Base shift! Base shift! Switching bases is a tricky thing, and inevitably takes longer than expected, with the driving portion and all, and then half the hiking day is gone… It did not help that I was hurting quite a bit this morning. But by noon, I was on the move…
… Right into Luray Caverns. It was only three miles away, and I am a cave junkie. I felt the need to be underground! And while there were no white blazes down there, there was a lot of white rock. And red rock, and black rock, and neat cave formations. The tour was about an hour and a bit over a mile long, so it wasn’t a total zero day.
Especially considering the time/distance spent wandering around the hedge garden maze they had set up. It would have been more fun with company, but I still enjoyed it! No white blazes in here either, but whoever set it up had a good sense of humor!
Then it was walking back into downtown Luray a mile or so back. I had my eye on a Celtic Pub for a Guinness and some Irish beef stew. I got the Guinness. The rest of it went like this:
“I’ll have the Irish stew, please.”
“Sorry, we are sold out. We’re also sold out of the shepherd’s pie.”
“Hmmm. Well, what about the petite cut of steak?”
“I’ll go check…. *pause* Sorry, that is sold out, too.”
*disbelieving look* “Oh, all right, I’ll have the burger then. And another beer.”
*waitress goes off to place order. Hiker shakes her head and starts playing with her phone again.*
At least it was a good burger. But I wanted stew!
Tomorrow, I will hike again. Sixteen miles or so. I will worry about the missing day later, or make it up bit by bit. It was a fun day. I got a rock. Life moves on.
I hike on!
TRAILS, TRIALS, AND TRAVAILS 