Cave Trip

It’s off to the cave tomorrow – Leaving at 7:00; that means teachers arrive at 5:30 to school and kids around 6:30.

It means making lunch for 40 before 6:00, and remembering how to measure the long trip down with the tour time, and making sure there’s time to stop for breakfast and potty needs, and then trying to get a half lunch in so that we can make the tour, and then trying to get to the tour, and then trying to get another half lunch in after the tour and then trying to make sure we get home at a reasonable time.

Love to do two caves, but the fish eye from the young teachers is stultifying.

What will the kids see? Well, for those who take their eyes off the floor of the bus or the shoes of the kid next to them, they will see some really beautiful farmland between EVV and Cave City. They will see a really interesting entrance to the cave which is about five miles long. Remember that the cave is the biggest cave in the whole world.

We will arrive at a relatively low key reception hall. There is a busy counter with a few lines. Tickets have been reserved for ten adults, so there will be some adjustments to be made.

Then we all go outside to board a bus which seems to tear through the forest as if it’s got a donut run. We stop at an unassuming cul-de-sac and disembark. Then it’s off through a really ugly steel door and immediately, the hot and sultry is left behind and the children enter a dark and narrow and deep and cold cave about 56 degrees.

The narrow metal steps begin to descend slowly and wind down and around one rock after another until the cave begins to open up at the bottom – about 350 steps down. It’s not straight, so it’s not dangerous. It’s well protected and lots of fun. Kids love the spooky lighting and the long funny walls. It’s just neat and different.

The ranger will turn off all the lights at one point. This is the time when we ask the kids who might get scared if they would like to sit with a teacher. None ever do. It’s total blackness. It’s a reality check. Then it’s off to more cave sites.

We will walk for about two hours. We will see some big rooms and some magnificent cave fixtures. The stalagmites in the Niagra section are really beautiful.

Then it’s back out into the sunlight. This is an exciting trip for the kids, and we have a lot of parents going, so there will be an adult ever six feet or so.

If we are late this time, we will call every parent. Make sure, if you are not going, you sign the red sheet at the front of the school.

Make sure you look at the link for Mammoth Cave.