The mountains call me home...

The first time was over 20 years ago, that I went to Luray.  And fell in love with it. Tucked the foothills of  the Blue Ridge mountains, it is like my personal slice of heaven. One almost leaves one's stress and anxiety on 211 about halfway across the Blue Ridge, and by the time one hits the Brookside, if your timing is right, just in time for dinner, you are relaxed and ready to enjoy.

The Brookside

Homemade apple pie and peach cobbler

The Brookside has been there forever, I think. Last week, 25 years later, we went in for our first dinner and I saw, I swear, the same waitress who first waited on us. I inquired and found that she has been there for 38 years. Thirty. Eight. Years. And the food?  Just the best home cookin' anywhere. I challenge you to find better chicken fried steak, or flakier pie crust. Or the peach cobbler that tastes like it just came out of my Nana's oven. On leaving the restaurant, visiting the peacocks is mandatory. Ask Katie. The first thing she asked me was to take pics of the peacocks. I did not need to ask her what peacocks.  And walking to the brook. Yea, it literally IS Brookside. 

The long and winding road...

Peacocks at the Brookside

Bovine Drive

We stayed in a rental house for this trip. The long and winding road indeed. South Page Valley Road runs along the south fork of the Shenandoah River. The road to the house ran off S. Page Valley. After roads like 

Bovine Drive, Black Angus Road, Fish Trap Road, Cathy's Mountain, there is Forest Road, a bendy, curvy dirt road wide enough for one and a half cars. Seriously.  If you were to catch a car coming the other way you would literally have to pull over just about into the ditch.

Forest Glen~home for a week

Redneck Eggs Benedict

There was Uncle Bucks Restaurant, in town, where we ate once or twice. Breakfast was “Redneck Eggs Benedict”.  Oh. My. God. Homemade biscuits, light as air, topped with sausage, sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, and cheese. Good thing we went walking that day! And across the street from Uncle Bucks, Page Theatre. It’s pink. You can’t miss it.

Page Theatre

Luray Caverns

The mountain air is astoundingly amazing. A rich mix of fresh water river, pine trees, red clay and clear air. It hits you as soon as you walk out the door and wraps you in peace and calm. 

We did the caverns, Luray and Skyline both, and they are amazing sites to see. Emma was our guide for Skyline Caverns, and she was adorable and so very smart.

We drove Skyline Drive, because, well, it’s Skyline Drive, duh. Literally along the top of the Blue Ridge. The views are…humbling and so very beautiful.   You need only look around at any of the overlooks on Skyline, to know that we’re all really so very small, and that there is something so much greater. It is truly humbling. We hiked two of the trails, one to a waterfall. We will hike more trails in time, I think.

Limberlost Trail

Shenandoah Park

And. The. Views.....

Who would not want to wake up to this every morning???

Copper Fox Distillery

We found Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, across the mountain.  You would never  know it was a distillery. They make some damn fine whiskey and gin there. And Darcy, the granddaughter of the founder, and our tour guide? An absolute delight.

Copper Fox Distillery

Copper Fox Distillery

Copper Fox Distillery

Copper Fox Distillery

Dinner our last night was at Dan's Steak House. For real, the appetizers alone could have been dinner. And the steaks, good lord, cooked to perfection and as big as the plates themselves. Their mascot is a cow. Shock, I know. 

Dan/s Steakhouse Mascot

I prefer not to think about their fate...

Things you see in the south….A truck loaded with chickens (rather sad, I think), cows, a squiggly black snake scootching off the road, a doe and her fawn frozen in the middle of the road staring at you for a split second before she bolts, knocking down the poor fawn (we waited until they were both safely off the road in the woods). Friendly, genuinely friendly people who ask, “How y’all doin’ today”, and actually mean it.

Random yellow roof house

Yep, we're definitely below the Mason-Dixon here

Doe on the run

Cows, of course.

I have always felt homesick leaving Luray. I think it is where I was meant to be.  I stand in the midst of all that is good, all of nature, trees towering overhead, the waterfall whispering in the distance, like it’s calling me home, hearing nothing aside from birdcalls, the slight breeze in the leaves, and I realize that this is important, this understanding that there is so much more than  my little world on Long Island. I do love Long Island, living near the Great South Bay, the river outside my window, the city a mere train ride away, the ocean easily accessible. But I am constantly drawn back to the valley. Being able to share my love for this place with the fiance just reinforces it.  I believe he loves it as much as I do. Maybe it goes back to all the summers I spent in Georgia on my grandparents’ farm. Maybe it goes deeper than that. I don’t know. I do know that I will always hold this place dear, and that I will return again and again, like coming home.

Foals~Mountain At My Gates   

"Mountain At My Gates"

~Foals~

I see a mountain at my gates
I see it more and more each day
What I give, it takes away
Whether I go or when I stay

I see a mountain at my gates
I see it more and more each day
I see a fire out by the lake
I'll drive my car without the brakes

I see a mountain in my way
It's looming larger by the day
I see a darkness in my fate
I'll drive my car without the brakes

Oh, gimme some time
Show me the foothold from which I can climb
Yeah, when I feel low
You show me a signpost for where I should go

I see a mountain at my gates
I see it more and more each day
And my desire wears a dark dress
But each day, I see you less

Oh, gimme some time
Show me the foothold from which I can climb
Yeah, when I feel low
You show me a signpost for where I should go

Through lanes and stone rows
Black granite, wind blows
Fire lake and far flame
Go now but come again
Dark clouds gather 'round
Will I run or stand my ground?

Oh, when I come to climb
Show me the mountain so far behind
Yeah, it's farther away
Its shadow gets smaller day after day

Yeah, gimme my way
Gimme my love
Gimme my choice
You keep me coming around
Gimme my fate
Gimme my lungs
Gimme my voice
You keep me coming around
Gimme my lungs
Gimme my, gimme my, gimme my, gimme my
Gimme my, gimme my, gimme my, gimme my, gimme my way
Gimme my fate
Gimme my lungs
Gimme my choice
You keep me coming round

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