Day 19-20, Mammoth Caves National Park – March 12th-13th, 2011

Jeep Mileage: 270345 km

We checked out the short hikes available in the Mammoth Caves National Park and picked up our tickets for the 6.5 hour wild cave tour that we had booked for the next day. We spent the evening camping in the park, and enjoying the early spring weather we had. We spent Saturday night, around the camp fire reading, and updating our blogs, sorting photos and planning the next legs our journey. I thought about most of my friends back in Greenville, which were out enjoying the pub crawl. Part of me wanted to be back there with them, but I know deep down this trip is something I need in my life.

This would be only the 2nd time I had ever been caving, the first was in Budapest in 2009. This would be Rose’s first experience with caving so we were both very excited. We arrived and suited up in our coveralls, helmets, and headlamps. The guides took us on a 6.5 hr adventure called the Wild cave tour. We crawled, climbed and squeezed through some pretty tight spots. In fact a couple places we could only squeeze through by lying flat on our bellies, turning our head sideways and then pulling ourselves through with our arms. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun.

After a quick shower we got on the road late and headed for Memphis. We had a couch surf lined up there for the night.


Full album:  Day 19-20