Mammoth Cave and The Breakdown
Vivian:
Hello…friends and fam. Today was the kind of day you only have once or twice in your lifetime. It started out ok though, when we woke up we drove to the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
Photo by Stephanie. Notice that everyone is wearing jackets. It is a brisk 64 degrees year round inside the cave.
Photo by Stephanie. These are the only photos we have because they keep lighting inside the cave to a minimum to protect the animals that live in there.
The guide was super nice and answered all Dory’s questions of which there were many. The caves were very interesting and me and Dory were right behind the guide almost the whole time. We passed through a trail called Fat Man’s Misery, if you can’t guess what that meant, I’ll tell you. It meant it was incredibly thin and windy. When we got out of the cave, mom decided we should walk up a flight of stairs instead of walking up a gentle slope. After we left the National Park, we drove for awhile until mom got hungry. We ate lunch inside the RV and got on our way. It was after lunch things started to go wrong. After lunch the RV started making weird noises, it was making a mechanical noise whenever Mom turned. There was also a vibration in the front that shouldn’t have been there. We pulled over to check it out, mom could only see an open side door, and we tried to drive again. It was still making a mechanical noise so we pulled over once again. When mom still couldn’t discern what the matter was, she called roadside assistance to see what was wrong with the vehicle. They told her to wait so they could send someone over to check it out. Turns out that the earliest they could send someone out was in three or four hours. We didn’t want to wait that long, so Mom called a 24-hour mobile mechanic. He was there in less than an hour, and was very nice. He had two 4-month-old German Shepard pups, and he said he was going to try to breed them when they got older. But that’s not the point. He said that we needed a new part that he didn’t have. We were told to wait until Monday, when he could check all the open part businesses. He left and we gave up. We were two hours away from our destination. My mom’s friend came to get us instead, we were going to her house anyway so why not. Her name is Brooke and she has two daughters named Nora and Miriam. Of course, Dory wouldn’t let me get a wink of sleep in the two hour drive! It was about 1am when we arrived and we dropped like flies.
Dory:
So now this is a yesterday blog as you probably have heard, and this is purely yesterday (well maybe not since midnight is when the day changes) and so we are currently fine and safe. Well my mom is probably going to make this little thing, but we have not published in a while because we did not have the time to do it. Now to get on with the story! So we went to Mammoth Cave National Park and we looked at Mammoth Dome and saw butterscotch falls which is just moving flowstone and witch’s hair. Then we paid our respects to the enslaved man who explored Mammoth Cave for us.
Photo by Stephanie. Our guide referred to Stephen Bishop several times on the tour, crediting him with many discoveries. The original explorers and guides in the cave were enslaved men. Stephen was able to eventually buy his freedom.
Photo by Stephanie. Even after he bought his freedom, Stephen Bishop remained in the area because of his love of the cave. He is buried near the historical cave entrance (up a flight of stairs, not a gentle slope).