Mammoth Cave Part 1

(202nd Blog Post of Bourne's BIG Trip!!!!!!)

Now, we've been to a lot of caves before in the trip. Luray Caverns was beautiful, surreal, and full of wonderful spectacles. It had big rooms, and went up a few ramps, pretty okay. Then we did Mark Twain cave. Small corridors with many side hallways, all kinds of secret, strait passage ways. A few cool formations in between. Great historical significance. Then we did Meramec Caverns, where there were many huge rooms, a lot of cool formations and wonderful prettiness, and some stairs up and down along the way. All were great. At home, we went to a cool cave in Tennessee, called Ruby Falls. That was really fun and it was fantastic at the end, seeing the falls. Now, those four were great in all their own ways, but the one we saw yesterday...beat all. It was called Mammoth Cave, the longest in the world, 392 mi. long, they think. They know there's more, but that's all they've EXPLORED! It's a new world, and we would be going down into the center of it, the center of the earth! Just kidding. 290ft downward, although very deep, isn't at the center of the earth. But it's close enough. Close enough to make a good blog post out of.

We drove to it, in the wet woods of fall leaves falling and dampness every where. Rain was coming down, again, although I know yesterday was nothing like you experienced, you tornado survivors. :) We parked outside of the facility, and saw it was a National Park. All other caves I've seen were private enterprise, not public, or federal. Other ones pay money and allow you to do weddings and banquet things. National Parks are(Mom tell more.)

We walked in and checked out the single roomed pretty large lobby with a ticket booth and restroom on the left, gift shop at the end, and doors going off in many directions. We found out there was a historic tour and Morrison Tour. The historic had pretty cool stuff but they said the Morrison was the best. We got tickets for that and they told us that we couldn't bring bags of any kind on the tour, including Mom's purse and my video case. In a race against time, Mom took my case and her purse back to the jeep, running, and I got my sole video camera in my hand and my battery in Dad's pocket. When Mom returned, we all ran very fast to catch up with the group, already under a pavilion with a bus in front. It was Shelter B. A man with a park ranger uniform on, a big green jacket, a khaki cowboy hat, and cackey pants, with a beard, black hair, and being in his forties,was telling a good 14 people about how the cave was gonna be. Rebecca and I a were the first to come up, our parents being a good while back. "...hen after that we'll go down a lot of stairs, like 259. So if you are claustrophobic or afraid of confined, dark, or scary places, you probably don't want to come. Also... Oh Hello," as he saw us come by. "You have two more, correct?"

"Yes," I answered. "Our parents."

"I'll tell them when they come," he said.

"Okay."

Mom and Dad came up, but he was finished. He told everyone to get in the bus, that it was a long way to get there and that we wouldn't want to hike before we hike. As everyone went in, us too, he stopped us and went over the whole thing, saying it was low ceilings with small openings and steep, steep stairs, saying the other things mentioned before also. We said we were fine, or so we thought we were. We got seats in the bus, and Michael(oh sorry forgot to tell you the guide's name) told us we passed the natural entrance, a big gaping hole, and that we didn't enter through that region because we were doing another part and that it would take 9 hours to go the distance from the natural to the one George Morrison built, even though we were going over it in a couple of minutes. He said Morrison was an oil guy, and he bought all the land from farmers. He found a cave, opened it all up for tours, made people pay money to see all the things, and after 6 years actually sold it. It switched hands several times before becoming a national park in the forties. Then it became where it is today. Oh yeah, and Morrison had it under 1925, after having it since 1918. He made a lot of money.

We drove to a wooded with trees area and went on a side walk, following Michael. He led us down some concrete stairs, and I counted down in my head as I looked at some of the people in the group. Most were old, with big jackets. A lady with orange hair and glasses. A skinny, bald and grey headed man, with a camera. He was Paul. The former was Elizabeth (I would later learn). Also was a scruffy man with a beard. We went down the concrete steps some more into a kind of pit, with dirt, and a door, steel at that, with a chamber going into the ground. Michael told us to crowd around the door. He asked to be forgiven for making us stand in the rain, but he explained we would be going into the crowded, narrow, dark bowels of the earth, and he explained that no one could touch anything unless they NEEDED too, because this was a national park, and that it, "belongs to all of you. You (pointing to me), you (Rebecca), you (scruffy guy) and..."

"Not me," the man (Scruffy) said in a Canadian accent and pointing to a Canada flag on his jacket. "I'm from Canada." "Me too," a little women said beside him, probably his wife.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Where are all of you from?"

"Atlanta, GA," Dad said.

"I belong to the Union Jack, my good sir. Great Britain." That was Paul. His wife, Elizabeth, nodded.

"Well, is everyone ready to enter the cave?" Michael asked.

Nods and yeses all around. "Okay, what adult wants to be the last person to go in and lock the door with the key?" Paul volunteered. "Alright Paul, when I stop I'll yell, 'You're there, Paul?' and you'll say..."

"HERE!"

"Let's go in." And with that, the door was opened. Michael quickly became a figure in the dark, as other people went in. I then entered, the cave, Mammoth Cave, and we would have a mammoth of a time.

Darkness flooded in as we all walked in. I held onto a stainless steel railing and went steeply down stainless steel steps. We were all very crowded, and it wasn't a fun time necessary. We went all around corners, down hills, over water, hearing waterfalls, we even saw a pit formation. We went through small tight spaces, where I could barely fit in and had to go sideways. I was with Dad most of the time, and we went down a very steep part in a domed room with railings on either side. "You might want to put the camera in your pocket and do both hands," Michael said. I didn't have pockets, so Dad put it in his. I proceeded down. "Slippery part up here, pass it on," I repeated, and then it went down and down the line until Paul said,"I GOT IT," I tried not to fall on my butt, and was very careful when we were going in the wet region of the cave. I saw small waterfalls on the rocks though. Those were nice. Drip, drop, drip ,drop, trickle, trickle, drip, drop... "Watch out ahead!" What was it? "Ahhhh!" What? What's going....

TO BE CONTINUED...! (See Mammoth Cave Part Two for next part.)