Luray Caverns

"Stalactites are geological formation which hangs on the ceiling of limestone caves caused by dripping of mineralized water. Stalagmites are a kind of geological formation formed on the floor of limestone caves due to dripping of mineralized water” – This is what I studied as part of syllabus in 1st PU (+1) text books. Then heard about these formations from my cousin Arun when he was working in Bermuda. I saw them for the first time in Cliffhanger movie. Saw a single set of stalactite and stalagmite for the first time in a small cave near Baratang, Andaman Islands. But I had the real experience of Stalactites and Stalagmites when I visited Luray Caverns in Luray, Virginia.

Luray Caverns is a big underground caverns system near the town of Luray in middle of Shenandoah Valley. Around 80 miles from Washington, DC and less than 2 hours drive makes it a very popular destination. Discovered in 1878 by a local photographer Benton Stebbins and tinsmith Andrew Campbell was a small sinkhole from which cool breeze of air was coming. They started digging and putting away loose stone along with 3 other friends. Finally after 4 hours of digging they were able to make a small hole for one of the thinnest person in the group to sneak inside with a rope and explored it with candle light. Today all paths in these caverns are paved and can be seen with electric lights. Every visitor today is provided with a self guided tour pre-recorded audio player with the help of which it's very convenient in listening the history and formation of these beautiful structures. The temperature inside the cavern will be around 54 degree F.

The formation of these limestone caves started some 400 million years ago in a inland sea after the continental drift where Americas tectonic plates moved away from other land mass. The water inside the cave filled with acidic mixture of water and carbon dioxide started descending to lower levels when the underground water level started to recede. Rain water picks up diluted carbonic acid when it seeps through decaying vegetation in the soil above the rock. Upon entering the unique cave atmosphere, the solution of calcium carbonate gives up some of its carbon dioxide and allows a precipitation of lime to form. This precipitation begins as a thin deposit ring of crystallized calcite. As this process is continued, stalactites form from the ceiling. As the drops fall to the floor, deposits build forming stalagmites. When a stalactite growing down from the ceiling meets a stalagmite growing from the floor, a column or pillar is formed. Luray Caverns is an active cave where new deposits accumulate at the rate of one cubic inch in 120 years.

The different stages or six most common speleothems can be seen at Luray caverns.

1. Straws – a thin and tiny tubes hanging out from ceiling of these caves and water seeps through it. When the hole closes the minerals start depositing around it and develops into Stalactites.
2. Stalactites – the mineral deposits which cling to cave ceiling
3. Stalagmites – the formation on the ground below stalactites formed by dripping of mineralized water.
4. Columns – as the stalactites and stalagmites continue to grow they meet and become Columns.
5. Flowstone – mineral deposits flowing down stalagmites.
6. Drapery – are kind of Stalactites formed when constant flow of air is blown from the same direction gentle enough to create a curve.

One more attraction at Luray Caverns is the “Great Stalacpipe Organ”. It’s a unique organ and perhaps the biggest organ of its kind in the world. A few select Stalactites are stuck by rubber tipped mallets at various positions in a systematic manner to produce Organ quality sound. Back in the earlier days i.e., around June 1957 when it was first invented the Organ was played manually. Today it is played mechanically set to play few select tunes.

The caverns are filled with speleothems of different size, kind, color some of them worth mentioning are –

Dream lake – like a flawless mirror a pool of water has created a reflection of Stalactites hanging above. It is so wonderful and hard to believe at some point if its really a reflection over the water. The pool appears to be quite deep but the deepest part of the pool is just over a foot long and most part of the lake is around 4 to 6 inches deep.

Saracen’s tent – it’s a huge drapery and considered to be one of the most well formed draperies in the world.

Double Column-Giant’s Hall – The columns length is around 47 feet and the ceiling in Giant’s hall is over 60 feet in height.

Fried Eggs – a stalagmite resembling fried eggs.

Next to Luray Caverns is “Car and Carriage Caravan” museum. It has a good collection of wagons, carriages, cars dating back to 1725. The center piece of attraction is 1892 Benz car one of the oldest in the country in operating condition.

Cars fitted with electric lights were luxuries at times and some cars needed kerosene burners kept below engine to heat up and crank.

On our way back home we visited Skyline drive of Shenandoah National Park which became our most favorite get away.

Here and There

Many people are interested in knowing what their future is, where they are heading in life, will they be successful. Many friends of mine where interested in knowing especially if they make any foreign trips or even settle there. Somewhere in my mind I too wanted to know what’s my future is, but who knows what’s ahead of you and who can tell it? I believe we have to take life as it comes and there will be no element of surprise if we know everything ahead. I never thought anything about work, whenever or whatever I thought was to explore as many places and meet different people in the world. Today I have been drifted by winds of life and ended working for an American company in U.S.

Like any other first generation immigrants memories from home always linger around with whatever we do. I guess for that matter, you needn’t come to different country to have that feeling even at a different place within the same country you can feel it. Here it’s the distance and the fact what we put it in our mind that ‘we will not go back till next year’ make the feeling even more strong. There are many instances which happen on a daily basis, but few moments are worth mentioning. One such moment is ‘My First Car’ experience.

Back in Bangalore India, I and my brother did some detailed review and test drive of different cars in our budget and decided to buy Tata Indica Vista Aura model. It was just released a month ago or so and had some cool features. All the auto magazines had their share of review with pros and cons and most of them agreed it’s the best value car of the day in its segment. Being an indigenous car and good reviews, we decided this has to be our First Car. We looked for the nearest auspicious day and booked for a red color car. I don’t know the real reason, its production was less or had to come from Haryana plant or red color cars had to wait its turn to come on assembly line or whatever, our car was ready for deliver almost after 50 days :) With all excitement, I and my brother went to take delivery. We printed out the delivery inspection check list downloaded from net and other things and went there by 4pm or so. Like us there were few more people who came to take delivery of their cars. It was almost dark when we finally got deliver of our car. The sales guy was nice enough to explain everything and had decorated with balloons. The perfume of car freshener was so gentle. There was priest in the showroom to perform pooja to delivered cars. He came and did a quick pooja and we were all set to go. My brother started driving towards the main gate and there was a line of other salesmen and security guards applauding and cheering us safe drive :)

By the time we reached home it was completely dark and the power cut added to it. Anna was standing near the gate and Amma had kept pooja items ready. So we drove further to Ganesha temple and they joined us there by the time we parked. The priest performed pooja again and we cleared some of those extra balloons to make way for our parents to sit. Then we went for a small ride around the temple and parked near our house. While driving around we were wounding why the lights didn't turn off even when moving the car and later realized one of the door wasn't locked properly. It was a new model and hardly very few on road, so our neighbors gathered around looking at it and inquiring about its features, how it works, what's new, comparing it with other cars, how much it cost and so on........ We distributed sweets to some of them and it was my turn to go for a small drive. We visited our uncle’s house nearby and the excitement of new car was for more than a month showing it to friends and relatives.
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My first car experience here is totally different. Did the same kind of search on net to compare but I was more biased towards Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic because these are considered to be among luxury cars or big cars in India. May be that's the reason most Indians (referred as Desis among Indian community in US) buy these cars. After knowing new Toyota vehicles are called back for Gas pedal problem I didn't want to try my luck. Honda was bit over priced than my budget and I wasn't sure how long I will be in this country so decided to go for pre owned cars. After narrowing my search I found one 2007 Sandy gold Toyota Corolla in my budget and went to see it. It was a certified used car, some how didn't like it. I liked one more used car, 2007 Nissan Altima which had run almost 35k miles. It was really very nice but over budget, so didn't materialize. Next day I saw one more Corolla a 2008 model which had run just 8k miles and a certified used car. I went and took a test drive and felt it was good enough for us and quite neatly maintained. The deal was finalized for $14.4K including comprehensive warranty. I think its a good deal!! Made payments and signed documents. I had to take insurance on my own so checked on internet quickly and got a policy. By that time my new car was given a quick wash and was parked near entrance. The salesmen gave me the key and other documents and showed where my car was parked from window and wished "Happy driving....Good Luck". Everything was done in less than an hour I guess, if I had got insurance the whole transaction might have got over in 30 min.

I drove my supposed to be new car back home which is around 2 miles away. It was evening when I and my wife did Pooja to car whatever we can and went for a small ride in our apartment community. By night one of our neighbors from India came home to look at the car. We did some shavige paysa and shared with them.

July 4, 2010 Fireworks at Washington DC.

To mark the 234th anniversary of adopting the "Declarataion of Independence" (also called as Independence Day or Fourth of July) there was Fireworks all over United States of America. The following photos/Video was shot on the lawn of National Mall, Washington DC on the back drop of Washington Monument. The fireworks which lasted for less than 20 minutes was watched by thousands of people.

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Visit to Pittsburg 2010

Its been almost 7 months since we came to US and got lost in work, meeting client deadlines...... Memorial Day weekend on May 29th was a much awaited long weekend. Our neighbor Gopi Krishna planned to visit Pittsburgh during this long weekend and called me to check if we have any plans, I didn’t want to turn him down. 

We started our journey on May 29th, 2010 Saturday from Falls Church, VA at 6.30 am and reached Pittsburgh, PA around 10.30 am. Our first place of visit was “Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium”. It was a hot sunny day with temperature around 85 degree F (nearly 30 degree C). We had spent the past 6 months inside home or office with comfortable temperature or outside with a freezing temperature. We felt 85 degree F is too hot for us.

Its like any other zoo in US but one special attraction about this zoo is they have Polar Bear, atleast I haven't seen it till now in any other zoo. There were few penguins too which is another bird which I haven't seen earlier. Personally I didn't like some of the exhibits in Asian Forest section, where animals are at higher ground than visitors, its very difficult to see them. I was delighted when I came to know there is "Snow Leopard", but I saw only its ears and left paw :(

Our next visit was to "Hindu Jain Temple" at 615 Illini Drive Monroeville, PA 15146. We left zoo around 1pm and reached temple by 1.30pm. Its a beautiful temple built with red stone in early 1980s.

 www.hindujaintemple.org/

After having a good South Indian meal at Udupi Cafe, we started our journey towards "National Aviary". Its a kind of bird house, where there are lot of activities like feeding different kinds of birds, talks on wild life, making crafts, interactive encounters and bird releases.

Unlike the usual zoo where birds are kept in cages and people see them from outside, these places have set up artificial bird habitats and they fly freely (atleast in the enclosed area). The habitats look pretty much natural. Taking kids this close and having interaction with birds/animals will definitely create interest and love towards them. We couldn't spend much time here. Aviary closes at 5pm and we went there just before 4.30pm. We managed to spend some time at habitats like Grassland, Rainforest and Penguin enclosure.

From there we went to see downtown and booked tickets for Duck Tour. Its a amphibious vehicle which runs on road and swims on water and goes around downtown showing important buildings and places.

Another place worth visiting in downtown Pittsburgh is "Duquesne Incline" a cable car railway built in 1877 over Mt. Washington to carry goods/passengers. Its a steep hill near to downtown, the cable car is pulled uphill for nearly 800 feet long, around 400 feet in height and at an incline of 30 degree angle.

On top of the hill there is an observatory deck to view Pittsburgh downtown. Pittsburgh downtown also called as 'Golden Triangle' as it is formed by confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose joining forms the Ohio River.

Pittsburgh is even famous for bridges. All together, a total of 446 bridges are in the city of Pittsburgh, officially the city with the most bridges in the world, three more than former world leader Venice, Italy.

Next day, i.e. Sunday May 30th, 2010, we visited few temples, Sri Venkateshwara Temple at Penn Hill, Pittsburgh, PA and The Palace of Gold, Moundsville, WV (also called as New Vrindavan or commonly known as ISKCON).

Sri Venkateshwara Temple of Pittsburgh is one of the oldest and most famous Hindu temples in North America built in 1976. Its even referred as Tirupathi of America. http://www.svtemple.org/

We spent some time in temple and continued our journey towards Palace of Gold, as there were some speculations about the route and road condition. So we didn't know how much time it might take.

We drove till Wheeling, West Virginia and took a cab. Its around 6 miles from here, but road is narrow and winding. Moreover someone told GPS will not get proper signal and may not show route properly. We didn't want to take chance so took a cab. Usually it might cost around $50 one way and $15 per hour for waiting for one car. The route wasn't that difficult as I imagined, once we reach place called "Limestone Hill" anyone will tell how to reach Palace of Gold. Its like oneway and most of the people, especially if you see an Indian they will be going there. Cab driver told there was another way where we will come across many creeks, I was very interested to explore it but couldn't go there as were short of time and had to reach home that night.

 Palace of Gold is dedicated to ISCKON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) founder Swami Prabhupada. It was started as a temple, but after Swami's death his followers decided to dedicate it as a memorial shrine with beautiful architecture and designs. Its really commendable because it was built by devotees who were untrained who has turned up this place so beautifully. http://www.palaceofgold.com/

Entry inside the palace is only through guided tour ($6 per head) which takes almost 30 minutes and is conducted in an interval of 1 hour or so. Photography is prohibited inside the shrine and no wonder if people think Hindus keep lot of wealth inside temple after seeing this Palace of Gold.

Next to the building is a Rose garden which has got so many awards...but I am not sure if it was so beautiful or may be we didn't see it properly. New Vrindavan or Radha Krishna temple is 1/4 mile from Palace of Gold. Its like any other ISKON temple around the world.

After finishing lunch at the temple cafeteria we started our journey back home to Virginia. We reached home just before sunset and sun sets around 8.30pm during summer in this part of the world.

Trip to Yellapura Nov 2009.wmv

This video is about our visit to Yellapura in Nov 2009. I had different plan, wanted to go for a trek around Yellapura, Uttar Kannada District, Karnataka. Due to change in weather condition, I changed my plan & made this as a pleasure trip.

Since it was raining from past week or so, water color is muddy. I love Malnad & rain made it even more beautiful. Its all in the video......