July 14 a Sunday, I took off for Boston and to finally see my Daughter after way too many years. Almost 1000 miles, but as my old friend from Manatee hospital ER, Dr Harvey would say ” It’s got to be done”, He usually said after I replied ” does this patient really need a Blood Gas?”. Anyway, after thanking my dear friends Blake and Jody for their help and love, I headed North.
A few months ago I met these really nice people in a state park in Kentucky, called Grayson Lake State park. It’s located in Olive Hill, Kentucky. Just south of the Ohio state line, off of interstate 64. Beautiful place with rolling hills and a golf course! The park was nearly empty so I was able to pick my own site and I did, in the shade. Next to me was an RV and a husband and wife, Tonya and Jim. I think I mentioned them before so I won’t repeat that story. Anyway very nice people and we had stayed in touch since then. They had told me if I was ever up there way( they live in Virginia) to stop by. Well I checked my maps and realized that they were indeed on my way. I gave them a call and Jim was happy to hear from me, he told me to come by, I was welcome to stay there. So I did, Jim even set up their RV for me to stay in right in the driveway. It was a little over 4 hr drive to their home. Jim was happy to see me when I arrived, we went inside and I said Hi to Tonya, cooking away in the kitchen and it smelled good. Jim and I went out and he showed me the RV. They lived in a very pretty area with mountains as backdrops, Staunton, VA. Jim had told me about this old Railroad tunnel near by, that he wanted to show me and was a neat place to ride bikes. Back inside the house, Tonya had dinner on the table. After a wonderful meal, we loaded the bikes on his “bike rack” and headed to Rockfish Gap, VA. you can find it near Afton Mountain off the Blue ridge parkway. We arrived at the tunnel, there was a multiuse path heading to it, so we got the bikes off the rack and prepared to ride down there. As I was looking for my light, I saw one of my treasured things in my bar bag. It was a whistle that was once my Grandfather’s, he had it in his tackle box which he gave me. It wasn’t just any old whistle it was a train whistle sounding thing, I used it on Anna Maria Island when riding my bike. Oh, it was loud. I did a little research and it’s called a multiple tube whistle, mine has three tubes of different sizes, they were built in the late 1880’s and into the 1900’s and made mainly for railroad workers to use. Pretty cool. Well, you can only imagine what I did. I rode my bike. I rode my bike towards the tunnel, it was beautiful and a nice path. Bicycles, pedestrians, joggers, and baby strollers with real babies in them. People of all types, all colors, all enjoying this historic railroad tunnel.
The Blue Ridge Tunnel was started in the 1850’s and was being built to have a way to the West through the mountain. it was engineered by Claudius Crozet well known for his craft of tunnel building. It was built on the backs of Irish immigrants, and many black slaves, with almost 200 deaths during the building. It was started before dynamite had been invented so they used pick axes and black powder to dig through this mountain. At the time it was the longest railroad tunnel in the country at over 4, 000 feet, nearly a mile. But as trains grew in size and ability to carry bigger loads, this tunnel was too small and a replacement was built beside it. Eventually, it was made into a really nice trail to walk through the tunnel in the dark with just a small light or your phone to guide you on through the darkness towards the light at the end of the tunnel. It was a crisp 58 degrees in the tunnel, while it was 89 degrees outside. There are little pockets of condensation along the sides of the trail as you ride through. Oh, I rode through alright, did I mention that the headlight on my bike is 1000 lumens? And another thing, that whistle is loud, dude. I rode into that tunnel blowing that whistle like a train driven by Casey Jones himself, it was hilarious, People were spinning around, parents were grabbing their children, all they could see was a bright light and a train a coming. With a crazy old man riding by. Later outside of the other side, I took some pictures and a nice family three boys and a baby girl who appeared to be Amish walked up, I had caught a quick glimpse of them in the tunnel, so I said hi, they too said hello. I asked the oldest boy if he heard the ghost train go through the tunnel, he’s eyes got big and looked at me “really?” he said, I looked at his parents and others and them didn’t seem to be offended, so I took the whistle out, and no was all I said. I asked him if he wanted to try it, he looked at his parents approval, and took it over to the tunnel stepped in and let it go, he turned around as the train echoed in the tunnel with a grin from ear to ear. ” It’s my birthday” he said to me as they walked away with something to talk about later.
Jim and rode back to the car and loaded up the bikes and headed back to his place. I settled in to the RV and hit the hay. The next morning I got up , Jim had breakfast ready, I ate and left to my next stop on my way to see my Daughter. Thanks Jim and Tonya for everything!
Of course I read “it’s got to be done” in Dr Harvey’s voice and can still see his big smile while telling us of some gross or painful or just unpleasant thing about to be done. I love the train whistle story.