Saturday, July 7, 2018
Today we visited Mammoth Cave National Park. It is the last planned activity on a trip that lasted 46 days as of today. Dan and I agree that it is time to return home but neither of us are truly ready for it to be over. We are both surprised by that.
Mammoth Cave is about 25 miles from Bowling Green, but we left plenty of time to get there. We did not want to turn up late for our “Historical” Tour starting that began at 10 AM. We had also booked a tour entitled Domes and Dripstones for 2:00 PM. The bottom line is that Carlsbad Caverns, which is simply spectacular, really spoiled us. Comparing Carlsbad to Mammoth is like comparing Chanukah to Yom Kippur. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave in the world with over 365 Miles of surveyed passageways and more being discovered every year, but it is exceedingly plain.
On the first tour we kept waiting to see the usual stalagmites and stalactites one sees in almost any cave open to the public, but there were none. On the second tour, we did see one spectacular area called Frozen Niagara, but out of a 2-hour tour that part may have taken up 15 minutes. What it lacked in beauty, however, it gained in the walking experience itself. What I mean by that is that rather than smooth, perfectly manicured, easy to walk paths, we had to duck from hitting out heads, squeeze through narrow crevices, and walk on uneven surfaces in semi-darkness. We felt like spelunkers – or spelunkers that traveled it in large groups that included crying babies. All in all, we spent about 4 hours today underground.
In between tours we had lunch at the Mammoth Hotel. It was nothing special just a pleasant sit-down restaurant. After our second tour we also enjoyed some local ice cream, which seems to have been our usual after hiking activity. No wonder we have not lost any weight on this trip.
Back in our hotel we settled down to finish our blog. At about 7:00 PM we ran out and picked up pizza at a place around the corner from our hotel called Blaze Pizza. It was perfect. You custom order your pizza and it is ready in minutes.
By the way, tomorrow we continue heading North towards Lake Erie and parts unknown.
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 