Day 16: Caverns

Today would turn out to be caverns day, cos we visited 2 caverns in Virginia while driving towards Tennessee. The first was the Crystal Caverns in Strausburg, VA, which was a small-ish kind of cave. The guide was a really knowledgeable geologist and caver who told us a great deal about the caverns. The highlight (to me) was Andy the anthropod, a special kind of shrimp that could only be found in the Crystal Caverns.

A couple of hours later, we found ourselves at the Dixie Caverns in Salem, VA. It was 4 by the time we arrived, and we were the only 2 in the tour, led by Ian, a very young guide – prob still in high school. He was different in that he relied more on imagination than geology for telling us stories about what the structures in the caverns resembled. Especially liked the one where the small stalagmites represented the bride and groom, fainting mother, jealous ex-boyfriend, damaged cake, and father in chase of baker. Cool.

Spent the night in Wytheville, VA at the Days Inn. It was comfortable, and cheaper than the Red Roof Inn we stayed at last night. There was also a great German restaurant Wohlsfarht Haus behind the motel, which served a splendid cream of asparagus soup. I had the steak, which was HUGE, but very well done – tender and flavorful. The kitchen even got me a scoop of ice-cream when I told the waitress I wanted some ice-cream with chocolate fudge. Randall can tell you about his schnizel-thing. Oh, and they had bottled beer from Germany –> I had the wheat ale thing, which was very good.