May 25 to May 26

On Monday morning we left the Cape RV Park in Missouri, and attempted to drive straight on to the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Unfortunately, Charlie had a little trouble with the GPS once we got into Illinois. He programmed the GPS to take us the quickest way, expecting to be on interstates, or at least on major roads. Instead, we were directed to a secondary road that went on and on, and after a turn or two the road became narrow and bumpy. No fun in this old RV with the refrigerator popping open and canned fruit flying everywhere. We use bungee cords to hold the cabinets closed, but the fridge usually is not a problem. It really got interesting when the road deteriorated into a dirt road. Meanwhile we were seeing old farmhouses, trailers, barns, and all sorts of livestock including goats. No businesses and no traffic. The road finally ended at a huge quarry. Even then the GPS was directing us to 'turn left'. There was a little driveway to the left, but we had had enough. We turned around, not an easy maneuver, and headed back the way we came, but then tried another road off to the right. Almost immediately that road went into a very deep ditch. There was no turning around, so we went in, and when we came out the rear end hit bottom pretty hard. Charlie and I have very different responses to this sort of thing. For me, it is an adventure. I am not the least bit worried. I am saying things like “Oh look, a turtle!”. But I admit when we hit bottom I did get a little worried. Luckily the RV appears to be okay, we just lost a cap to something or other. Charlie on the other hand wasn't interested in my turtle sighting. To be fair, he was the one dealing with all this. But it did seem a little over the top when he got into an argument with the GPS: ”Recalculating” Shut Up ”Recalculating” Shut Up ”Recalculating” SHUT UP! ”Recalculating”. Charlie gave up and the GPS got the last word, which I pointed out. Again, Charlie was not amused. Finally, we got to a decent sized road and with the help of the map, we got back on track. It probably would not have been so bad but we had a similar experience the day before trying to get to the lead mine, even to the point of being on a dirt road. We still have the GPS hanging on the visor, and it is still talking, but Charlie is not necessarily obeying anymore. We had a long drive to the area of the Mammoth Cave and it rained quite a bit too. We stopped early at an RV park that was open but didn't have any facilities available yet. It was okay though, it had wifi, and that counts for a lot. It rained throughout the evening so we got on our respective computers, and Charlie was able to relax and recover from a rough day of driving. I watched the final episode of Desperate Housewives on the web. I am finding that I like watching TV on my computer, there are a lot fewer commercials. Toby was as good as gold as usual. I think the hobo life suits him. He gets fed on time, and he is with us, so he seems to be happy. I have not heard him whine since we left home. Tuesday morning we got going early and headed straight to the Mammoth Cave, about a 90 mile drive. Oh wait, we stopped at Wal-Mart first. I have not been mentioning our almost daily stops at Wal-Mart for obvious reasons. But this one was a little bit interesting because there was an Amish community in the area, and an Amish gentlemen came along and parked his horse and buggy near our RV. Ha! Anyway, I was thinking I might pass on this cave since I don't really like them, but we both did take one of the very short introductory tours. Mammoth National Park is different from almost all the other national parks. It is free to get in, drive around, picnic, hike, bicycle, and more. Fees are charged only for camping and cave tours. All of the tours are escorted. Our guide was a young park ranger and I enjoyed listening to him talk with his accent. He said 'steel' when he meant 'still'. It was fun, and the temperature in the cave was 56 degrees. We saw some very tiny bats, about the size of a thumb. Our guide talked about how the cave was used over the centuries. A doctor thought the cold damp air might help cure TB so he set up some patients down there. It didn't work out. Someone else tried to grow mushrooms, but they didn't grow any faster down there so it wasn't worth it. The only successful enterprise was during the War of 1812 when they used the bat poop in the dirt to make salt peter. They sent the salt peter to Dupont where it was made into gun powder. After the war they didn't need it anymore so they abandoned the things they were using (pipes made of poplar, crates, and tools), and those items are still there today. They say that without the bat poop in the Mammoth Cave we would have lost the war, and we would be driving on the other side of the road today. That is what they say. There were only six of us on the tour. During the past weekend every tour had 40 to 120 people. So we were lucky. Most of the cave does not have formations like other caves we have seen. Mammoth is known for being the most extensive cave system on earth at 365 miles. Geologists think there may be as many as 600 miles of undiscovered passageways. There are seven separate introductory and general tours and a bunch of specialty tours. If you are really into caves you could spend a lot of time there. We may go back tomorrow and take another introductory tour that is called 'Frozen Niagara'. As you probably guessed, that one has formations. I might take that tour by myself while Charlie takes a four and one-half hour tour that is considered to be physically demanding. He is still thinking about it. Tonight we are at Singing Hills RV Park just outside of Mammoth, and it is very nice. There are loads of tourist traps near here, including miniature golf, a wax museum, a wildlife museum, a frontier town, a dinosaur park (exceedingly tacky giant fake dinosaurs), gold mining, go karts, and bumper boats. There is an antique mall, rock shops, and shops for knives, guns, and gifts. I bet it is a lot of fun around here in the summertime.