The Garden School Tattler

We had an outstanding time at the cave on Friday. The kids were so well behaved and the trip seemed to go quickly. We left a little late, and I worried that it would all come out with enough time to do what we needed to do.

We made our way through the beautiful state of Kentucky and the children found friendship on the bus and the passing of farms and bridges and trucks enough to keep them occupied. We saw several deer and a wild turkey who crossed the path of the bus.

We arrived on time, thanks to Sandy, and had a very quick lunch of the usual salads and cold cuts and cookies and fruit and vegetables and milk, and then we took right off for the tour.

The tour started with Mr. Richard Howell separating our group from a group of adults. I was hoping this would happen, because our youngest, Devin, has very short legs, and he can't keep up with a lot of adults. So Mr. Richard let us take our time and we moseyed through the cave in child time and he' d leisurely stop here and there and point out something.

At one point I was crawling on my hands and knees - it was about 350 feet down on level five. The ground was slick and the little snaky paths cut ions ago in the floor of the cave was something someone should duplicate for playground use.

I was delighted with the bathroom on level four! We saw bats, cave creepers and lots of rocks. At one point William had near heart failure as the lights went out and Mr. Richard had to run ahead and turn them on while he left us in the dark. It was all fun and we learned a lot about absolute darkness!

We walked two miles underground, climbing a final tower that went at least 50 feet up a cave shaft and opened onto level three. We climbed and climbed across bottomless pits and old cave river bottoms. "Here's where it floods when it rains," said Mr. Richard. "This whole section is under water to here," and he raised his hand to a ribbon that had been tied to a pole. It was very reassuring that it wasn't raining at that moment - or was it? You can't tell 300 feet underground.

It was a very exciting trip and I think the kids really enjoyed it. Mammoth Cave is the largest cave in the world and because this is so close, we think the kids should enjoy it.

Next week - the Louisville Zoo!