We left Florida on early Tuesday morning, in the pouring rain. It rained all the way through Florida and Alabama....heavy, pounding, thunder and lightning rain.
When we stopped for the first night in Alabama, it was still raining! We stayed at The Woods RV Park outside Montgomery, where we stopped last year. We woke early the next morning and took off. Florida is a very flat state, and Alabama isn't much different....just a few more trees along the highways. Since we had a long ways to go, and the weather was so crummy, we just went on I- 65 and drove and drove and drove...
Wednesday
When we got to Tennessee, the landscape started to change just a little, although the rain continued.
We drove right through Tennessee, and into Kentucky, where we decided to make a stop. The weather finally turned...beautiful...warm, not hot, not humid..we'd almost forgot what that's like!
Cave City was just nine miles away from Mammoth National Park. So Harris decided to both get his Geezer pass and take a tour that he hadn't taken before (and to pay the Geezer half price rate!) The tour is called the "New Entrance" tour even though it was discovered 50+ years ago. The tour starts at a sink hole.
The original stairs were wooden, but they didn't last long. The 3rd company that completed the stairs after the first two went bankrupt was the same that made stairs for the navy. Each step cost $3000 in 1980 and after going down 287 of them Harris thought that the US government got a great deal. They were made of stainless heavy gauge and look brand new today.
The caves weren't as impressive as Carlsbad Caverns, but were worth the tour.
The guide was a 3rd generation caver and told many interesting stories. Two people turned around within 5 mins. and 2 others had breathing problems halfway through.
This was the bottom and mandatory picture for almost everyone.
When we arrived at our campground we actually saw our first sunset in several weeks since Florida was so rainy these past weeks. Luckily, River provided enough sunshine for us.
This little campground is called Singing Hills Rv Park.
Up and out again, and on the road. We drove through the rest of Kentucky, admiring the hills full of farms as we did. We were enjoying driving without air conditioning for the first time in a long time. As we entered Indiana, the landscape changed again. It's flat, but still lots of trees around the farms and highways...farms full of corn, hay, and some other crop we don't know. We drove through the whole state, south to north, and are camped just about 1 hour away from Chicago, at a complex called Cedar Lake Ministries RV Campground...on Cedar Lake...
Judy's perusing the map, planning our route after we leave Chicago...it sure is nice to sit outside again! Whoever would believe it's been too hot to do this for weeks?
