Mammoth Cave

As I sit here this evening, I want to tell you all about my painting today, but I have to tell you about Mammoth Cave. As we were in Kentucky visiting with Dad and Sally, going to check out Mammoth Cave was definitely on our to-do list. Dad had rented a huge van for us to travel around in. This way, they could tell us about all the things we passed and such. It made it more fun and we enjoyed all being together.

Mammoth Cave National Park preserves the cave system and a part of the Green River valley and hilly country of south central Kentucky. This is the world's longest known cave system, with more than 367 miles explored. Early guide Stephen Bishop called the cave a "grand, gloomy and peculiar place," but its vast chambers and complex labyrinths have earned its name—Mammoth. (www.nps.gov/maca)

We took a historical guided tour in this enormous cave. It was a 2 hour tour that covered 2 miles. Needless to say, we were hopeful that our little troopers would do well. Let me say upfront that they did an amazing job. It was super sweet of Dad and Sally to pay for us to do such a cool thing AND have faith in us enough to go down into a cave for two hours with us.

If this picture freaks you out a little, try being there and looking down.

There were probably, I don't know, 60-75 people on this tour. We were right in the middle of them, ducking, gasping, oohing and ahhing.

We took turns carrying Brayden. He could have walked, but I think he wanted to be held. I'd want to be held too if I was a three year old traipsing into a dark cave. He kept a great attitude after the 'lights out' moment. The guide let us see what the cave would look like if we had no light within it. Creepy, but really neat. I was amazed. There were several children on this tour and only one little one got a little freaked out and started whimpering. Really impressed. So, there is my Dad up above ducking down with Brayden. If he were to hold him up at this moment on the tour, Brayden would have bumped his head. There were a lot of times we had to crouch down right much. They named one part Tall Man's Headache and another Fat Man's Misery. Bet you can figure out why.

Up above you can see candle written names that dated back to 1839. There were tons of people that use to visit the cave back then; for church services, get togethers, or to listen to or play music. Then of course there were slaves that would work down in there. Our guide was actually a descendant of a slave that would work in Mammoth Cave. He has some interesting stories to share. It was very moving. To read more about the history click here.

Here are our kids by the van Dad rented. :)