Dozeman/Griswold Vacation Day 2

Dozeman/Griswold Vacation Day 2

This morning we were up bright and early to drive over to Mammoth Cave National Park. We had breakfast at the hotel and loaded up the cars and were off. It was a bit of a drive to get to the caves. But a lot of it was scenic. Lots of trees and wildlife. We finally arrived at the caves about 45 minutes before our tour. We checked in and got out tickets then we had some time to explore and take some photos.

It’s a bit challenging to entertain six children for 45 minutes, but we managed. We even managed for them not to destroy anything in the gift shops or the little museum they had inside the waiting area. The kids were all good, just hyper from a day of driving and not getting a lot of energy out. Finally, it was time for our tour.

We all met under a pavilion and were picked up by a bus. This really excited Anna. She was very happy we were going to ride a BUS. We took a short ride to the 1924 entrance of the cave for their Frozen Niagara tour. It was a manmade entrance to the caves. Mike and I had been to the caves 10 years ago but we must have gone to the main entrance part because we didn’t remember anything about this tour. It was interesting because the entrance and walkways were very narrow and not very tall. Poor Mike and definitely poor Mr. Rich (he’s 6’7”). They had to duck a lot throughout the whole tour. In fact, Mr. Rich had the misfortune to encounter a cave cricket because it crawled onto his HEAD. Ugh. Ah! Run away!

The entire tour lasted one hour and fifteen minutes. We saw a lot of really neat cave formations and stalactites (the drippy things) and stalagmites (the big columns).  We learned the cave got its name because of one particular section that looked like Niagra Falls frozen. Overall, I thought the cave was impressive and I don’t regret going, but I think I remember liking the main part of the Mammoth Caves better. However, we were limited on time and this was something we hadn’t seen before. It definitely wasn’t a time waster.

What I was most grateful for is all the kids behaved so well. They had moments but for the most part, they listened and didn’t act up while in the caves. They have no idea how much they could have had us at their mercy if they chose to act up while in the caves. We would have been trapped with a disobedient child(ren) but thankfully, that wasn’t the case!

After the tour and back at the cars, we decided it was best to have lunch and get gas before we took off. We had to leave the park first, there was no where to eat or drink in the park, but at our first available stop, we would eat and fill up. It was unfortunately much later than we anticipated. The Mammoth Caves, we found out the hard way, are in Central Time. Therefore, everything was now an hour later than we originally planned. It was still worth the trip, but it was kind of frustrating to really hit the road at 2:00 p.m. instead of 1:00 p.m.

It was another day of boring driving. The kids were a bit more restless this time. The movies entertained them for a while, even the iPads and electronics. However, now we’re starting to touch each other. It starts out with pokes, then turns into hands, then turns into wrestling with just upper bodies. Sometimes warring with stuffed animals. I’m not sure how they manage but there was a lot of yelling to stop bothering each other in the back. Anna and Andrew can’t reach each other but even they have more conversations that are “cross.” Anna will tell Andrew that he cannot play on her game and that it is HER game and he must not play it. He comes back with this is my transformer and my rock and you cannot have it. I suppose it’s normal and whatever keeps them entertained without killing each  other is good.

It seemed like a longer drive today because we had such a late start. We didn’t get in to the hotel until 9:15. We thought about going straight to bed but then the kids were restless and we were all restless so we decided a late night swim was in order. I’m very glad we did, even though I think the kids were tired too, because it was fun and it wore them out. They were all in bed by 11. We were in bed shortly after.

Tomorrow we hope to leave somewhat early to hit our last leg of the road trip. We have another 6 hours of driving but then we will be in FLORIDA. And we’ll be at the house. No more hotels and no more driving! It will be heavenly.