Day 176 - Independence Day Driving

We started the day well and were speeding our way on the 80 minute drive towards the Mammoth Cave National Park to be on time for a 10:15 cave tour. For the last part of the trip Danny ignored the signs for the cave along the highway route and opted the go along with the sat-nav’s more scenic one which should only take 10 minutes more. We were both pleased with this decision as we were now cruising through lots of lovely countryside, quaint little towns and villages all bathed in glorious sunshine. As we neared our destination Danny kept spotting signs that warned lorries that the road we were on would end in water soon. He took this to mean that there would be a tricky dip to navigate along the route and, as the sign was only aimed at lorries, we continued. 3 miles from the visitor centre we pulled up and stared in disbelief at the river cutting across where the road should be. Instead of a road we saw a ferry that was the clear way to get to where we needed to be. Unfortunately for us we also saw a barrier across the road with a “Ferry Crossing Closed” sign attached to it – we let this soak in for a few minutes. We asked the sat-nav to pull up an alternative route and were struck blow number two when 50 minutes popped up on screen!

AAAAARRRRGGGHH!

Bit of a random pic here - our upgraded hire car. Forgot to put it on the blog earlier.

50 minutes later we arrived at the visitor centre and went in to check out the tours available as the place was absolutely heaving. Danny was having stomach troubles and ended up deciding not to go along with the 2 hour, no restroom, tour that we’d spied for 11:00. We hadn’t come all this way for nothing and Corrie was keen to see the cave, so she went off to explore the world’s longest cave (currently discovered – 392 miles) and see what it had to offer… apart from lots of dark, vast space.

The entrance this tour used was a short bus ride away, so everyone piled onto the buses. The entrance is a man-made entrance (made in 1921), and just looked like a door… in the middle of the woods. With the temperature at 97 degrees outside it was quite a relief to get inside the cave, which was at 54 degrees! The first section of the cave tour was going down 320 steps. They were very narrow and steep, and weaved between the rocks along the side of the cave. Once at the bottom of the steps everyone sat down while the guide told us about the cave. This area is called Grand Central Station, and in this one room (250ft underground) there are 6 different entrances/ exits. Only 4 were obvious! The inside of this section of the cave had parts named after well-known places in New York because, in 1921, most of the visitors were from New York, and it was thought that naming parts from the city would allow people to relate to it, and draw more people to visit. On the tour Corrie was on, most people were from Michigan.

The tour continued through the layers of limestone to the most spectacular part of the cave. It is thought to be the most beautiful part of the whole cave network. It was full of stalactites and stalagmites, and had a huge flowstone called the Frozen Niagara (again, named for the New Yorkers). This was very impressive, and after being told that it takes 250 years to form one square inch, it is even more amazing. There was the option to go down 50 steps which went behind the Frozen Niagara, and Corrie thought it was definitely worth going down. There were so many stalactites there, in clusters on the ceiling. And a couple of the stalagmites were huge!  Corrie has seen the inside of caves and these formations before, but this section of the cave had so many she was amazed! After the beauty of this section of the cave, it was time to leave the cool temperatures, and hop back on a bus to the visitor centre to go in hunt of Danny who......

...... had been and found a nice picnic area where he had chilled out in the sun with a book for the 2 hours.

Then we had to make the daunting 5 hour drive to Charleston, West Virginia. This long day of driving had worn Danny out and so we had an early night in preparation for… yet more driving tomorrow.

A fireworks sale right next to a gas station in heat of over 100 degrees!