Virginia - Day Two

Began late.
We were all so exhausted from the traveling we basically just died in our beds and woke up with the kiddies, which was about 07:00 AM, the parental units were kind enough to let me sleep ‘till around eightish.
I awoke to the lovely sound of birds and wind, quite calming and I began to help get ready for the morning hike.
And with a few minor crisis’s over the morning, by 10:00 we actually left the rooms and were out towards to hiking spot.
The hike was a moderate one with many high and lows and lots of greenery, as you’ll see from the pictures.
It was called South Falls and I had forgotten what fun it is to hike in nature, though the whole place was very artificial, so many people, but then again you it was a National Holiday and all of the Eastern USA was there, so it wasn’t very surprising.
A nice surprise was a group of Israelis (with obnoxious kids) was there on the same hike as well.
I have to say that traveling with young children is extremely difficult, I mean, the majority of the packing was just for them! Also the numerous stopping because Shvo was curious about everything (unsurprising, being the little urban child that he is) and Libby who was cooped in the back carrier and was in need of a feed quite often.
Did I mention childfree?
But seriously it was fun just to be in a place I’d never been before, in a place where things were actually natural.
There was a stream and slippery rocks; the water was gorgeous and freezing! Shvo didn’t feel the cold, but I felt as if my toes were steaming and freezing.
Seriously, the water was so cold it hurt.
The way back to the parking lot (where our monster lay in wait) was very, very hard.
Since the Park is on the side of a mountain practically all the hikes begin at a summit and lead down, meaning you gotta climb up to get back where you started.
In addition to the heat, humidity and mass of civilization in this very tames wilderness, there was a whole lot of poison ivy.
Why is this important?
You try finding a place to pee where you can actually crouch, but poison ivy is in the way. I was lucky enough to find a rock with a ditch behind where the ivy was absent.
So there was a little bit of roughing, I had forgotten how nice it is to let out the call of nature, in nature.
I’m not being sarcastic my friends; dead seriousness.
Once we finished the hike and had our lovely lunch we headed back the Behemoth and went for a nice relaxing drive along the Skyland drive, which is the road that goes from one end of the Park to the other, we only drove for a short section, stopping at numerous observation points which were beautiful.
Oh, I forgot to mention we had the greatest views from our balconies in our rooms, also amazing, sunsets over the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was in awe.
I’m in awe just thinking about it.
Our world is a beautiful, taken-for-granted place.
I suppose you can tell from the tone of my accounts that I was a little sad throughout the Vacation; mainly because there were too many people who I don’t believe really appreciated the place they were in and because Shenandoah is such commercialized place and most of it was artificially made – I mean the trails were actual trails.
There were Dears (beautiful, sweet innocent dears) crossing roads to lodges and a Cotton Mouth snake that inspired a poem I’ll publish here, once it’s fixed up a little, the snake was being observed by people who were stomping their feet trying to make it move – stupidity, when you see a snake you go quite and leave it alone!

It was about six o’clock when we got back to our rooms and we showered and got ready to eat at the resorts restaurant. Shvo and I spent a lot of quality time together at the play ground… I hate other people’s children all they do is get in the way, but Shvo warmed up to them and he ended up having a lot of fun.

The food was okay, getting back to the room and eating cookies from Trader Joe’s was better.
Went to sleep pretty late, but the Maxwell House coffee was worth it 
End of day two.

Virginia - Third and Last Day

The day began… you guessed it, late once again!
However today was going to be a very relaxing day anyway so there wasn’t anything to worry about. We packed our stuff very quickly – since I was the lightest packer it took me no time and I could help the rest of the familia get going.
We checked out at around 10:30 and took off to our hike called Limberlost; it was an extremely easy walk since the trail was suited for people in wheel chairs it just a walk and no one minded Shvo running ahead.
Again we roughed it by peeing in the bushes – not as much poison ivy this time around, but still roughing it.
I don’t know why, but I really love that sort of thing, trying to find a secluded place and go about your business… makes you feel real at one with world.
Not to mention you’re providing natural essences to the forest which is never bad.
It was a loop so we followed the path and returned safe and sound to the Leviathan.
It was around one-ish when we finished our walk and we piled ourselves back into the Chevy Monster and took off towards the exit of the park.

My friends from that moment everything that could go wrong… went to hell.
Mr. Murphy was a very happy-chappy that day.
Car sickness? Check, luckily it was mainly water so I didn’t stink up the car.
Fighting? Check, I believe there was so much snapping we could have been Alligators in the sewer if we just went down onto our bellied.
Numerous pit stops? Check, check and check!
Road trips are pretty much all about the pit stops!

However, before we actually headed (we arrived in Philly at 22:00) and it was a hot, muggy, night. We went to Luray Caverns, which are very deep caverns filled with lime formation. “Stalactites hold on tightly, Stalagmites rise up mightily”, which is what I taught Shvo so that he could remember what came up from the ceiling and what came up from the floor.
And it was truly amazing, though the artificial lights helped the algae grow where they’re not supposed to in the caverns, and the paved floor inhibits the growth of new Stalagmites, it was very pretty, but the commercialization of the caverns for the town was pretty disgusting.
I’ve noticed that in America, everything has to be the Most, the Biggest, the Best etc.
There is no sense of humility in this country which is sad, since it has such a beautiful natural habitat.
It’s being destroyed by the people.
The caverns are deteriorating because of the over exposure of humanity.
Am I hypocrite for saying these things and visiting these places? Perhaps. But I am aware of the damage that I do and I felt the pain of the Earth while I was in those caverns and the dry, powdery formation that would never change when they should have.

I am a spiritual person, I feel the Earth is more than just a planet on which we live and that Humans have an intelligence they abuse and use to abuse in return.
On this trip I thought I would see the people of this land love this country as They often profess they do.
And while I enjoyed myself to a certain degree, I was mainly preoccupied with my family and I felt I didn’t get in touch with myself and Nature as much as I wanted.
What I didn’t notice was how out of touch humanity is here to nature, how utterly and totally the beauty of this land is being exploited, it’s not that much different in other places, but I felt it here in a way I never felt at home.
Some of my like minded friends have asked me how America is in terms of spirit and soul is compared to Israel.
Frankly, America’s Natural spirit is very, very sick.
It saddens me that I contributed to it.
It was fun holiday, but for my own reasons I was sanded by it.

America is beautiful, but in a way a model smiles to a camera.