9/17/11 - Mammoth Caves NP

You could almost say “National-Parks-Я-Us” since that's our focus on this trip.  Each one has something that makes it unique.  Mammoth Caves National Park has the longest surveyed cave system in the US--although George insists that Lechuguilla Cave in Carlsbad Caverns NP is going to end up being longer.  But the operative word at this point is “surveyed”.

Yes, it’s long—something like 392 miles have been surveyed—and we didn’t walk them all.  We’ve visited Carlsbad Caverns and Oregon Caves, and I think Mammoth is very disappointing.  Let me explain why. 

Anyone who had worn the same shoes in another cave needed to have them decontaminated.  White-Nose Syndrome is killing the bats, and they think the spores are carried by people as they go from one cave to another.  I told the ranger I wore my boots when we visited Carlsbad last February so I got to soak my boots for 5 minutes in a bleach solution.   I told her I couldn't sit that long without something to read--so she loaned me a book about invasive plants in the south.  (I studied it, but didn't see any in the cave.)

There are a bunch of cave tours you can take.  We’d thought we'd take the New Entrance Tour or the Mammoth Passage Tour.  When we got there, a volunteer said that he wouldn’t consider a trip to Mammoth Caves complete without going on the Historic Tour.  So while I had my feet in a plastic dishpan, George bought the tickets. 

It’s 2 miles of tromping through a cave without much to see, but we learned some interesting things.   

We saw where slaves mined nitrate for saltpeter to make gunpowder for the War of 1812. 

We learned about the slaves who served as tour guides in the early 1800s.  We saw graffiti from early tourists, where they either carved their names or used candle smoke to write them on the ceilings. 

We squeezed uncomfortably through the section called Fat Man’s Misery.  And George hardly ever got to stand up straight.

We looked down the Bottomless Pit—we couldn’t see the bottom either.  We climbed 155 steps to the top of Mammoth Dome, but it was too dark, and too closed in to get much perspective.

  

Apparently we weren’t in the section of the cave where there were ornate formations.  Our part was just a walk through a big old limestone cavern, with big chunks of rock that had fallen from the roof.  (The guide told me they don’t call them “cave-ins because it makes the tourists nervous.)  As you can tell, lighting wasn’t very good.

Okay, I’m through complaining.  In retrospect, we probably picked the wrong tour. 

We’re not going back.

More pictures at this link

9/15/11 – Corvettes & More Corvettes

Every new Corvette is assembled at the GM plant in Bowling Green, KY.  Since we were nearby to visit Mammoth Caves, I talked George into visiting the factory and the National Corvette Museum.  You can imagine how hard it was to get him to agree to my suggestion...

I read that the factory was across the street from the museum.  Well, yeah, as long as you consider I-65 a “street”.  We headed towards the museum first, then decided that we’d better go to the factory first or we’d miss the last tour of the day.  After all, they work 4-10’s, 6:12 am-4:42 pm, Mon-Thurs, and today’s Thursday… 

We turned around and followed the signs to the Corvette Plant Tours.  Lots of signs:  No Cameras, No Cell Phones, No Purses, No Backpacks; Open Toed Shoes Only.  (Sign, sign, everywhere a sign...)  The one below is my favorite--we’re driving a Silverado, so no problem.

The website said to get to the tour site early.  That’s because they don’t say that you have to hike across 3 huge parking lots to get to the entrance.  The picture below is from the museum--remember the sign about “No Cameras”??

There was a movie about safety in the plant, which was about as interesting as you'd expect.  Our tour guide was a college intern.  She couldn’t possibly have been born in Kentucky because she talks as fast as I do! 

There weren’t a lot of people working—doesn’t take as many as it used to, I guess. Those guys were having fun though—lots of joking and laughing.  It was, after all, their Friday.  And they’re UAW workers, so they’re not terribly impoverished.  On the other hand, you might want to make a note that you don’t want a ‘Vette made today. 

The cars roll slowly forward on the conveyor belt to their ultimate destination (sadly, not our driveway).  We weren’t allowed to stop and watch unless it was an authorized tour stop.  We had to "stay on the green painted walkways and watch out for forklifts".  I slowed down where they put the window & trunk piece on, and dawdled where they lined up the doors, but we got to stop when they drove one for the first time.  They let a woman from the tour (the only blonde in shorts...hmmmm) get in and start it.

After the water test, the tour just sort of ended, anticlimactically, with a “Check out the store” and “Bye, folks”.   Oh, yeah, they were getting off an hour early. 

Next stop was the museum.  First the ubiquitous movie about the history of the Corvette, which was definitely more interesting than the safety movie, then you just sort of wander around this huge maze to see really pretty Corvettes.  Well…there was one that had gone through a test crash that wasn’t real pretty.   A lot were on loan, or had been donated. 

There’s even a 1983 ‘vette—the one that never made it into production.  I didn't know that, so I guess I didn't take a picture...so you won't see it here either.

Some of the cars are behind clear plastic panels.  I think that’s so you can’t get close enough to drool on the paint. 

This is the 100^th anniversary of Chevrolet, so they had a special exhibit on other Chevys.

Last room was the store.  I told George that I’d buy him a $70 jacket when he figures out how to buy the $70,000 car.        I liked this rear view mirror. 

Link to more Corvette pics