The following is a true story, only the names have been changed, to protect the guilty.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Mammoth Cave National Park

It's been a couple weeks now since my boys and I were down in Kentucky for spring break. Three of our friends came with as well, Adam W and his two sons E.W. and D.W. . Noticeably missing were our wives who stayed home either to work, or relax, or a little of both.
This pulley on the belt tensioner decided to take a crap on the way out near Madison. Thankfully Advance Auto Parts had a complete replacement and I was able to fix it in the a Walmart parking lot in about 15 minutes.

The Frazier Museum in Louisville KY  

The entrance to Mammoth. We took a hike down here the night we arrived...you can't go in (locked door) but it was nice to see without a huge crowd

Only got picks of Big D on the first tour since I had no idea where the other two were ( up front with the guide asking questions)

The cave is absolutely huge. could not get any good pics since no flash is allowed and the tour seems to hustle everyone along with very little opportunity to stop. 

dinner is served

We crossed this ferry (free) on the Green River to go mountain biking. It holds two or three vehicles and takes about 30 seconds to get across.

you can't go mountain biking and not get the sweet shot of a creek crossing
  It was a pure dad's weekend where the soda pop was flowing and candy and sweets were tossed back with reckless abandon. I chose Mammoth Cave based upon a trip I had planned  the year before, but skipped due to uncharacteristic snow way down south and the opportunity to triple my paycheck with some fat overtime. Normally work NEVER comes between me and a planned vacation but if the trip was going to suck anyway why not make a shit load of money and buy myself something nice?
Each of the boys took about 8 passes on the same creek and got pretty wet

group shot



Good day for a canoe ride !

I wonder why they named it the Green River ?

Within a few minutes of pushing off we were able to paddle into this short cave.

At the last minute I threw a couple fishing poles in the van for the boys....Super Y caught this small mouth bass about 15 minutes after dropping a line....it would be the only one of the day,  he was very proud of himself...... I was very proud of him for landing it by himself while G Man and I were navigating the river
 .We were gone a total of seven days, squeezing in a trip to a weapons and warfare museum, two cave tours on separate days, a mountain bike ride on real single track within a national park,  an all day canoe ride down the green river, and some hiking thrown in for good measure.
We took a little side trip on the River Styx to go see a spring... 

Origin of the River Styx

The fish Super Y caught in the morning would later be his dinner

Got the boys to stick together on the second cave tour.

The cave is awesome, but I don't think tours are for "caver's" like myself. The group is over a hundred (120) and the guide is intent on getting everyone through the tour as fast as possible. 


Hike along the Green River

The bikes were awesome for getting around the camp and the visitor center.....I never go anywhere without a bike for this reason.......oh yeah, the train is the way visitors  used to get to the cave for tours back in the day.

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