Holy moly. Talk about a LONG haul from Missouri to Kentucky!
We drove and drove and drove, arriving at the park at 11:30pm. By the time we popped up and got to bed it was well past midnight. Then at 5:00 am I was awakened by sunlight and an enthusiastic chorus of birds chirping away. I did a double take when I looked at my watch...daylight at 5:00 am? Yes indeed longer daylight hours in the summer in these here parts of the country. We are all slightly delirious due to lack of sleep. The Mammoth Cave Hotel had just what we needed in the form of a hearty breakfast and mass quantities of coffee! Oh, I forgot to mention that at this National Park, there is no water or electricity. Yes folks this is truly roughing it. I was mildly concerned about having to sleep without the white noise and Arctic Blast that our wonderful AC unit provides. At least the National Park Service/U.S. Department of the Interior was thoughtful enough to provide restroom facilities. And toilet paper. And hand soap. Important details. Your tax dollars at work. Also last nights temperature was a mild 68 degrees, so once we unzipped the canvas and let that fresh Kentucky air in, the camper was quite cool and comfortable. In fact, it became chilly in the middle of the night and I had to cover up with a blanket. Imagine that-sleeping under a blanket while camping in summertime!
After breakfast we headed over to the visitor center to get tickets for our cave tour.
With over 400 miles of caves, Mammoth Cave National Park is the longest cave system in the world. We really enjoyed seeing all the underground formations caused by erosion of ancient seas 300 million years ago. And it was a nice cool 54 degrees under ground which was nice a thing considering you are hundreds of feet below the earth with about a hundred other people in pretty close quarters in some parts of the cave. We all had a blast and the boys were troopers during our underground hike.
That afternoon we hung out back at camp playing football and Badminton and then enjoyed an early campfire and roasted some hot dogs and off the bed we went. We all went right to sleep, tired from the day's events. I was sleeping a peaceful slumber and then randomly woke up around 2:00am. All I can tell you is that without my trusty box fan or our super turbo Arctic Coleman Mach AC unit blowing, I suddenly found myself wide awake, unable to return to my former peaceful slumber because I was suffering from a severe bout of "white noise" withdrawal. Indeed, with only the crickets chirping and the occasional sound of critters scurrying around in the forest, the silence of the great outdoors was deafening. I lay there starting up at the ceiling with sleep eluding me when suddenly I remembered that I had a " White Noise" app on my iPhone. So in no time at all, I was lulled back to sleep by the familiar sounds of an " Oscillating Fan".
Thank goodness for modern technology!
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