After my early morning flight across the country from SFO to Charlotte, NC, I spent the afternoon driving north to Virginia! My first taste of what would become state 29 of 50 States of Yoga was their Welcome Center on Interstate 77. Maybe most people don't get excited about rest areas and visitors centers like I do, but they can be a wonderful resource of information! I love Google and the interwebs, in general. Half of my enjoyment of travel is the planning! But I often find things to do at Visitors and Welcome Centers that I would have never found online. And regularly, I find tidbits of historical information, which is the icing on the cake!
A wonderful example of this... The Crooked Road - Virginia's Heritage Music Trail. The sign below is posted at the welcome center with a brief description and map of the trail. But the best part is they have a radio station broadcasting information and... the music! Unfortunately, the signal doesn't go very far, but it was awesome to listen to this old country music for a bit while I took a break from driving.
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| Also at the Welcome Center! |
I got to my hotel early and crashed into my bed hard! I had worked 6 of the previous 7 days {10 to 12 hour shifts} and was completely exhausted. I did wake fairly refreshed and set out to find a coffee shop in Radford, VA. I didn't know when I booked my hotel room in Radford that it was a beautiful college town! Driving through early morning, during the summer, it was quiet, still, and lovely. I found a coffee shop - that was completely empty at 8am - and got myself a decent cup of joe. Oh! But before I get back on the road... this car below... that was parked at my hotel that morning. MermaidsDontCook.com on the windshield and all kinds of craziness everywhere else! The car is nuts and I was slightly jealous that they were road-tripping in such awesomeness, while I had my boring rental car with zero personality. I dreamed for a moment of road-tripping in my little car, with my California LIV WYLD license plate and pink pom poms dangling in the back window! Hmmm... maybe next year.
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| Mermaids Don't Cook! |
Back on the road for a short drive to Cloverdale, just outside of Roanoke, to Grace Yoga & Healing Pathways. I signed up for a Gentle Yoga class and the substitute teacher was Terry. She began the class with checking in with each student - What has the past week been like for you? What brought you to class this morning? Often times teachers will ask you to "set your intention" for your practice, having some sort of specific purpose or goal to keep in mind/heart for the class {some examples of my own intentions that I set often are: Strength for enduring the class, Sending Love energy to my husband}. I find this helpful, but also tend to grasp at basic, quick thoughts in my head {which is maybe the point - I have no idea}. Anyway... when Terry asked us these questions... and we had time to consider and contemplate, I felt like this allowed me to expand my thoughts, my intentions, for the class a little. It felt a little more focused. I liked this beginning!
There were a variety of student levels, as is often the case in Gentle Yoga classes. For me, I like these classes because they are slower paced, don't require pretzel-like bendies, and I can learn a lot from the different modifications going on. Sometimes I need the mods, sometimes I don't. But I want to know what they are... so when I do... I can just help myself!
During the class we all got chairs and practiced Warrior poses on them. This was a lot harder on my legs than I had thought it would be. I will never underestimate the strength of those who use the chair during class! Something that I find in most classes that I take.. is a strength in a place that I didn't know I had and a weakness in a place that I thought was strong. Many times I have heard from yoga teachers that every day is different. Don't worry about how flexible you were yesterday or how flexible you will be tomorrow. Stay on your mat. Be present in this moment. And enjoy what your body can do for you now. No expectations. Throw them away. Appreciate the here and now. I don't remember any of these things until I start doing something that I didn't think was going to be all that hard, like a chair Warrior pose. For the rest of this trip I will have wobbly Warriors... and I attribute that to this class. In a good way. Forcing me to really focus on the muscles in my legs and thighs and my form and strength. Warrior will never be the same for me! Haha...
Terry shared a couple of things during shavasana that I will never forget. When we were flat on our backs and stretching out our arms, palms up, she said to make sure our shoulder blades were flat on the ground - this will help our arms to align out to our sides, palms up, without effort. And it does! Knowing something so simple has improved my experience of shavasana tenfold! Terry also said to make sure your chin is not pressing to your chest, is out, creating a curve in the back of your neck. This feels so much better and helps with my alignment. Brilliant! Every class since, when I am on my back for any pose, these come to the forefront of my mind. And what an absolute difference these tips have made!
Sometimes I think I am doing myself a disservice by taking so many classes of different styles, with different teachers, all over the country - that what my yoga practice needs in consistency to be able to grow a solid foundation. Then I have classes with teachers like Terry, that I would have never experienced if I hadn't been on this wild adventure, and thank the stars that I have these opportunities available to me. But wait, there's more!
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| This lotus was blooming outside Grace Yoga! |
{First a side blurb - the cigarette car charger port was not supplying energy to charge my cellphone, which is also my GPS. I discovered this on the way to the hotel the night before, when my phone yelled at me that it only had 15% charge left - 30 minutes from my hotel! I wrote down brief directions to get to this morning's yoga class, my midday diversion {see salt cave below} and my evening yoga class. I figured I could use the GPS a little here and there, and be able to find my way to the hotel that night in West Virginia, without totally draining my battery. Anyway, I mentioned the charger issue to Terry in the below conversation, and she asked if there was not a charger in the glovebox. I quickly said no, we continued the discussion, then when I got into my rental, I realized I had never checked the glovebox! Sure enough, there was a USB charging port in there. Thank you, Terry! You helped me avert a crisis on this trip!}
As I spoke with Terry after class, I told her of my plans to drive to West Virginia and take another yoga class that evening, to spend the afternoon winding across the Blue Ridge Mountains, and going to a salt cave in WV. Terry told me about an historical warm spring, that was sort of on my way to WV, that had a soaking pool. Well... I love both random historical and inexpensive spa-like experiences, so I had to know more! She wrote down directions and gave me an animated description on how to get there over back roads. It was this beautiful drive through the mountains that led me to Jefferson Pools.
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| The check-in and gift shop for Jefferson Pools |
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| The Ladies' Pool |
Jefferson Pools do not have a sign on the road. In fact, if I hadn't been driving slow, rubber-necking in awe at the heavy green beauty of the landscape, I would have driven right by. I wouldn't have noticed the tiny sign on the side of a white, dilapidated, cylindrical building that read Ladies Pool. And as I slowed even more, and questioned Could this be it?, I would definitely have missed the tiny dirt road with the street sign Bath St. But I didn't. And I turned onto Bath St. and hoped I wasn't entering private property! Indeed, I had found Jefferson Pools in Warm Springs, VA.
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| The spring that feeds the Ladies' Pool. |
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| The Men's Pool |
The pools are segregated by sex between 1p and 6p. During this time, they are clothing optional. I did not plan to swim on this trip, so I didn't have a swimsuit with me. I decided I would wear my birthday suit into the pool. When I first arrived, there were no other women there, so I was able to take the below photos. The place is so old and rickety, and yet beautiful and magical at the same time! It is quite the gem and worth every bit of the $17 for a one hour soak. While I floated around in my naked glory, tiny bubbles crept up from the rock floor. They tickled my skin as they rose up to the top. Some gathered on my skin and created a little bubble force field around me. It was a beautiful experience. The water felt a little thicker, it was harder to stay vertical, so I didn't fight it. I grabbed a pool noodle, wrapped it under my shoulders, and leaned back to float with the tiny bubbles.
About halfway through my soak, a group of 4 women arrived. I gathered it was their first time there, too, and they had all been prepared with swimsuits. However, my being in the pool in my au natural state inspired 2 of them to give it a go. This made me smile inside, as I am a bit shy, too, and was glad that my decision to take a risk encouraged others to do the same!
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| Inside the Ladies' Pool |
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| Most of these doorways lead to small dressing rooms, where you leave your belongings during your soak. A couple are restrooms - toilets only. One leads to a stairwell that has rushing water, from the emptying pool, in which you can sit for a few minutes to get a natural massage! |
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| The water is so amazingly clear! |
En route to the WV border I drove past the Falling Springs Waterfall. It is huge! And has a convenient overlook from the road. Can you see the tiny people at the top and bottom of the falls?
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| Falling Springs Waterfall, Covington, VA |
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| Beautiful Virginia vista of the Blue Ridge Mountains |
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Virginia. The Appalachian mountains through there are stunning. I grabbed a few brochures of fun things to do and hope to come back for a longer, leisurely trip with my husband in the future.
Stick around... I'll be back with WV, SC, and NC soon! In the mean time.. check out my other 50 States of Yoga adventures! Thanks for reading!
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