One Edinburg Answer, More Edinburg Questions

Location: Edinburg, VA

As with many places on the eastern seaboard, the weather here has been hot and humid, resulting in late afternoon thunderstorms -- some severe. I have learned that, in unfamiliar locations, having the weather radio on is not enough -- you must also know what COUNTY you are currently sitting in, or listening to the weather reports becomes frustrating and useless. So one of my first duties when I get into a new city is to put the county name on a sticky note along with the zip code (useful for finding things on the Internet) and stick it next to the desk.

Yesterday, a fairly violent storm rolled through in the late afternoon, with lots of thunder, lightening and rain. The weather forecast said we might several
waves of storms during the day, so I made sure the weather radio was on in case something Really Bad was happening. Sure enough, a little later my weather radio alarm went off showing a tornado warning, but it was not for this county (Shenandoah). Still, worth staying alert. About five minutes later, I heard some rolling thunder and then sirens started going off all around us! I remember tornado sirens from growing up in Michigan, and this sounded pretty similar. Plus, they didn't stop right away.

So I ran outside, but there was no menacing dark cloud anywhere near, just normal rain clouds and a very light drizzle. The campground owner
was walking by, so I asked him if those were warning sirens and he said ... (insert drum roll here).... it was THE PARADE beginning! The kickoff for the Fireman's Carnival that would be at the "new school"! If you remember from an earlier post, there were no-parking-parade-route signs up, but no evidence of a parade.

I rushed to the street and found the evidence moving down Main Street. There were loads of firetrucks, all whoop-whooping, woo-eeeing, and beep-beeping. There were ambulances, trucks and tractors. There were slowly moving cars with local dignitaries diligently waving at the onlookers, and Little-Miss-Something-Or-Others looking girly and cute. There were happy throngs of Edinburgians (see photo), eagerly watching the firetrucks, tractors, dignitaries, and their young 'uns stuffed into cheerleadery outfits, twirling and dropping batons while trying, and sometimes succeeding, to all be on the same foot. It was a hell of a show.

Edinburg Watertower Update: I searched up and down Highway 81 for the infamous Edinburg Watertower to no avail. As one of Edinburg's main attractions, you'd think it would be easy to find (the other attraction, the library, was a snap)! Finally on my way home yesterday, I topped a hill... and there it was. Or at least there the very top of it was. I drove in and around Edinburg for what seemed like an eternity trying to find a location to get a picture of it, and I haven't been able to do that yet. The roads are twisty, and you can only see it from certain vantage points. But I'm narrowing it down! I may also be getting a deeper understanding of what drives the locals to put their water tower on a pedestal, so to speak -- more later.

While I was driving around looking for the water tower, I thought I'd find the "new school" and check out the carnival. Now Edinburg has two main streets, and a few assorted side streets, but it really isn't big enough to hide both a water tower AND a school, but yet there we are. I can't find it. Edinburg is a town of many secrets.

Small Town Life in the Shenandoah Valley

Location: Edinburg, VA

Edinburg, VA, lies at the foot of Skyline drive, and must play a pivotal role when the dictionary definition of "quaint" ("oddly picturesque") needs a bit more clarification ("Look, Mom, they're talking about Edinburg!")

It has a traditional Main Street, complete with flower pots and olde-timey street signs. It has boutiquey shops that are hoping that they will be smack dab in the middle of a "revival" in, oh, five or ten years. It has a parade route (i.e., Main Street) and I know that because there are signs that say one cannot park on Main Street Thursday 5 PM to 10 PM because it is a parade route. I have not been able to find any evidence of an actual parade, however. They do have an "Ole Time Festival" during the third week in September -- but it seems a bit excessive to put the signs up this early. Do they have a non-publicized festival now that is only for residents? Are the signs just left over from last year? Or are Edinburgians diligently practicing their parade skills each Thursday so they will truly march-as-one come September? I will try to find out, but the weather forecast for Thursday evening is pretty grim, parade-wise, so it may remain a mystery.

Edinburg does have a watertower. Really. A neat one, I'm sure, but I haven't seen it yet. I know it's special because they feel it merits a place of honor at their website. You have to admire the chutzpah of a town that still creates a web entry even though the high points of the town are the water tower, the library, and the fact that someday there will be a Cultural Center.

And the campground where I am parked has a very nice cardboardy flyer that lists, as an amenity, "Impeccably clean, modern rest rooms" and, inserted among the obligatory photos of the campground office, pretty flowers, and RVs happily parked next to a creek, is a photo of the inside of the restroom -- just in case you needed proof (FYI -- the restrooms really are the cleanest I have ever seen).

The campground is peaceful, with Great Blue Herons and waterfowl populating the creek. The town is small, neat, and the yards are often decorated with concrete bunnies, lawn gnomes guarding flower beds, mailboxes that look like barns or pigs, and artsy wind-powered ornaments. One resident found a unique way to display those ceramic houses that seem like such a good idea when we see them in the store but quickly loose their charm when we have to dust them -- on the house, of course!

But this is the Shenandoah Valley, famous for Skyline Drive and numerous caves and caverns. It's been around for a long, long time, and a little quaintness fits right in.

Look Up On Sunday!

I haven't forgotten you!

I will be heading out again on Wednesday, August 8th, and my first stop will be near Skyline Drive in Edinburg, VA. I should be there for a week.

So what's going on there? In addition to the Skyline Drive/Luray attractions, mother nature will be adding to the fun on Sunday night/Monday morning (August 12-13) when the annual Perseid meteor shower happens -- and the Edinburg area should be nice and dark. This is expected to be a good year for the shower because there will be no moon to wash out the display. Even though the peak is Sunday night/Monday morning, a lot of meteors are often seen a few days on either side. If you are so inclined, grab a lawn chair and sit outside -- the darker the site the better, but you should be able to see some almost anywhere. Telescopes not required! But you will need to sacrifice a bit of sleep -- the real showers happen after midnight, when our section of the earth has rotated into the leading edge of our orbit.

The meteors will all appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, but this can be difficult to find without a chart. Instead, just look for the big "W" in the sky. This is the constellation Cassiopeia, traditionally the Queen of Ethiopia or Andromeda's Mother. It is close enough to Perseus to serve as a guide, but is much more easily recognized.

The photo on this blog is a damselfly from Rickett's Glen. The eyes are on either side of the stalk of grass, and the white blur is the damselfly's body.

Aunt Bee Isn't Always Right (and Other Lessons Learned)

It's been two months since I moved out of my "stick" house and began full timing in the RV. Some of the things I've learned:

• The GPS B*tch, or "Aunt Bee" as I've come to call her, will lie like a bad rug on a slanty floor. You ask her for a laundromat and she takes you down a narrow, twisty road to an Amish farmhouse. You think she told you to take the upcoming expressway ramp, but as soon as you are committed to the turn and can't go back, she says in her reproachful, I-Told-You-So voice, "Re-CAL-cu-lating" and you know you are going in the wrong direction and will need to turn around at the next exit.
  Then, as if to rub it in, she says, "Continue 25 miles to the next exit." In this case, all I want to know is, "how likely is it REALLY that I'll get a ticket if I use those 'Authorized Vehicles Only' turn arounds?"
  
  
• Even if you tell the GPS you are a bus, it will take you down a road that is so narrow that two Mini Coopers could not pass each other.
  
• On the flip side, the GPS is one of the most useful and valuable things in the truck. She has made navigation back to my temporary homes a snap. She keeps me on the right road more that she takes me down the wrong road. I totally forgive her for the trip to the Amish farm while my dirty underwear sat patiently in the truck.
  
• I can grease moving parts on mechanical devices, figure out the difference between volts, watts, and amps, and learn why the load range of a tire is important.
  
  
• Less "stuff" = more happiness.
  
• Satellite radio is a wonderful invention.
  
• RV people are the most friendly and helpful folks in the world. They will loan you lengths of hose if you can't quite reach the faucet, and will help you navigate through a mine field of parked vehicles when you need to leave in the morning and are towing 23 feet of RV. If the RVers are a man and a woman, odds are the man does all the driving. Odds are the woman will offer you food, such as cookies or watermelon. Odds are any kids or grand kids will be off happily playing in the great outdoors, not watching TV or playing video games.
  
  
• I can haul an RV down a 9% grade and not panic when the transmission in a lower gear starts to sound like a jet plane taking off. I can also
  haul the RV up an 18% grade and have the sense to go down a by a different road.
  
• Hose connections don't leak if you put Vaseline on the threads.
  
  
• I can back an RV into a relatively tight spot, but it isn't pretty. There is no shame in getting out of the truck to see where you are, and where you will end up if you continue to moving in the same direction. There is no shame in pulling forward and starting over.
  
• You need to start turning earlier than you think.
  
  
• Life on the road is a fabulous adventure.