Tuesday, August 15, 2006
I am back
Where to start. I got back from my vacation a little early, but only by a day or so.
I think I will give a basic overview of my adventure.
Sunday we had our family reunion up in Wisconsin and I left on my vacation straight from there. So all Sunday afternoon and evening I drove down to Kentucky.
I stayed at a motel in Cave City Kentucky and visited the Mammoth Caves the next day. I went on the Historical Tour. This was the first time I had ever been inside of a cave before. It was amazing. I was not expecting some of the caves to be so huge. The temps in the cave are 54 all year round so it was a nice break from the 90s outside.
I left from there and started off down to Florida Monday afternoon.
I ended up stopping at a motel about 3 hours from Tampa.
Tuesday morning I finished my drive to Tampa and drove around the city a bit getting my bearings.
I went for a walk along the beach. Unfortunately the beaches were closed due to run off water. The temperature was pretty high in the upper 90s. My car does not have air conditioning, so the only cooling I got was from driving and drinking a ton of water. I also went for a walk in one of the more suburban areas of Tampa.
I was starting to get a little sunburned so I went inside and went to bed early so I would be refreshed for the next morning.
Wednesday I had planned on visiting Busch Gardens, but I was feeling a little worn down. I had not eaten much the last few days so I figured a good breakfast was the best wat to start the day. I stopped at an Ihop and had some pancakes, but I had almost no appetite. It was difficult for me to eat them as I was feeling a bit queasy. I decided that spending the rest of the day in the sun at Busch was probably not going to help me any.
I instead went to the Florida Aquarium. I have not been to an aquarium since my grade school days. The exhibits there were amazing. The plexiglass walls in the wetlands dome were only 3 feet tall so you could lean over the tank and see the fish and turtles from above as well as from the side. There were the wetlands birds just free to fly about the dome and they would hop right above your heads. It was like they took a section of the wetlands and just moved it inside a building. I took a bunch of pictures at the aquarium. I am getting the film developed and put onto a CD as well. That should make it easier for me to post some soon.
I went on the Behind the Scenes tour which was a little bit disappointing, but was worth it when I got to help feed the fish. I think I got some good photos of the fish swarming the surface of the water to eat.
I also bought a ticket to the dolphin tour out into the Tampa Bay. It was my first time being on a boat like that and getting to see dolphins swimming nearby. I enjoyed it greatly.
From what I had seen on the news last night Tampa was supposed to get some rain and thunder storms heading in soon. I decided that I would rather beat them on the way out, so I left and headed back to Kentucky.
I had enjoyed the tour at Mammoth Caves so much I wanted to go on another. I had seen that they offer a Wild Cave tour where instead of just walking along a paved path through the cave with a hundred other tourists, you get to crawl around in the dirt and scale rocks, squeeze through the tunnels. I immediately wanted to go on that tour.
So I drove all of Wednesday all the way into Thursday morning and drove straight back to Kentucky. I found out that the Wild Cave tour was already sold out, so I went on one of the other tours to the Frozen Niagra section. As I was waiting for my tour time I decided to ask if they had any Wild Caves for Friday available. It turns out that there was one ticket left! I snatched it up immediately.
I enjoyed the Frozen Niagra tour. There were cave formations that were quite amazing to see there. By the end of the tour fatigue and lack of sleep were catching up to me so I went and crashed at the Days Inn in Cave City. I fell asleep for about 4 hours when I woke up to a torrential rain storm. It was pouring buckets of water outside and the parking lot was flooding. I dashed out and rolled up my windows all the way.
I watched some TV, dried the jeans I was going to wear on the crawl tour and waited for the rain to stop. I then went to a local diner Jerry's I think it was called and had delicious liver and onions with green beans and mashed potatoes. I also had a slice of excellent pecan pie. The waitress was so nice, she did not charge me for the pie because she made me wait a while. I left her a nice tip.
Back at the motel with a full belly I dozed off to sleep after finishing off the rest of the peaches I bought down in Georgia.
I woke up bright and ready to go in the morning ate some breakfast and headed to the park.
We were short 4 people for the tour so there were only 10 of us.
Our guides Nichole and Nick took us down the New Entrance after equipping us with our helmets, helmet lights, and kneepads. The first thing they took us through were a series of crawls. Some of the crawls are so small and narrow that you basically had to pick a side to turn your head because you could not turn it until you got to the other side. We then did all sorts of climbing on rock piles, canyone walking across gorges. It was exhilirating. The size of some of the caves are amazing when you are walking the tourist path, but are just breathtaking when you are actually caving through it. Our group was really enthusiastic and fit. We were making great time and not having any trouble with the climbs so the guides led us on the harder routes that they normally don't get the chance to go on. We got to make more crawls and more challenging crawls than most groups ever do. The people I was with were verry friendly and even shared some of the food with me because I had forgotten to grab some granola bars to take with me.
Our crawl was 5 1/2 miles over rocks, canyons, and tunnels and it took us about 6 hours to move that distance with the break for lunch included. It was the most amazing 6 hours in my life. I was charged up and alive when scaling the rocks. Normally I don't like heights at all, but I had no problem climbing down the cave walls with a drop of 30 feet below me, even with no protective harness of ropes to keep me from falling. It was awesome. I enjoyed myself so much that I think I will look into any caving groups based in my area and see if I can't join one and go on caving expeditions every now and then.
Well I guess that is enough rambling for now. I will see if I can figure out how you post pictures once I get my film back.
Later.
I think I will give a basic overview of my adventure.
Sunday we had our family reunion up in Wisconsin and I left on my vacation straight from there. So all Sunday afternoon and evening I drove down to Kentucky.
I stayed at a motel in Cave City Kentucky and visited the Mammoth Caves the next day. I went on the Historical Tour. This was the first time I had ever been inside of a cave before. It was amazing. I was not expecting some of the caves to be so huge. The temps in the cave are 54 all year round so it was a nice break from the 90s outside.
I left from there and started off down to Florida Monday afternoon.
I ended up stopping at a motel about 3 hours from Tampa.
Tuesday morning I finished my drive to Tampa and drove around the city a bit getting my bearings.
I went for a walk along the beach. Unfortunately the beaches were closed due to run off water. The temperature was pretty high in the upper 90s. My car does not have air conditioning, so the only cooling I got was from driving and drinking a ton of water. I also went for a walk in one of the more suburban areas of Tampa.
I was starting to get a little sunburned so I went inside and went to bed early so I would be refreshed for the next morning.
Wednesday I had planned on visiting Busch Gardens, but I was feeling a little worn down. I had not eaten much the last few days so I figured a good breakfast was the best wat to start the day. I stopped at an Ihop and had some pancakes, but I had almost no appetite. It was difficult for me to eat them as I was feeling a bit queasy. I decided that spending the rest of the day in the sun at Busch was probably not going to help me any.
I instead went to the Florida Aquarium. I have not been to an aquarium since my grade school days. The exhibits there were amazing. The plexiglass walls in the wetlands dome were only 3 feet tall so you could lean over the tank and see the fish and turtles from above as well as from the side. There were the wetlands birds just free to fly about the dome and they would hop right above your heads. It was like they took a section of the wetlands and just moved it inside a building. I took a bunch of pictures at the aquarium. I am getting the film developed and put onto a CD as well. That should make it easier for me to post some soon.
I went on the Behind the Scenes tour which was a little bit disappointing, but was worth it when I got to help feed the fish. I think I got some good photos of the fish swarming the surface of the water to eat.
I also bought a ticket to the dolphin tour out into the Tampa Bay. It was my first time being on a boat like that and getting to see dolphins swimming nearby. I enjoyed it greatly.
From what I had seen on the news last night Tampa was supposed to get some rain and thunder storms heading in soon. I decided that I would rather beat them on the way out, so I left and headed back to Kentucky.
I had enjoyed the tour at Mammoth Caves so much I wanted to go on another. I had seen that they offer a Wild Cave tour where instead of just walking along a paved path through the cave with a hundred other tourists, you get to crawl around in the dirt and scale rocks, squeeze through the tunnels. I immediately wanted to go on that tour.
So I drove all of Wednesday all the way into Thursday morning and drove straight back to Kentucky. I found out that the Wild Cave tour was already sold out, so I went on one of the other tours to the Frozen Niagra section. As I was waiting for my tour time I decided to ask if they had any Wild Caves for Friday available. It turns out that there was one ticket left! I snatched it up immediately.
I enjoyed the Frozen Niagra tour. There were cave formations that were quite amazing to see there. By the end of the tour fatigue and lack of sleep were catching up to me so I went and crashed at the Days Inn in Cave City. I fell asleep for about 4 hours when I woke up to a torrential rain storm. It was pouring buckets of water outside and the parking lot was flooding. I dashed out and rolled up my windows all the way.
I watched some TV, dried the jeans I was going to wear on the crawl tour and waited for the rain to stop. I then went to a local diner Jerry's I think it was called and had delicious liver and onions with green beans and mashed potatoes. I also had a slice of excellent pecan pie. The waitress was so nice, she did not charge me for the pie because she made me wait a while. I left her a nice tip.
Back at the motel with a full belly I dozed off to sleep after finishing off the rest of the peaches I bought down in Georgia.
I woke up bright and ready to go in the morning ate some breakfast and headed to the park.
We were short 4 people for the tour so there were only 10 of us.
Our guides Nichole and Nick took us down the New Entrance after equipping us with our helmets, helmet lights, and kneepads. The first thing they took us through were a series of crawls. Some of the crawls are so small and narrow that you basically had to pick a side to turn your head because you could not turn it until you got to the other side. We then did all sorts of climbing on rock piles, canyone walking across gorges. It was exhilirating. The size of some of the caves are amazing when you are walking the tourist path, but are just breathtaking when you are actually caving through it. Our group was really enthusiastic and fit. We were making great time and not having any trouble with the climbs so the guides led us on the harder routes that they normally don't get the chance to go on. We got to make more crawls and more challenging crawls than most groups ever do. The people I was with were verry friendly and even shared some of the food with me because I had forgotten to grab some granola bars to take with me.
Our crawl was 5 1/2 miles over rocks, canyons, and tunnels and it took us about 6 hours to move that distance with the break for lunch included. It was the most amazing 6 hours in my life. I was charged up and alive when scaling the rocks. Normally I don't like heights at all, but I had no problem climbing down the cave walls with a drop of 30 feet below me, even with no protective harness of ropes to keep me from falling. It was awesome. I enjoyed myself so much that I think I will look into any caving groups based in my area and see if I can't join one and go on caving expeditions every now and then.
Well I guess that is enough rambling for now. I will see if I can figure out how you post pictures once I get my film back.
Later.
# posted by kc masterpiece @ 1:08 PM 
