August 10th, Mammoth Cave, KY

Thursday, August 10, 2006
Day 46
Drive to Mammoth Cave National Park, KY

“We’re goin’ to Kentucky, we’re goin’ to the fair…” Kentucky is rolling hills and very green. It’s beautiful, but not much different looking than what we’re used to. I-65 near Louisville is very bumpy and in need of repair. I thought my teeth were going to jar loose for a while there! We found a nice site at the National Park campground and set up with no problem. It was around 95 degrees and HUMID. We cranked up the generator and turned on the air conditioner for a while before we headed over to the Visitor’s Center.

We decided to take the Frozen Niagra cave tour. When we got to the Visitor’s Center it wasn’t much more than a place to buy tickets. They have maybe three poster-type displays and they show a movie or two in the auditorium room. We actually had to pay for the Junior Ranger booklets - $5.00 a piece! This is the first National Park that we actually had to pay for the booklets. At all the other parks they were free! So, we were put on a school bus and taken to the “new” cave entrance that was blasted out by someone in the 1920’s, before this was a National Park. We walked down about 300 stainless steel, narrow steps and began the tour. The part of the cave we were in had few formations, until the end of the tour where the Frozen Niagra section is. In that area there are quite a few formations all in one area. It was interesting to look at the smooth, flat ceilings of Limestone with no water or formations forming on them. I kind of liked it, but it was not as interesting as Jewel Cave, in my opinion.

I really think in Jewel Cave we saw a lot more different types of formations and the presentation was better. Here our group was too large and there was a lot of sitting and waiting for people to catch up. Also there were a lot of loud children on this tour. Oh well, it was probably just this particular tour. We did see a bat, it was actually sitting on the brim of Rod’s hat and it freaked him out momentarily. Then it just hung from the low ceiling and he took some photos of it. The women behind him weren’t too keen on the bat, but we thought it was cool.

After we returned from the cave it started raining quite hard and we had to make a run for the car in the midst of loud thunder and a heavy downpour. By the time we returned to the campsite it was raining so hard you could barely even see. I made a dash to the door and in the seconds it took to open the locks I was drenched and I couldn’t help screaming the whole time because it was darned cold rain! We hadn’t put the awning out before we left, and boy do I wish we had. Everyone was soaked just coming from the car to the trailer. Our bed was soaked because we had left the ceiling skylight open. Our nice bundle of firewood got soaked and the whole campsite looked like a lake. Hopefully everything will dry out tomorrow, but I’m not getting my hopes up, because the humidity here is ridiculous. Maybe the dry heat was better…

Tomorrow we are going to Bowling Green to the Corvette Museum and then we are continuing on our way, remaining 2 days ahead of schedule.