In celebration of my best friend's birthday, the birthday girl and I took a weekend trip to explore Mammoth Cave. We went there last year on a last-minute trip so this time we felt more prepared. Elena brought her blow up mattress, sleeping medicine, AND ear-plugs. We also got tickets for the Wild Cave Tour, a big time adventure for these girls.
Our initial plans were to hike Friday morning, canoe Friday afternoon, then go caving almost all day Saturday; we go home Sunday. Our 6 AM departure time got later as the morning went on and we kept remembering to do things before we left (we would be gone a whole weekend). We finally arrived at Mammoth Cave around 10 AM. We secured out campsite, set up our tents, ate some lunch, and were ready to leave to go canoeing by noon. So no hike, but hey- at least we get to canoe!
Nope. Thanks to my metropolitan (mostly West Coast)-based cell phone company, I only got the message that the Green River ran too high that day for canoes and our trip was cancelled while standing in the parking lot of the Green River Canoeing Outfitters. So no canoe, but hey- at least we get to...
Check out the Mammoth Cave Wax Museum right up the road! I was torn between the wax museum and Dinosaur World, but the historians in us won (and the challenge "what are you, eight?" seems to knock some semblance of sense into me... sometimes). We decided we would "Walk through the past."
No trip to the American past is complete without our founding fathers (Ben Franklin sat in a chair in the same room... they were all friends).
A poor representation of Teddy. Though I still applauded the man after watching Ken Burns' America's Best Idea.
Check out Robert E. Lee. And old Jeff Davis in the back. The Narrator made more mention of Lee's horse than of Davis.
Let us not forget our most popular president! And his wife, who hails from Kentucky! Or the... slave? The narrator did not mention anything regarding the servant figure in the middle of the room.
Elena was help up by the wax Jesse James.
Elena was shot by the wax Jesse James.
No wax museum is complete without a life-sized version of the Lord's Supper. "And that's why we Methodists use Grape Kool-Aid for the blood of Christ."
This one still gets me. Dr. MLK, Billy Graham, and the Pope. Yep, and Bobbie Kennedy. It was like the designers thought of a series of people they wanted to include in the museum, but couldn't fit them into their story, so they stuck them into a room together.
They saved Elvis, and a disproportionate Dolly Parton for last.
Our adventure through the past only maintained our interest for 45 minutes. We then worked our way back to the campsite. And napped. It was fantastic. After our nap, we built our fire, cooked our foil dinners, roasted some s'mores, and tucked ourselves into bed. We wanted to get a good night's sleep before our big adventure.
Hint: When choosing campsites, pick the ones that are undesirable. The desirable ones get chosen by people who like to drink and be loud until 2 AM and boy scout troops who are up and ready for their day by 6 AM. So, really, our good night's sleep was more like a 4 hour nap. In a sleeping bag.
But nothing would keep us down! We were ready conquer Mammoth Cave!
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