National Cathedral

Quasimodo eat your heart out, because this Saturday I roamed a cathedral in a way that even the hunchback would be jealous of. We went on the roof. We went in the attics. We visited a staff conference room (because it had some stained glass). Back stairs and catwalks. We went everywhere!

Someone in the local bicycling community is a long-time docent at the cathedral and had organized a bike ride and group tour during Freezing Saddles. The bike ride included sites relevant to the cathedral (yes, Pierre L'Enfant had a spot in his DC plan for a national cathedral, but it was in a different spot - where the Portrait Gallery is today), and a tour of the cathedral itself. The event was popular and so he decided to repeat it. The problem is that he came down with some sort of flu and so didn't feel up to the bike ride part. Instead, we met at the cathedral and went straight to the tour part - which he expanded to an amazing three hours!

The cathedral

We started by riding a special staff elevator up to a balcony at the rear of the nave, where he had us try to line up a sight line so that everything was aligned, which we quickly discovered was impossible, because the cathedral is bent! Over its roughly 500 ft. length it bends about six feet. This is intentional and mimics classic Gothic cathedrals. Apparently there's some argument over whether the non-linearity of the historic European cathedrals was intentional or was just the limits of medieval engineering precision, but it's said to humanize the space more than linear perfection would. Likewise, the Gothic arches that line the nave are all unique - differing from each other by an inch or two here or there.

Looking down the length of the cathedral

We got really up close to one of the giant rose windows.

Another thing about this modern cathedral is that it honors not only religious events and stories, but also modern history and human achievement. and is also quite whimsical. An example of the former is the space exploration window. This stained glass window commemorates man's achievements in space travel. The view has a large moon (at the top), a smaller earth (at the botttom), and a very small distant yellow dot of our sun - it's from  the perspective of someone near the moon, looking at earth. The center of the moon contains an actual piece of moon rock brought back by the Apollo 11 astronauts. An example of whimsy is the Darth Vader grotesque (it's not a gargoyle - apparently every gargoyle is a grotesque but not every grotesque is a gargoyle, like squares and rectangles). We got an unusually good view of the dark lord of the Sith when we went out on the roof into what is technically a rain gutter but is really a walkway. Up there we also got some close up views of other grotesques and got to see some of the earthquake damage. In the large, the cathedral looks fine, but when you start looking at details, you can see how the 2011 earthquake really damaged things - missing pinnacles, broken details, etc.

The space exploration window

Darth Vader

Out on the roof

Grotesque

If you look closely you can see that sections of this pinnacle shifted in the earthquake. Other similar pinnacles toppled completely

Do you know the difference between a cathedral and a church? It's not size. A cathedral is the seat of a bishop. And there's a physical seat - a throne of sorts, called a cathedra.

The bishop's cathedra

The cathedral has two sets of bells: one is played by playing a vaguely piano-like controller, while the other are big bells played by pulling ropes. The keyboard-like controller allows the bell ringer to play melodies. When we were wandering the attic our guide had us peek into the bell ringer's office to see a duplicate of the bell controller that he uses to practice. As we were all peeking in, the office door opened - the bell ringer was in there, heard us outside, and invited us in! He even gave us a demonstration of the practice controller (which rings some very small bells) and showed us how bell music is notated.

Bell musician and the bell controller

Stairs to the bell tower

I was happy to see considerable Old Testament imagery. I can't tell Saint whomever from Saint So-and-So, but I recognize Moses when I see him!

Here's a swarthy Moses with beams of light emanating from his head/

Detail from a 16th century set of tapestries telling the David and Goliath story

A "boss stone" of Moses

Moses is surrounded by "boss stones" illustrating the ten commandments. This peeping Tom is coveting his neighbor's (naked!) wife

There's really too much to write about here. After three hours I felt we had just scratched the surface. I won't bore you with every picture and every factoid (did you know Woodrow Wilson is interred in the cathedral? Helen Keller?). The glass. The ironwork. The stonework. The hand-made tapestry kneelers honoring famous Americans. Let's just say that it's an extremely impressive building - the result of a century of construction, and I was lucky enough to get a private tour from an extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic docent.

Paddle Faster, I Hear Banjos

Back in 2014 I dropped out of a trip to Maine and went instead to the Kiptopeke Kayak Symposium. I've been told I don't understand why I didn't go to Maine, but that aspect of things is not what we're focused on right now - what is important is that at Kiptopeke I discovered the big lodges that are available for rent at Virginia State Parks, and I immediately realized that they would be a cool place to spend some time with a group. About a year later I visited Floyd, Virginia on my way home from Nashville and was blown away by the vibrant traditional music scene there - I felt like an anthropologist who had happened across an undiscovered tribe of some sort. Since then I have been preaching the charms of Floyd (not Floydfest, that's something different). It took a few years, but eventually I managed to put together a group trip that included both staying in a Virginia state park lodge and visiting Floyd. And kayaking, of course. And there you have the backstory of this weekend - paddling faster and hearing banjos, so to speak.

Claytor Lake lodge

Hanging out at the lodge

Cooking dinner

Since Spring Break week is a popular one at the parks, I made the reservations far in advance, and so there were many changes to personnel along the way (Rob and Barb foolishly prioritized an extended sojourn in Europe over a weekend in Floyd), Yvonne and Jay foolishly prioritized the security of this great nation over Floyd, then they didn't, then they did, ... anyway, the list goes on and on. Our final group included Tall Tom & Beth, Jen & Kathy, Suzanne, Jim, Bela and Leigh, and Valerie and me. 

We all straggled in over the course of Friday. Valerie and I were first, after stops at Mr. J's Bagels in Harrisonburg (a nostalgic favorite for us from when Teddy was at JMU) and at a supermarket in Christiansburg (in the same shopping center as Tractor Supply and the Christian store - Toto, we're not in Northern Virginia anymore). Most of the group made it in time to head to the Floyd Country Store for the Friday night music and dancing. The bulk of us stayed among the crowd of spectators. Kathy, who is an unstoppable dancer, got up and attempted - with some pointers from the locals - to emulate the "flatfoot" dancing style.

Friday night at the Floyd Country Store

Saturday dawned a little grey, but the paddlers among us went out and did about a nine mile trip on the lake. The real distinctive highlight of the paddling outing was when we paddled up to a home with a "For Sale" sign - the Realtor was were having an open house, apparently not a well attended one, and so came down to the dock and offered us some of the chocolate chip cookies they had baked for the event. First and probably only time I'll ever randomly get free, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies out on the water! We paddled away shaking our heads at how affordable lakefront real estate on Claytor Lake is compared with Northern Virginia.

Setting out to go kayaking and eat cookies

While some of us were paddling, others went into the town of Floyd and shopped - the yarn store, crafts, candy, tchotchkes, and more. All told, everyone had a good day. After a communal dinner, some of us headed back to Floyd for more music at the Wildwood Farms General Store and Daylily Farm, though the folks who had already been in Floyd begged off of making a second trip there (it's 35-40 minutes each way). The Wildwood Farms scene is very casual - even more so than the General Store. It's clearly a labor of love/vanity project on the part of the store owner and feels almost like a jam session at someone's house - in fact, the store staff and other locals get up and perform a set during the band's intermission. Saturday night music is, by their own admission not a big money-maker for Wildwood Farms. In fact, they say that overall they're just barely hanging on. I hope they find a way to make it - it's a cool, intimate scene.

Wild turkey, seen while hiking

Sunday was stormy. A group of paddlers got on the water early to beat the rain. I declined, realizing too late that it was all the guys but me going, and so I wound up trapped in a house full of girl talk until Suzanne, Jen, Kathy and I headed out for a hike on the trails within Claytor Lake park. Soon after we hit the trail the heavens opened up. Jen and Kathy turned back, but Suzanne and I soldiered on through intermittent rain and did the long loop around the park (5.74 mi by my GPS, 5.11 by Suzanne's). Sunday people started to head out - Suzanne and Jim needed to get home, and Bela and Leigh were hopping from our adventure to one with their grandchildren. So Sunday night it was down to Tom and Beth, Jen and Kathy, and Valerie and me. 

Sunday night it stormed like crazy. The wind was high enough to spin Tom's and my boats, which we had left on the grass, around like weather vanes. Tom is a last-day-load-up-and-go guy, so he and Beth were out the door early. The remaining four of us straightened up and divvied up the remaining food (yay, unsweetened almond milk!). Then we said our farewells to Claytor Lake. But have no fear, we had such a good time that while we were there we already put the next trip on the calendar - back to Chincoteague in October. Stay tuned for the next installment!

SK102

I won't write much about SK102, since I've documented it many times before in years past. As always, it's my most complicated packing of the year - car camping gear, music gear, and paddling gear.

Friday night was rainy, with some serious little storm cells about. One of these storms hit just as I arrived on Friday. I pulled into the parking lot just in time to see a tent go tumbling by down towards the lake (it turned out to belong to Cat, the event organizer). Later, Cat and I saved a pop-up shelter that was trying similarly trying to escape in the wind by borrowing some stakes and staking it down. There was even a tornado watch in effect, which caused the Friday night paddle to be cancelled. The weather the rest of the weekend was spectacular. Far better than the average SK102 weekend!

SK102: All the boats

I taught the basic class (basic strokes, wet exits) Saturday morning with Frank D. This was the total opposite experience of teaching with Jim Z. Jim is super detail-oriented. There are syllabi for the SK102 classes and Jim won't quit until he's covered every bullet point in the syllabus - and more. Frank is an artist, and leans much more towards winging it. He does, however, have great skills and I think the students learn a lot with both their teaching styles.

Getting ready to teach

Instructors' view, Saturday AM

I lazed about in the afternoon. I beg off of teaching in the afternoon because I go back to work entertaining in the evening. Actually, my demand for special treatment as a performer became a running joke through the weekend. It's a real pain to haul insturments and amplifiers up the hill in the dark after playing, and so before the weekend I asked Cat it I could get roadie assistance. She replied that she and Maxine would be around in the afternoon and would properly fawn over us. I told her she was confusing "roadie" with "groupie". Not to devalue the services that groupies traditionally provide, what I really needed was help with schlepping. Anyway, as a result all weekend there was much exaggerated fawning, gratuitous hugging, and offers to go meet in the storage shed when non one was looking.

Saturday night's dinner was the usual nice spread, though I will note that it lacked M&M's sorted by color (another band demand). After dinner Manuel and I performed music around the campfire as always. A couple of good surprises: we were joined by another instructor, Tom S, who was an enthusiastic and pretty talented singer (he sings in his church choir). Also, it didn't rain! The last couple of years it started raining two songs into our performance, leading to jokes about whether we even knew a third song.

Dubside and Jenny do a rolling demo

Speaking of jokes, my impromptu Greenlandic/music pun (Inaqatsineq-da-Vida) got laughs (Inaqatsineq is the Greenlandic word for one of the basic rolls). Let me say, I appreciate a crowd where a Greenlandic kayaking pun goes over well. The only disappointment was that after all the talking and joking, the promised roadie help didn't materialize and so as usual I was left to schlep all the gear back up the hill in the dark myself. My cart fell over twice on the rough group, sending amps and keyboard tumbling - I hope everything survived. And no groupies visited my tent ... sigh.

Sunday we waited out a brief rain shower then Frank, Suzanne and I went out and did rolling and rescue practice (ah, the joys of an 80 degree water temperature). After a while the two of them went back, as they had other classes to teach, while I continued on and did a six mile paddle on the lake. Then it was the slow process of packing, socializing, and loading, packing, socializing and loading. Saturday is always a really busy day and so Sunday is more when you can kick back and chat. And this year, since it hadn't rained we weren't all in "let's just throw the wet stuff in the car and head home" moods. It was after 2 PM by the time I headed for home, having had another great paddling & music weekend.