there was a big white column looking thing.

Paige told us the story of three men, who saw a small hole that had cool air coming out of it. Then, they increased the whole to the size they could fit through, and jumped down, coming down the hill the Cross was on. (It was a small hill) After that, they saw the column thing in the middle.

Those three men made the walls farther apart, and later went all around in it. Unlike the guys who discovered Ruby Falls, these guys had big, large corridors, and not tight spaces (comparing the two, Luray was a lot more roomy than Ruby Falls). Amazingly enough, the three explorers found it almost the same way we found it, roomy and big.

We traveled through big rooms, and saw beautiful columns, made by stalactites and mites that formed together. We saw a lot of just those too (very cool).

At first we went up ramps and around a few corners. Then, we got into a small long corridor, and saw a bright white twisty column, that they call Pluto's Ghost. Pluto, because it is a chasm, and we're underground. Pluto is god of the underworld in Greek myths. Ghost, because it was white and seems to follow and GET BIGGER EVERY TIME YOU keep going.

There were a lot of chasms, stalactites and mites, but the coolest thing I saw would have to have been the Dream Lake. It was a little pond, that is level with our heads. It looked like there were mites in the water, but it was really the reflection of the tites. It didn't even look like a pond, it just looked like a lot of mites. It was unreal. It looked like a small city.

We saw a lot of other formations, including Skeleton's Gorge, a small girls remains found in a small area, and the big Redwood. The big Redwood was a HUGE column, stretching over 150 fit high. It was so big!

We also saw the Wishing Well, which was a little puddle well thing with some money in it. When I say some, I mean 997,834 dollars in money. That amount started when it opened, it's not like that was all from this year. There was pennies, nickels, dimes, even dollars, one on top of each other People are actually ALLOWED to throw change in there. I threw two quarters, made a wish, and the two flopped on and came down with a BLOP. One went in a wide area with a lot of other coins, and the other actually went on a little mound of pennies.

Then, at the end of the tour, Paige showed us into a large room they do weddings in. Until about this time, I had been talking with an English girl (about 16) about Doctor Who. It was so cool to talk to one person who knew about it. She said it is really popular in England, but she was surprised that I knew of it. We talked about everything there is to know about DW, and it was a fun conversation. Take that Julie! People do know about DW! I'm a Who-er! And I'm not afraid to admit it.

Anyway, back to the wedding room.

In the center of the room, there was a small organ. It had wires that went into a dark corridor, and there was one wire that went up to a stalactite. It was actually an organ, that used the formations as notes. It was the weirdest thing you ever saw. A CONDUCTOR and inventor actually made beautiful sound with it. It was so cool. Beautiful music.

When the tour was over, we went back into the car, and had a nice birthday dinner for Mom at Houlihan's. It was a good day.

Luray was a really cool place. It was really cool to be underground, and yet still have all that coolness. It was a really cool time.

Who-ers are awesome! Go Doctor Who!,

Andrew.