Luray Caverns Trip: Incredible Stress Reliever

A few weeks back, I was able to take a much-needed trip. The drive was really all I wanted, but my youngest daughter has been wanting to make the trip to Luray Caverns (Luray, Virginia) for years, so I thought, why not?

So we decided to make the two-and-a-half-hour drive that I hadn't made since my other daughter was a toddler (she's now 28). At any rate, the place still had the same charm I remembered from before.

We decided against the shrub maze (both of us were tired after the ride) and headed straight for the cavern's entrance. As we entered and started to head downward my daughter finally understood that this was a 45-minute tour and we'd be walking 1.5 miles. Which for me is nothing, but for her, you would have thought we were walking to Tennessee.

When most people first see the stalactites (which hang downward) and stalagmites (which grow upward) deep inside Luray, they're at a loss for words.

My daughter couldn't understand just how in the hell they got an organ down there. 'The Great Stalacpipe Organ' was invented in 1954 by Mr. Leland W. Sprinkle of Springfield, Virginia, who worked at the Pentagon as a mathematician and electronics scientist.

The video below will allow you a chance to listen to the organ play.

You would think that people would understand that only coins go in a wishing well, but as you can see in the 2020s, people now throw bills.

Unga-bunga...caveman says, "Don't touch."

Somehow, this one formed a really odd-looking conk shell/cinnamon twist. I could have sworn we took pictures of the "eggs" as well, but somehow we did not. The last picture is a screenshot of the 'fried eggs' from Luray's Facebook page.

All in all, we enjoyed the trip, but for some reason, half the photos didn't turn out all that good. It could have been the lack of lighting, but it was a great day nonetheless.

via Wikipedia: Luray Caverns was discovered on August 13, 1878, by five local men, including Andrew J. Campbell (a local tinsmith), William Campbell, John “Quint” Campbell, and local photographer Benton Stebbins. Their attention had been attracted by a protruding limestone outcrop and by a nearby sinkhole noted to have cool air issuing from it. Seeking a cavern, the men started to dig, and about four hours later, a hole was created for the smallest men (Andrew and Quint) to squeeze through, slide down a rope, and explore by candlelight.