It is the Future. The Distant Future.

It is the year 3000...Commander Neelloc and Citizen Neb have avoided detection by the security cameras and the Imperial forces of Queen Hannah Montana IV. All that is left of the human race has given itself over to despair...all except those inspired to shake their bones!!! With their advanced circuitry, they bring revolutionary zest to dining rooms across the land. Their well-articulated joints serve as portents of things to come...

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Another Weekend in the Shenandoahs

Happy Easter from Virginia!

We spent the holiday weekend settling back into the area, with a day-long trip to Harrisonburg and, today, a holiday hike around the Rivanna River.

Yesterday, after a stop at Eastern Mennonite University, we had a lively tour of the Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center, where we learned about emigrants from Pennsylvania who sought religious freedom in the otherwise unoccupied Shenandoah Valley and were instructed about the many forms of modern Mennonites by our guide, Miriam. It was a surprisingly good museum -- for being in the middle of nowhere -- and even had a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of twentieth-century evangelical Brethren revivals.

Here's the school house at the top of the hill at the site. They had a sunrise service there this morning, which Miriam happily invited us to attend (with folding chairs!); the wind whipping around at the summit was fierce enough yesterday that we instead choose to sleep in. Silly us, though, because when we tried to attend mass this morning in C'ville, we were turned away! Too many people, claimed the fire marshal. Hrmph. Don't hear about the Catholics turning folks away too much these days!

Anyway, back to yesterday. We had a great lunch at the Little Grill Collective (worker owned and hippie certified), and tried Harrisonburg's infamous Kline's Dairy Bar. It was all part of my new trend in choosing foods that come in edible containers, and, regardless of the freezing, rainy day, the ice cream wasn't too shabby either.

We had a short stop at the Dayton Farmer's Market, a Mennonite-Brethren-run grouping of stores a la Lancaster, PA, which specialized in pickled beets and eggs. We opted for the sourdough cinnamon bread, beeswax, and birch beer instead. ;-) Next, on our way south toward Swoope, home of Polyface Farms, we were distracted by signs to the Natural Chimneys Regional Park, which seemed to have all the promise of Virginia's Natural Bridge, but turned out to be more of a camp ground ...

Not much to write home about, folks. Some molten limestone deposits grew into weird shapes in a valley of the Shenandoah... The most exciting part of this place was that it's home to the Jousting Hall of Fame and hosts the nation's largest annual jousting fair on the grass in front of the chimneys, in addition to several weekend Renn faires. All ye knights and fair maidens unite, this June!

Here is the site's other chimney collection:

And here's how Ben felt when he realized, just before we got back to the car, that the Chimney caves were open for exploration:

I was a little less pleased:

Without too much spelunking, we got back on the road and saw these adorable fences at the Fox Meadow Farm along a beautiful stretch of Rt. 42 south.

Thank goodness for Bessie, our trusty GPS, because otherwise, we would have been very lost in the middle of farm land that could have been Kentucky, Iowa, northern California? Finally, after many twists and turns on dirt roads, many swerves away from small children carrying hay, and many, many cattle later, we found Polyface Farms, which will probably only be interesting to my dad (has anyone else read The Omnivore's Dilemma?).

It was closed by the time we got there, though we managed to procure some of their famous eggs for our apropos Easter eggs Benedict supper with local asparagus and imported Hollandaise (I couldn't find the packet at the fru-fru store, guys!). These were the only real Polyface friends we met along the drive:

After a quick stop in Staunton for dinner at the Baja Bean Co., our new favorite place thanks to the ultra-friendly manager and the easy vegetarian menu items, we crashed back into C'ville as the sun set over the mountains.

Another weekend, another funventure for Koala, B & M. Hope everyone's enjoying time with family and friends on the holiday and getting a bellyache from too many jelly beans. ;-)