Tales From the MoJo Road –
By Glynn Wilson –

SHENANDOAH, Va. – Niagara Falls on the border of New York State and Canada has the Iroquois legend about a young Seneca girl who was swept over the falls in a canoe, but was rescued by Hinum “the Thunder God” who shows how her people can destroy the monster snake living in the river. The ensuing battle creates the Niagara Falls we see today, as the legend goes.

Niagara Falls Mythology

I will be talking to a friend visiting Canada later today who is on a day trip to Niagara. Hopefully there will be a live video and a report.

Meanwhile as many of my friends, fans and followers know, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, has its singing river now memorialized at Te-lah-nay’s Wall, built by a man calling himself The Stone Talker, Tom Hendrix. He tells the story of his great-great grandmother, a native American medicine woman named Teh-la-nay who was rounded up by President Andrew Jackson’s army in the 1830s and sent to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. She escaped and walked for five years all the way back to Alabama, as the story has been passed down over the generations, saying none of the rivers in Oklahoma could sing quite like the Tennessee. The Euchee Indians believed there was a female spirit living in the river who sang them songs.

Thinking About An Honest Life by the Singing River in Muscle Shoals

This story is so famous now that the National Park Service under the U.S. Department of the Interior has designated a six county area here as a National Heritage Area, celebrating “the Land of the Singing River” and the “Hit Recording Capital of the World.”

Then there are the Shenandoah mountains and valley in Virginia with its own native legend, which I discovered ten years ago. Shenandoah is known as the “Daughter of the Stars.”

It’s a legend about a Great Spirit which allegedly made the world and gathered the morning stars together on the shores of a quiet, silver lake bordered with blue mountains, supposedly the most beautiful place on Earth. Hovering above the quiet waters and lighting the mountain tops with their robes of fire, the stars sang their songs of joy and pledged to gather here every thousand years. One time when the stars were singing, there came a mighty crashing! A great rock in the mountain wall tore asunder, and through the deep opening the lake waters began to pour out and rush to the sea.

As time passed, the stars looked over the earth for another place to meet. They finally agreed upon a lovely valley through which a winding river ran. Suddenly the stars realized that this valley had been the bed of their beautiful lake, and the blue mountains around it were the same ones upon which they had cast their robes of light in ages past. The stars were so joyous they placed the brightest jewels from their crowns in the river where they still lie and sparkle in the Shenandoah River, which winds through the valley and merges with the Potomac River at Harper’s Ferry and then carries on through Washington, D.C. to the Chesapeake Bay and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean. Ever since that day, the river and its valley have been called “Shenandoah, Daughter of the Stars” by the Native Americans who inhabited the land long before Europeans found it and moved in for development.

Shenandoah: Daughter of the Stars

The last time I took a day trip to Shenandoah to volunteer as a SAG crew driver for a cycling club in Maryland, it was a quiet, fine winter day and I told this story at the time last year.

Secret Vistas: A Day Trip to Shenandoah to Focus the Mind

Yesterday, on a hot and humid summer Sunday, we did this trip again, following a bike route referred to as Sky-Mass, which begins at the northern entrance to Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park at Front Royal. Riders must climb up into the park for seven miles, before finally reaching a long, mostly straight descent around mile marker eight that passes one of my favorite places in the park, which I call Black Bear Curve. It’s a pull off on the Drive with an access trail leading up to the Appalachian Trail.

Since that time 10 years ago when I found the place in fall and photographed a black bear crossing the road, I make a point of stopping there for a spiritual hike and smoke and a prayer to the gods and my ancestors, seeking help and guidance on life’s continuing journey.

The main event for me this time was to test out my new vision, since I had the second of two operations last week to fix the cataracts clouding the vision in my eyes. Those who have had the surgery tell me the light and color improvement is noticeably vibrant, and I found that to be the case. The summer light is no match for spring, fall or winter. But the light is always amazing in the mountains.

This ride takes a lunch break at the Elkwallow store on Skyline Drive, then continues south to the park exit at Thornton’s Gap, down the mountain into the valley at Luray, Virginia. The next stop is a coffee shop on Main Street in town called the Broad Porch by a creek running through town to the Shenandoah River.

The next stop is at the top of Massanutten Mountain in the George Washington National Forest, a peak over 1800 feet above sea level.

The last stop is at a country store where riders get their last nourishment and replenish their water supplies for the last leg of the trip back to the Shenandoah entrance.

Everyone survived the trip with no major mishaps, so my job was easy. They all called it a grueling training ride on a hot and humid summer day. Some of the riders stopped at The Apple House restaurant bar on the way back to I-66 and the trip back to D.C., where good friends go for local brews, grub and socializing, perhaps as necessary for health as the ride itself.

We made it back before dark, and the REM sleep came easy, enhanced by the experience. Good sleep is also necessary for health. Even if you need some chewable assistance to achieve it.

More Photos

Now after a morning of work, it’s time for another nap before performing some afternoon duties and then a couple of days off. See you on the other side, and I hope you too are able to dream a little dream like me, Mama Cass, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

[Verse 1: Ella Fitzgerald] Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper, I love you
Birds singin’ in the sycamore trees
Dream a little dream of me [Verse 2: Ella Fitzgerald] Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me
While I’m alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me [Verse 3: Louis Armstrong] Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
Now I’m longin’ to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this [Verse 4: Ella Fitzgerald] Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me [Verse 3: Both] Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
Yeah I’m longin’ to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this [Outro: Both] Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Leave the worries behind you
But in your dreams, whatever may be
You’ve gotta make me a promise, promise to me
You’ll dream, dream a little dream of me

Also covered by the Mamas and the Pappas

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