anniversary excursion....finally...part one

the long awaited, much anticipated (yeah right) anniversary excursion to Bowling Green, KY and Mammoth Cave....


with the whole plurisy thing happening we didnt actually get to start out until saturday morning. we had to make a detour before we started on the "official" trip. our friend and fellow cruiser had passed away a couple of months ago, and his wife was having a yard sale of all of his shop tools, car parts, and asst. junk that men like to collect in their shops. well ole jim had 3 shops. needless to say by the time we stopped buying we had spent 300 bucks and the back of the mini van was packed full of clangy, rattling, metal parts.

(pretend i was smart enough to take a pic of the loaded van and imagine it right here)

so we looked at each other and said, well should we just go on with all of this stuff in the van or go back home, unload, and then start our trip over. i looked at rickEy to see what he was wanting to do, then i thought an hour back home, unload, an hour to get back here....forget that lets go! so our adventure began. (map of route) we enjoy taking back roads more than the interstate so you can see the cool farms, houses, trees, and fields instead of boring billboards and other cars and of course the hubby has to look for old trucks in barns or the woods. so we had a gorgeous drive to bowling green. kentucky got more rain than we did in TN so the trees were much more colorful there.

we checked in sat. afternoon and just kindof chilled and went to eat dinner. sunday we headed out for our first adventure to The Lost River Cave & Valley. It's about a 15 min. walk thru the woods and by some gorgeous blue holes:


















the blue color comes from limestone particles in the water reflecting from the sunlight. after a short walk we come to the entrance of the cave. There are signs posted telling that jesse james hid out in the cave in 1868 and also both sides of the civil war used the area as encampments. In the 1930's there was an "underground nite club" and they held balls and weddings in the wide covered entrance area.


so now we actually get to get into a flat bottom boat that has seats down each side. there is a metal railing down the middle of the boat that we all have to lean down and duck our heads to avoid a concussion (woohoo potential danger...gotta get a pic of this!)

that was a pretty cool little trip. we got to see some cave crickets, well barely. it was a very short little boat trip and very dim around the few lights they had placed. this river is still undergoing major efforts to clean and repair damage from ignorant ppl who thought "hey, here is a sink hole. lets dump all our trash in it, and it will magically disappear!" morons. all that garbage eventually ends up in the underground streams and rivers that we drink from because of the karst topography.



now we are back out of the boat and i want to walk the trails that they have around there. it really is a gorgeous little bit of woods in the middle of a city. we walk by old powder houses and head for the butterfly habitat.


hubby: it's fall, i think it's too cold for butterflies..

me: what? oh, i know it's fall but maybe they have a nice little heated home for the butterflies


hubby: (looks at me to see if i look like i am gonna give up on this little side trip) ok, lets go


me: reading the signs about double checking yourself in the mirror to see if you have any hitchhiker butterflies on you, invisioning walking thru a garden with hundreds of butterflies, typical daydreaming thoughts as i am waiting to enter the habitat.
this is what i find:

the only butterfly in the place...








...notice the determined photographer (me) goes so far as to stage the DEAD butterfly by one of the only blooms left in the habitat.

me: i wanted pics of butterflies! i dont care if it's dead. you wont be able to tell in the pic unless you look real close. now, go look for more dead ones. maybe we can get a whole flock herd bunch of 'em.



that's all for now, folks. i will continue our adventure in the next installment unless there are too many pleas for mercy : ) hey i just realized something. this is like home movies for the masses. hahaha. now i dont have to clean the house and lure you to the living room where the projector is all set up. of course i wont know if you decide to leave during the middle of the show this way either...hmmm...nope still better this way. anything that means i dont have to clean 4 company wins in my book.