Keep Driving

We made the trip north many times when I was a kid. There were certain landmarks along the way that I still remember fondly: the buffalo in Harrisonburg, which are no longer there, and the Johnny Appleseed restaurant in New Market where we would stop for breakfast on the way home.

But the state of Virginia seemed like a mystical, magical place to me.

There were signs all along the interstate advertising various caverns: Endless Caverns, Grand Caverns, Luray Caverns, Shenandoah Caverns, and Skyline Caverns. I'm probably missing a few. I wanted to visit those caverns so badly as a kid, hoping to come across a C.H.U.D. or something.

Ok. Considering C.H.U.D. didn't come out until I was 14, I probably wasn't expecting to meet a C.H.U.D. But I had seen enough episodes of In Search Of to know that if I was going to meet an extraordinary creature, it would probably be in one of those caverns.

But I never got to go. I begged and pleaded, but I was always told, "We're on a schedule."

Damn.

This weekend, I saw those signs again.

I wasn't on a schedule.

I was alone, so I didn't have to worry if no one else wanted to see the caverns.

I could finally see the caverns!

But I kept driving.

When I was a kid, I remember our parents finally relenting and letting us stop at South Of The Border on our fourth or fifth trip to the beach. It wasn't the great place I had envisioned in my mind. It was just a lot of neon and negative stereotypes.

Sometimes it's better to hold onto hope than to discover the truth.

Sometimes it's better to keep driving.