- Kentucky - Spring 2006 -
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"Kentucky... why Kentucky??" all my Florida and Mexico bound co-workers asked.  To be honest... "because it is there" didn't seem to fit in the way I had hoped it would.  They looked at me oddly for a brief second and then, with a glimmer of understanding and acceptance, realized that I have always chosen "odd" holiday destinations.  Ellie, Hannah and I spent the better part of nine days traveling 1,769 miles in our 2006 Dodge Caravan.

We stayed at the Horse Cave KOA which has recently come under new management.  We never actually met the owners as it appeared to be ran by a couple of high school students, one of which had a boyfriend who had a fascination with his car and appeared to clean it every night.  Although the location of the Horse Cave KOA is prime, they have a long way to go before it is ran at the same level as most KOAs are ran.  Having a two and a half year old daughter running around, I wasn't impressed with the barbed wire fence next to our cabin or the teenage son of the assumed owners who traveled at break neck speeds around the site on a 4-wheeler.  But worst of all, you have to drive to Bowling green to get your alcoholic beverages.  I will never understand why there are dry states regardless of what argument you present me with.  It did have its redeeming qualities, however. The place was clean and quiet, the cabin was comfortable, and there were no bugs. 

The major highlights of this trip were:

The Louisville Zoo - Hannah loves the zoo, and so it seemed fitting that we should visit the Louisville Zoo.  It was a scorching hot day (well, in comparison to the snow in Northern Wisconsin) and I subsequently burned my bald head with the sun's rays.  Both Hannah and Ellie were smart and wore sunscreen.  After the exceedingly long drive the day before battling Chicago traffic and road construction around Gary, it was enjoyable to be walking around.  Ellie and I have always visited zoos and now have a child as an excuse to visit them more frequently.  We all really enjoyed, but were disgusted at, the gorilla who decided to lay on its back and spread its legs right up against the observation window.  The primates always provide endless entertainment.

All three of us enjoyed the lorikeets as they ate off our hands and looked Hannah directly in the eye to psych her out... this year, opposed to the previous year at St. Louis, Hannah held her her ground and was unafraid of them landing on her.  The zoo also has an aviary exhibit where the birds fly around you.  Then there was the bat exhibit.  Hannah, for some reason, loves bats and the entire trip appeared to revolve around bats.  It was an easy way to coax her into Mammoth's tourist routes.

After visiting the zoo we decided to complete some GeoCaches that were in the immediate vicinity of the zoo.  There was quite a bit of bushwhacking involved and Ellie opted to take Hannah to a park while I scrambled around in the undergrowth attempting to find boxes with junk in them.  ñ

Mammoth Cave National Park - Ellie and I had visited Mammoth Cave National Park on our first major road trip back in 1996.  On that trip we had completed a whirlwind tour of Tennessee and Kentucky.  After that initial trip in a beaten down Chevrolet Spectrum, I realized that covering that kind of distance in a week wasn't conducive to seeing everything you want to see!  Since that first trip I had realized that there was much more to Mammoth Cave National Park than just the world's longest known cave system. There are many miles of surface trails that extend deep into the park.  Many of the trails lead past and through old farmsteads and family grave sites.  You could fish if you were that way inclined.  If you are of a lazy nature, you can pull out your picnic basket and go no further that the lodge and visitor's center, but remember, BYOB.

On the second day we were in the area we walked about eight miles... but it could have been longer.  It certainly felt longer carrying Hannah on my back.  We began our hike at the Good Springs Church trailhead and followed the Good Spring Loop trail clockwise toward Sal Hollow.  At the Sal Hollow/Buffalo Trail junction we accidentally took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a family cemetery.  Retracing our steps, we realized that the junction had several trails to follow... in this case, the huge obvious trail wasn't the correct trail.

We followed the Sal Hollow trail south looking for a switch back trail heading into Sal Hollow.  In reality, the switch back trail on the map does not exist anymore and the trail now follows a line along the ridge leading much closer to the Sal Hollow campsite.  We had lunch by a little stream that disappeared down a little hole in the side of the Sal Hollow streambed.  According to Ellie, the trail leading away from Sal Hollow becomes less interesting as you go along.  We headed north on the Turnhole Bend Trail before turning northeast on the Buffalo Trail.  My legs were screaming for mercy at this point and Hannah did walk for quite a way after being bribed with chocolate covered raisins.

The potential for cave passage on the west side of the Green River is incredible with undisturbed shake holes littering each side of the trail.  In England these holes would almost certainly be opened and explored with feverish energy.

On the third day in the park we took Hannah on the Frozen Niagara cave tour of Mammoth.  She was mostly good, but didn't like sitting around listening to the guide.  she was quite happy walking the tunnels of Mammoth on her quest to see bats.  We also took the time to visit the now infamous Sand Cave.  Ironically, it was Floyd Collins' death that brought the world's media to Mammoth.  ñ

Geocaching - Since October 2005 we have been hooked on Geocaching... it's a bit like a treasure hunt on steroids.  You find caches using a GPS.  The "sport" has got us into some amazing areas of the country.  It was no different in Kentucky.  Local "cachers" managed to get us into beautiful areas that we probably wouldn't have visited.  On this trip we logged approximately 30 finds. ñ
Links:  Mammoth Cave National Park and Geocaching.

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