Mammoth Caves

Day 2 is just about in the bag. Alicia is already passed out in the tent, but that's nothing new for her. Yesterday was a really smooth day of traveling. We only got caught in a little bit of traffic just inside Tennessee on I-40. Nothing like what we saw later on I-75 South (we fortunately were headed north). Traffic was backed up about 5 miles.

We stopped in Glasgow, KY to get food for the weekend, only to find that Barren County, KY is dry. Fortunately our national government stepped up where a county government failed. The campsite is rather large, so at least Alicia's happy and there are all kinds of crazy animal shenanigans. Last night two deer went rampaging through the site. We didn't have a fire going so they must of thought they had free-range of the place. We found raccoon paws prints on the towel we're using to lay out dishes to dry and Alicia saw two squirrels making love up in a tree.

Today we did two cave tours. The weather so far has been pretty nice Only spotty rain and a slight breeze is keeping it pleasant, but when we approached the cave entrance, it felt like walking into glorious A/C. Once exiting the first cave (The Historic Entrance) I sweated like it was August even though it was quite pleasant.
We did a short self-guided tour first which allowed us to kill some time and really cool down (the caves never get above 60 degrees Fahrenheit). At 12:30 we went on the New Entrance Tour. The New Entrance was discovered by guy back in the 1910's, about 100 years after the Historic Entrance was established. Mammoth Caves aren't really known for their formations, but we got to see the Frozen Niagara Room, which houses most of the cave's stalagtights and mites.

It's really interesting knowing that below me right now are underground tunnels. We went down as far as 250 feet below the surface, but because the caves are so big it never felt claustophobic or like we weren't in some huge windowless room. There were some tight passages early on in the tour, but someone could live comfortably in a large portion of what we saw.

Following the cave tour we went down to the ferry and watched it cross cars across the Green River for a while before making hobo mills and settling in around the campfire. Tomorrow: Northwestern Missouri.

Will.