So instead of completely dominating the trail with some Michigan fatbike-ness, I milled around the campsite waiting for the female contingent to wake up. Even in the rain, the view & setting was great, just a few early morning fishermen and some ducks. I imagined they were Loons just so I could put this link in (just for you, Cliff).
After some stirring in the Big Truck, we were on our way to Mammoth Cave - normally I can be pretty frantic about getting the maximum possibly efficiency out of a National Park visit (see Kimberly for elaboration), but today we had no agenda other than a reservation for the New Entrance tour in the afternoon. The way there proved to be adventure enough.
We're camped about 15 min away from the park, so we assumed the drive there would be uneventful, especially since we were detached & running with just the Jeep. At the first intersection, we encountered this.
After reading the sign, I immediately thought of Quagmire's RV. Read that thing! There are unlimited jokes there. I can only assume that the store was run by this guy.
With the local flair behind us, we made a few comments about the road being similar to yesterday's, then we encountered this sign.
I can only describe my reaction by this video clip.
Around the next bend, we saw this scenery enshrouded in mist, and you may be able to predict the next reference...
....no idea if a spoiler alert is necessary for a novella that was written by Stephen King in 1985 and adapted into a crappy movie in 2007, but regardless, this is what I thought of...
Anyway, back to the story at hand. Strange road sign, misty road, then we crest a hill and in unison say "Is that a..."
while we are both terribly vexed, the nice GPS lady says something a GPS shouldn't know. She says "In 500 feet, board the ferry".
So we sit there for what seemed like 5 minutes, until finally I managed a "well, I guess we just board the ferry then."
The ferry operator was really cool, we asked him if the get much traffic, and he checked the log and said we were the 65th since 6am. It was 9am. Just a strange experience all around, not something I was prepared for, although now the sign made a lot more sense.
Finally we arrived at the park, snapped the obligatory picture (Kimberly hates these, but years from now it will make a cool book that Jordan will look at for 5 seconds), and headed into the vistors center.
We checked out the display/self guided tour inside, and had one of those old age moments. Jordan picked up this and said, "Dad, what is this?"
I simply explained that it was an early version of a telephone. Upon further reflection, I should have told her that it was one of the instruments I used as a 6th grade pasty ginger to arrange a trip to see Rocky IV and Spies Like Us in the theater with the woman I am currently related to via marriage. Not sure if she would have understood.
Next up - the New Entrance Tour of the Mammoth Cave system. I won't bore you with tons of underground cave pictures, but there were a few that stood out. Jordan started out a bit nervous, as you may be able to pick up on here.
once we worked our way downward, she got a lot more comfortable and of course wanted to climb on everything. This particular tour takes you 252 feet below the surface, to the point you see here.
If you look up from that point, you see a ceiling full of stalactites. All I really saw was the inside of the mouth of this guy*
*why yes, huge nerd, that is the Exogorth from The Empire Strikes Back attempting to eat the Millenium Falcon. "This is no cave!"
Our tour guide Terry was an interesting fellow, he stated that he is an original SE Kentucky resident, a 5th generation tour guide of the cave system, and that his Great Grandfather was a part of the Eminent Domain campaign to establish the park's existence. According to him, the terms of the Eminent Domain were $28 (yes, 28 bucks) for the land and 16 months to vacate it. His story seemed genuine, and he claimed that the cemetery up on the hill contains most of his lineage.
On the way back to the campground, I couldn't resist a pic of this sign.
Once we returned, I started to battle with some hopelessly waterlogged firewood, then saw a lightning flash so we quick ran down to the lake to see this.
That pretty much sent us into the Big Truck, and as I type this we are getting pummeled.
Tomorrow brings a visit to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN (Kimberly doesn't drink often, but when she does it's Jack & diet), then on to Chattanooga to check out the Tennessee Aquarium on Wednesday.
Day 2 is just about enough into the trip to feel like we're really on vacation. Looking forward to the rest...
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