"It's A Haaike!": Down the East Coast

It's been a while, but here's our post from two weeks ago.... we're working on catching up! (Can you find the picture gone wrong?)

We woke up Friday morning, May 22, with a long list with lots to do before the 3 day Chag.  Although we did not accomplish everything that was on the list one very important thing that took some time was to unload the car, clean it thoroughly, and then repack the car in an organized manner.  The hope was to organize the car so that we would be prepared for two more passengers for later in the trip, but the back seat only had room for one.  It was a step in the right direction.  After spending a few hours cleaning the filth in the car we bought some groceries and did laundry.  Shabbat came quicker than anticipated and the day was over.

On Shabbat LeeAnn, Meir and LeeAnn’s dad, Jerry, went to shul before we went back to his house for dinner.  LeeAnn’s Uncle Paul came in for dinner and brought us a huge tent.  Thank you Uncle Paul!  On Shabbat morning we went to shul and then came home for lunch where Meir’s Aunt Lori and cousin Joanna came for a quick but great visit.  In addition Abby and Ed Prince, and Ed’s mother came from down the block.  We had such a great time!

Then with little time in between lunch and Shavuot (unfortunately no nap) we went to LeeAnn’s parents’ chavurah for a potluck and some learning to kick off the holiday.  We were bringing the challah and we walked in a little later than expected but have no fear people began eating without us.  There were some very interesting people there who taught classes on the Nazir, fragrances in Judaism, and one about angels.  Some parts were more interesting than others but the cheesecakes were delicious!

Afterwards LeeAnn and Meir walked to the conservative shul where we heard a class about Yiftah and his daughter. We then picked up LeeAnn’s neighbor, Shelley, and went to a young couple’s house in the community who invited young people to shmuz and learn at their house throughout the night.  We took the 20 minute walk and finally found Penina and Zach’s house.  We stayed for about an hour before heading over to the orthodox shul for 2 classes.  Then we went back to the conservative shul to make the minyan at 5:30am.  It was a much longer and drawn out service than Meir and LeeAnn were expecting for such an early minyan.  By 7am we were back at her parents’ house for a well deserved sleep.

We woke up around noon for lunch at LeeAnn's parents house for a quiet meal after a long night.  Afterwards we went outside, drank some beer, and sat on the bench swing outside the house.  The trees were very nice and the breeze was blowing.  Around 4pm we went to an afternoon tikkun at Morty and Ester's (community members) house.  On the way there someone shouted across the street at Meir and asked him if he was David's brother.  This was extremely weird to be in Highland Park, NJ and to have someone tell Meir that she new his brother.  After talking to Penina for a bit we learned that Penina is good friends with Meir's sister in law Yael.  The Jewish world is so small!

We got to the learning and ate cheese cake.  Then learning happened.  We definitely have our priorities straight!  We left the learning after a few hours, went home to make cheese cake, changed for the Chutz Laaretz tradition of 2nd day chag, and went to shul.

After Shul we went to Stephanie and Mark's (community members) house for a delicious vegetarian dinner.  Their daughter, son in law and two grandchildren were there for chag as well. Time to catch up on some ZZZZZzzzzzzz.

In the morning we went to shul where a young women was celebrating her 99th birthday.  WOW!  For lunch the cantor, his wife Emily and their son Henry came over along with our friend Shira from Nativ.  We had a fun time and ate delicious salmon and stuffed shells (pasta shells stuffed with ricotta  cheese, spinach, and sauce).  MMMMmmmmm good!  We thought lunch was delicious and over and then we remembered the two cheese cakes we had made (one glutten free for Pam and Shira).  After lunch we went on a walk with Shira around the neighborhood to Donaldson Park and hung out there for a little while, catching up on life.  It was a very hot day so coming back drinking cold water and Sangria and having Klondike ice cream bars was perfect!  Chag was very nice with sooo much good food but it was almost over and we had to get to work soon after.

When chag ended we took the tent that LeeAnn's uncle Paul gave us to use and pitched it in the front yard to see it's condition.  It was such a huge tent and we knew it would fit the two of us, Becca (picking her up in Nashville, TN next week), and Becky (picking her up in Austin, TX in 2 weeks).  Then we put the tent away, organized our stuff a bit, did laundry, and hung out with LeeAnn's friend Alli and LeeAnn's sister Miriam.

Tuesday morning we repacked the car and started back on our way.  We took 95 S through NJ, Delaware, and Maryland and from the outskirts of Washington D.C. we took the 66 west towards Shenandoah National Park.  

We wanted to do a long hike that a friend told us about in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, but by the time we got close we realized we wouldn’t finish before sunset.  Instead, we also knew that the Luray Caverns were nearby, and thought we could check those out.  On our drive to find them, we ended up at the Skyline Caverns, and decided to just go there instead.  

We ended up on a private tour, since no one else happened to be around.  

Brad, our guide, told us all the secrets of the place, including the fact that the first of the three streams they show us is fake, though it does have a live catfish in it (that they brought down).  Apparently if the fish stay there for too long without anyone turning on lights ever, they go blind.

He tried to bring us back to a place no one goes, but it just ended up being a storage area where they keep work equipment and spare light bulbs.

It was a fun tour, though LeeAnn wasn’t a fan of the stuff they moved around.  Like in Fantasy Lake there were beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, but there was one that they had moved around and built to look like a rocker symbol.  It seemed silly with it all being so cool on its own to add silly things like that.

 Toward the end of the tour, we went into a separate cave that used to be a natural vacuum.  The man who discovered it had his work hat and hammer blown away by the rush of air that entered the vacuum when he opened it.  Inside is grass looking crystals called anthodites.  They are extremely rare, since they grow in vacuums, and it is difficult to find natural vacuums.  So far, they have only been discovered in this cave in Virginia, in Tennessee, New Mexico, and France.  The place in Tennessee is actually doing some studies on them to learn more about them now, since not so much is known.  They come in different colors, including greenish, orange/yellow, and a lot of white.  The one we saw has the oldest anthodite found.

Once we left the cavern, we got into a conversation with the woman in the gift shop.  We could tell we were moving south.  She blessed us as we left, and we moved on.

We wanted to take the Skyline drive through Shenandoah.  

Sounded like a good plan at the time.  Turns out most of it you have to drive very slowly, and there are very few exits.  

LeeAnn didn't feel like getting out for this one

After a few stops at observations, we realized most of the views were the same, and didn’t bother stopping anymore.  A highlight for Meir was when we had to stop for deer in the road (LeeAnn sees deer in the road pretty regularly in NJ).

We finally made it out and drove straight to LeeAnn’s cousins’ house in Charlottesville, VA via the 33 east to the 29 south (Sadly we forgot to get a picture with them).  Our plan was to stay for one night, but we really wanted to climb Old Rag Mountain, in Shenandoah National Park, so we decided we’d stay an extra night.

Wednesday morning we woke up, picked up Bodo’s Bagels, and brought them to eat breakfast with LeeAnn’s grandma.  We refilled our waterbottles there, and drove back to Shenandoah for the hike.

There weren’t really signs for Old Rag, so we just followed the roads on the map, and ended up unsure if we were in the right place.  After reading a sign, we realized we were on the other side, but we could still do the hike from where we were.  

We started the hike up a dirt road, following a wild turkey for a little while until he turned off the path, and continued up a pretty steep trail.  

LeeAnn started getting hungry, as usual, and we weren’t sure how close we were to the top, so we stopped on a nice rock ledge and took out our cans.  The whole day we were a bit nervous about thunderstorms, and as we started opening our food, it started to rain.  We scooped everything up and ran for cover, a little ways up the mountain where there was an overhanging rock.

After a long lunch break, we discovered that we were, in fact, quite close to the top, and stopped for a fun photo shoot climbing along the rocks and enjoying the view from up there.  

The sky was looking a bit menacing, so we decided to move on, and continue the loop.  Now onto the hard part, the whole reason LeeAnn wanted to do the hike to begin with.  The way down (which we had planned to do as the way up) was a scramble up and over, down and around, between and through boulders.  There were multiple times when we weren’t sure if we were even on the path anymore.  Usually we were, though once we had to turn around and find the right way again.  

At the top of one of the peaks, Meir spotted a rainbow down below.  Neither of us is sure if we’ve ever been above a rainbow before, it was awe-inspiring.

The trail was definitely dangerous.  There were times Meir had to push LeeAnn up rocks, or LeeAnn had to give Meir a hand.  There were places we had to jump across from boulder to boulder with a big crevice in between, and one we had to go under and turn, we thought we had to keep crawling forward.  It eventually did rain on our way down, which was terrifying.  We were at one of the steepest places, and we managed to get out of the rain, but when it stopped we had to continue, despite the wet rocks.  It definitely slowed our already slow pace, as it added a slippery aspect.  The rocks were more like slides.

When we finally got to the bottom, the trail just kept going, and LeeAnn started to worry that we’d be caught hiking after dark.  It didn’t turn out that way, but it definitely felt like the hike should be over since we’d finished the hard part.  Throughout the long day hike, we had some good talks.

We finally made it back to the car, and while we were getting ready to drive, with LeeAnn in the driver’s seat and her window down, Meir suddenly got a horrified look on his face.  LeeAnn thought there must be a giant spider behind her.  It was a deer.  He was so close and cute.  LeeAnn took a quick photo, and the flash went off.  

This picture did not need to be zoomed in

To both of our surprise, his reaction was to walk CLOSER to the car, so LeeAnn quickly turned on the car and shut the window.  Thankfully he got bored and walked away, and we went back along what was apparently a two way road, though we’re not sure how we could have ever gotten past another car.  We were on the way back to the house in Charlottesville via the 231 south and the 29 south.

Back in Charlottesville, we had another relaxed night, watching America’s Got Talent (some Americans are very NOT talented, though there are some who are), and eating dinner.

Thursday morning we took care of some things like blogging and email before heading out from Charlottesville, VA to Greensboro, NC, on the 29 south the whole way.  When we entered North Carolina, the state speed limit was 55 mph, but the next speed we saw was 70 mph… so basically we don’t know what a state speed limit means.  Meir also noticed how many shredded tires were along the side and middle of the road.  (247 and counting!)

We’ve also decided that every town has a Church Street (yes, with churches on them), and a United Methodist Church.

Meir had looked up things to do in Greensboro, NC.  First, we stopped by Pig Pounder Brewery. 

Supposedly they had a tour, but we didn’t end up on it.  It was a tiny place, apparently about to celebrate its one year anniversary.  The first stop we made inside was to the PINK bathrooms.  The toilet, sink, paper towel dispenser… everything was pink.  Back at the bar the beers sounded so interesting, so we bought a flight to try all 8 (7 on tap, 1 in a keg).  They were really good, with really funny names and pictures, though we had our favorites.

 From there we headed just up the road to the baseball park to see the Greensboro Grasshoppers lose miserably to the Lakeview BlueClaws. The Grasshoppers were clearly outplayed, but it was fun being at a baseball game.  Meir learned how much fun minor league games are, with a lot of entertainment between innings. 

Miss Babe Ruth (replaced bat boy)

After the game was over we still had a bit of a drive left.  We had talked to our friend Garrett from Nativ, who lives in Charlotte, NC and we were planning on spending the night with him.  The 85 south took us to the Charlotte area and we finally found his house by midnight.  We stayed up for a few hours drinking delicious (alcoholic) rootbeer and caught up on our lives with Garrett.

We woke up in the morning and went to Amelie’s French Bakery where we sat with Garrett and LeeAnn’s friend, Jessica, from her travels in Uganda.  It was a really cool place with different random art pieces around the bakery.  LeeAnn also really enjoyed seeing Jessica and catching up with her.

Garrett, Meir, LeeAnn, and Jessica

Jessica and LeeAnn

We then headed to Atherton Mill, where there's a cute farmer's market and we tried a few free samples.

We were running out of time, so we did a cute drive around uptown Charlotte (they don't have a downtown).

The crosswalk by NASCAR Hall of Fame

From there we hit the road in order to get to Atlanta, GA for Shabbat.  We were going to spend Shabbat at LeeAnn’s BU Rabbi’s house.  We drove from Charlotte, NC via the 85 south all the way through South Carolina and into Atlanta, GA.  We've been having fun watching the fines for littering change.  In the Northeast, they were all around $50 fines.  In Georgia we saw up to $1,200.

On the way we could not make too many stops because of time but we saw a few different signs for different peach samples all at the same place and although it was strange we were in South Carolina and not Georgia for the peaches we stopped nonetheless for free samples.  We had amazing peach cider, peach jam, awesome peach salsa, and peach bread.  The woman behind the counter could tell we weren’t there to buy.  It was a quick yet delicious stop on the road. 

When we got to Atlanta we stopped to pick up a few bottles of wine for our hosts and went to their complex.  We asked a Jewish looking woman named Yiti where the Beyo’s lived and she told us where upstairs.  She then told us that one of us is staying at her place for Shabbat.  It was funny that Yiti happened to be the one we ran into to ask directions.  Meir was supposed to sleep there because the Beyo’s did not have room for both of us in their place.  We went upstairs to say hello to the Beyo’s and after talking for a few minutes Shabbat preparation needed to begin.  LeeAnn took her stuff upstairs to the Beyo’s and Meir took his to Yiti’s house. 

We had a very nice Shabbat eating a quiet dinner (after the kids, Uriel and Amiel went to bed) with just the Beyo’s and us.  We had such interesting conversations.

On Shabbat morning we planned to meet when we woke up and went to Shul.  We ended up at Beth Jacob, which has a beautiful sanctuary with artwork of the twelve tribes around the ceiling.  Although we got there very late we experienced the longest announcements Meir has ever heard because it was youth Shabbat.  There were tons of speeches and they gave out awards to pretty much all the youth there.  We left early because the award ceremony was too long and we continued down the road to a little spharadi shul (either Iranian or Iraqi?) that meets in the local school, where we got their in time for Kiddush.  It was very nice meeting people in the community and they were very friendly.  We left the Kiddush in order to get back to the Beyo’s for lunch.

The Beyo’s invited a family from Russia with kids who were very nice and sparked conversation about what defines an animal as kosher.  The question arose if a cow gives birth to a pig is the pig kosher?  What a strange yet fun topic of conversation for Shabbat lunch!

After lunch we went downstairs to the pool area where we laid out, talked, and read about our upcoming week and things to do in Tennessee.  We decided to go swimming after Shabbat was over and Meir’s host Yiti was making homemade pizza.  After swimming we showered and ate pizza before going to bed.

Meir and Amiel

Karolyn, Uriel, Amiel, LeeAnn, Rabbi Beyo

In the morning we went to Stone Mountain right near Atlanta where we climbed up an extremely steep mountain.  

When we got to the top the view was gorgeous and the thunderstorm clouds began looking more and more a part of our fate.  

We made it down before the rain began coming down and decided to drive around the Stone Mountain area.  Just before we started off, there was an incredibly loud alarm, presumably warning people that the storm was coming in, but they didn’t bother to say what anyone should do… LeeAnn, who had been heading to the bathroom, quickly turned around and went back to the car.

We looked at a park map, and decided to drive around the park, even if we couldn’t really do more hiking.  Driving, we felt so bad for everyone we found walking and biking through the rain, and those huddling for shelter, clearly caught unaware.  We ended up finding a cool covered bridge to drive over, but when we tried to so the short hike on the other side, we realized that the rain letting up was only temporary. 

We found a nice little area where there was a carving on the side of the mountain.  The Confederate Memorial Carving is apparently the largest high relief sculpture in the world.  We wandered around the grounds, looking at other sculptures and inspirational quotes.  We walked around despite the rain and even found an inside attraction where we saw a video on the creation of the carving.  It was very interesting to see them on ladders and cranes at a time where it seemed more dangerous to be so high up (especially in poor weather).  Meir was shocked that the women working there said that, “only 3 people died in the carving process”.  It seems like 3 people is a lot to loose when you are trying to merely make art.  Although it was fascinating a little bit of guilt set in that we were at a site where people had to die to create.

 On our way out, we stopped under a tent to try to win a vacation.  LeeAnn spun a wheel and won a cruise, but ended up with a voucher for a 2 day 3 night hotel stay somewhere (it was pretty sketchy, every spot on the wheel was a vacation, and if it wasn’t a vacation it was spin again…).  We’ll see if that pans out, but she’s not holding her breath.

We didn’t have much more time before we needed to leave Atlanta, so we decided to chase some weird Roadside America sites (it’s a website with weird things around the country).  We stopped by a Whitehouse replica (it was unclear whether or not it’s actually someone’s house, so we may have been those creepy people wandering in someone’s yard).  

Then we headed on to see a giant fish statue at the Fish Market. 

We drove quickly through downtown, seeing the sites.

After we were done in Atlanta we began driving north towards Tennessee.  The plan was to camp out in between Atlanta and Nashville but the weather said there were going to be thundershowers all night in the area.  We did not want to camp and more importantly pitch a tent and set up camp in the middle of rain so after some researching online in a McDonalds, we found a cheap motel to stay at for the night in Manchester, TN.  We took the 75 north to Chattanooga, TN from Atlanta, GA and then the 24 west from there to Manchester, TN.  We passed a place called Chatahoochee.  We were in rain the majority of the drive.  24 West was a funny road.  We got on in Tennessee, missed a picture of the welcome to Tennessee sign, suddenly passed a welcome to Georgia sign, and then a few minutes later got a very blurry picture of a welcome to Tennessee sign again.  It’s so odd how the road dips out for a few miles.

We woke up in the morning and the time confused us.  Meir’s phone said one time and LeeAnn’s said it was an hour later.  

We realized we must be close to a different time zone and that LeeAnn’s phone had switched to central time and Meir’s phone needed some time to adjust.  If we’d known we could have slept in a bit later.

We decided to do a few short hikes prior to getting to Nashville, TN.  The drive out to them had 0 traffic, it was crazy.  Our plan was to take 55 north, but somehow we missed it and took smaller roads, then 70S North, to 136 to 135.  We went to Burgess State Falls near Cookeville, TN where we went on a nice hike.  Water was streaming and there were baby waterfalls as we hiked.  

Although we got rained on and hid beneath the trees, after the rain died down we went to the bottom gorge where we sat next to the gigantic waterfall and had lunch.  On the way down we walked by a family and the father said to us, “It’s a haaaiike”.  The accent was priceless.  We also didn’t totally believe him, since a sign had said this was a strenuous hike, and until that point it wasn’t.  Well, he was right.  Thanks for the warning! 

At the bottom we found a city of crawfish that were having town meetings and big fights.

Debatable

After the huge hike back up all the stairs and inclines we went to Cummins Falls state park, on 135 for most of the way, where we went on a another hike.  The trees were very nice and the water was calming.  

The signage and trail were hard to follow, so we were not sure where to go.  We ended up at a creek where we were told if we continued we could get to a nice waterfall, but we never got there.  We knew we were supposed to cross the creek, but we weren’t sure where was a good spot, so we sat by the creek and Meir found an amazing walking stick.  He took it with him and will whittle it the remainder of the trip. 

From there we decided to set up camp a little earlier, and drove to Edgar Evans State Park to set up camp.  We accidentally ended up driving back through Cookesville, but ended up on 40 West as we needed to.  The primitive sites were the ones we wanted to pay for, but they were down a bunch of steps away from the car, and we didn’t feel like lugging our stuff.  We’d gotten in late enough that no one was around, so we just took a regular site.  Meir wittled a bit and cooked, while LeeAnn repacked the car to make space for Becca.  It got dark earlier than we anticipated, but we got enough done.

Tuesday morning, we got up early to go pick up Becca from the bus station in Nashville, driving back on 40 West into the city.  All that will be in the next blog!