Only 90 Miles From Washington, DC

Luray is only 90 miles from Washington, DC but it is part of an entirely different world. My wife and I were looking for a quiet place to rest for a week or so somewhere nearby. So, we ended up renting a cabin out in the Page County countryside near Luray, Virginia.

Page County is exceptionally rural given its proximity to our nation’s capital. The population density is listed at only 74 per square mile. Page County is located in the Northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, bordered on the East by the mountains of the Shenandoah National Park and on the West by the Mountains of the George Washington National Forest. It is easy to see why early settlers chose to live here, on gently rolling hillsides and prime bottom land, safely sheltered between two mountain ranges. Even today it is a world unto itself. Only two major roads and no Interstates disturb the tranquility of the landscape. Once you turn off one of these main roads you will soon hear the crunch of gravel beneath your tire. There are still a lot of farms in Page County. They seem unusually neat and clean. The corn and other crops grow in straight carefully tended rows under the hot July sunshine. There is some light industry in the County, but nothing major. I was surprised to discover a Wrangler Jeans plant still operates in Luray. The once thriving American garment industry is nearly dead.

To reach the cabin we rented, it is necessary to turn off the paved road and descend into a valley inside the valley. The road drops 100 feet or more into the Shenandoah River bottom. Across the gently meandering stream, a steep hill, almost a cliff, rises up from the water’s edge. Along a ¼ mile of dirt road that runs parallel to the river, folks have built 12 or more cabins and built semi-permanent hookups for half that number of trailers. Some of the cabins are little more than fishermen’s shacks. Some, like the one we rented are pretty nice. On the weekends, there is a fair amount of activity down by the river. Kids are out playing, riding their bicycles, and setting off firecrackers. During the week, it gets pretty quiet. In the morning I would read out on the deck. The only sounds were the songs of cicadas and the river.

The first evening there, an outdoor wedding was held in a little pavilion overlooking the water next to our cabin. The minister and the wedding party were sheltered but the guests sat in folding chairs out on the grass. It was strange to look down on a wedding from a second storey viewpoint. A middle aged woman, clearly in charge, checked a piece of paper from time to time. Then she snapped out orders, making certain that all the participants performed their proper roles at the proper time. I was surprised by how quickly it was all over. Something that will generate so many long term consequences ought to take longer.

Unemployment in Page County stands at 9.3%, just a bit over the national average of 9.2%, but noticeably higher than some nearby counties. It is a little sad that some place so beautiful and peaceful can’t generate enough jobs for it citizens. One of the local businessmen told me Luray has its rush hour at 3:30 in the morning. Local men carpool to construction jobs in the Washington metropolitan area, leaving in the middle of the night and returning in the afternoon. There is a surprisingly well used Park and Ride lot in Luray. It is hard to imagine commuting that far every day. Main Street is in pretty good shape. Obviously, as in the rest of the country, the family owned stores that built the town center have been replaced by Walmart and the other chain stores that one finds out on what could be described as the bypass. However, the menswear store, the five and dime, and the local jeweler have been replaced by antique shops, accountants, and an art gallery. The owner of the local used book store, retired to Luray, buying an extremely well made three storey building for a pittance. The first two stories hold his bookstore and he rents out the top floor as an apartment. In his retirement he has become something of a commercial real estate mogul. Perhaps I should study his example.

I was particularly pleased by the restaurants in Luray. They provide large portions of surprisingly good food at very reasonable prices. We were particularly blown away by a little soft ice cream stand that operates out of a trailer in the back corner of a gas station near the Walmart. I had an ice cream sundae that mixed chunks of cheese cake into the ice cream. It was covered with whipped cream and real blueberries cooked into syrupy goo. Yum!

I knew right away what kind of people live in Luray when early in my visit I pulled up behind a pickup truck at a red light. It displayed bumper stickers for the local high school football team and the United States Marine Corp, my kind of America. Subsequent interactions with local folks confirmed my intuition, kind friendly people earning an honest living in a good land.