October 22: Cedar Grove, WI to South Bend, IN. 231 miles, 4 hours + 1 hour at Denny’s. October 24: South Bend, IN to Mammoth Cave National Park, KY. 349 miles, 5.5 hours
October 24-30: Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
Taking advantage of Grayson’s 2 week Fall Break, we spent a few days re-readying the RV, hanging out with Nana and Papa, and then heading south to South Bend, IN. We had a lovely weekend of quality time with cousin Lulu, sword fighting and swapping book recommendations, and hitting up the local farm to play, wander through the maize maze, drink some hot cocoa, ride the cow train, and wait for it….shoot apples through a cannon.
We had a long but easy drive south through Indiana to Kentucky, listening to The Hobbit and stopping at the Cracker Barrel for lunch.
We started out a bit rusty; it was strange to vacation in what was our primary home for months. We shopped for the week, without bringing a full pantry of things like flour and sugar. We discoved that we missed a toaster and measuring cups. We packed fewer clothes (obviously), but that seemed weird. We arrived to the Jellystone campground outside Mammoth Cave National Park to beautiful hills, vibrant fall colors and the few people that accompany Monday-Friday campgrounds off-season.
Greg took the week as vacation; it was nice to share shifts on the jumping pillow and have a 1:1 adult:kid ratio for all our outings. Mammoth Cave was our 3rd National Park Cave stop of 2021. Just as we never realized how many towns called “Hot Springs” there are, going into multiple cave systems in different parts of the country was not on my bucket list.
We started the week at the Visitor’s Center and got our tickets for the afternoon Mammoth Passage tour, which provided a historic overview with pretty easy walking. There were some stairs down through the natural entrance, but most of the tour took place in a large rotunda space. Our ranger told the interesting history of Salt Petre mining and early tourism, where the short tour was 8-9 hours (!). We made it 1 hour before requests for snacks started up. Perhaps moms of the 1800s kept snacks in their hoop skirts before the National Park Service instituted their current “water only” policy. On our way out, our guide pointed out a bat and a couple cave crickets!
We spent a cool, dry, sunny Tuesday floating down the Green River in double kayaks with the 2-3 mi/hour current. We had the river to ourselves for the day – or at least, didn’t share it with other humans. We did see deer, turtles, and a bald eagle. AND – Madelyn caught a fish. No one was more amazed than Greg. Except perhaps the fish, who for reasons unknown chomped down on a lure with no bait. Greg and Grayson in the “Kayak of Big Dreams” made many plans for our future house, that will include not one, but TWO geodesic domes on the property (to be built by Papa and Grandpa). Also, I’ve been informed that we will have an exotic animal sanctuary. When I was asked to provide an animal suggestion and responded with “sheep”, I was told no – in fact, sheep were already assumed in the homesteading portion of said future property, and were too boring to put in the animal sanctuary. Our condo is looking better every day.
Wednesday was a gorgeous day, and we went out for a hike around the park. There was much whining, and I am reconsidering Greg’s past suggestion of noise-canceling headphones. Christmas is just around the corner.
Thursday we decided to try our luck on a more ambitious cave tour – Domes & Dripstones. The day was rainy, so perfect cave weather! The tour started with a bus ride a few miles out to the entrance. Once inside, we walked down a vertical shaft – about 500 steps down. Madelyn was a champ! Some of the early sections were like going through a below-ground slot canyon. Between sections of steps and tunnels were wide spaces with benches set up for Ranger Wayne’s funny and engaging cave tales. The cave itself is impressive – Mammoth indeed. Towards the end, we took the extra 50 steps to see the iconic formation Frozen Niagra, and encountered a large colony (herd? gaggle?) of cave crickets. For me, though, the best moment came when the super-funny older gentleman walking in front of Grayson jokingly said “I wonder what this button does? We should push it” (referring to a console that did have many buttons – I assume for things like The Lights and possibly communication). Grayson responded without missing a beat: “you shouldn’t press a button that you don’t know what it does.” I’ve never felt so proud and validated.
Our kids did a great job on this bigger cave hike, so after some lunch and a brief nap we went out for a fun evening of bowling, pizza, and ice cream.
Friday was pack up and drive day. We finished The Hobbit and started Aunt Tracy’s excellent recommendation of The Sixty Eight Rooms, arriving at our overnight stop in Tinley Park in time for mac & cheese. Greg and I enjoyed a nice steak dinner with my dad. Saturday we had a short drive back to Cedar Grove, where we cleaned out and prepped the RV for the winter. It seemed easy – and we’ll find out in the Spring how we did.
Fall fun! Keep it up!