Mammoth Cave National Park

We arrived at Diamond Caverns Campground in Park City, KY, just as a storm was rolling in with high winds, then drenched everything with heavy rain all night. Every time a wind gust would hit the trailer the canvas cover on the slide-out would make a loud "fwap" and the trailer would shake. We weren't worried but Dora would jump up like she was hit with an electric shock and look at me as if to say "What was that? Are we OK?" Since I had no reaction she'd lay back down till the next wind gust and jump up again. Clearly she was nervous about the whole experience. Sammy, being almost deaf in his old age, slept through the whole thing. I guess there are some advantages to being old.

Our main reason for stopping here in KY was to visit Mammoth Cave National Park. Although not what we expected, it was still an interesting stop. To date, explorers have surveyed more than 420 miles of cave passage, making Mammoth Cave the longest known cave system in the world. There are several tours available but we took the Historical Tour which brought us on a 2 mile trek that descended 270 feet below the earth's surface. The tour included areas known as Fat Man's Misery and Tall Man's Agony. We also had to climb about 150 stairs back to the surface. It was an afternoon well spent that included an abundance of history and geological information.

Fat Man's Misery

Tall Man's Agony

Maybe a little of both!

Bottomless pit

Part of the stairway to the surface

Traveling with dogs makes life a little challenging at times. It was both a warm day and a full parking lot at the caves so we opted to leave the dogs at the RV and find someone at the campground to come take them for a potty break every few hours. Dora could go longer but Sammy needs to go out more often. The older I get the more I understand his problem! If you spend any length of time going to RV campgrounds, you eventually meet up with people you know. As it worked out, Mary and Fred, who we had met at Fair Play, SC in December, were only a few campsites away. They were kind enough to watch after the pups while we were touring the caves.

Mary and Fred, and their mini-Aussie Dundee

A lovely and delightful family from Michigan camped next to us and shared their campfire with us. Mom, Dad, 3 daughters, 3 fairly big dogs (1 for each daughter), and a chinchilla (that was the oldest daughter's). It was so interesting learning about chinchilla care, feeding, etc. They certainly make very interesting pets and I learned things about them I never knew before. The girls were polite, respectful and well mannered, something you don't see that often in today's culture. It's reassuring that some parents are still raising children to be responsible. Good job, Mom and Dad!

Jared, Tara and "girls"

I have no idea what these are, other than unusual looking. Some sort of cocoon? 

We left KY today and began our trek back to NH. We will be stopping overnight for the next 3 nights - Monday in Westerville, OH, at a business that offers people to stay in their parking lot overnight through Harvest Hosts, Tuesday in Forestville, NY, at a boondockerswelcome location, and Wednesday at another Harvest Host location in Schenectady, NY. Then on Thursday we'll make the final leg of our journey to Jim's son's house in Andover, NH, where we'll spend several days to visit family in the area. We're looking forward to getting back home for the summer.