Into the great wide open..Friday.. Mammoth Cave!
Friday we wake up refreshed and feeling human again.. Today was it.. The cave day.. First things first
we go back to the Mammoth Cave Restaurant.. The finest pancakes were obtained here.. Sheila gave them a 4.63 out of 5 on the scale.. It was at this point
I asked her a bit more about how her scale worked.. I asked if the syrup was included in the scoring or if it was separate.. She told me it was all about
the experience and one contributing factor to the score of these pancakes was the use of real warm maple syrup.. I am not here to steal her thunder, so I
will eagerly await her review for more details of why these pancakes have been given the top award..
Once done with our meal we go and get our tickets for a tour of the cave.. We have no idea what we are in for or which tour to take.. Finally we opt for
the historic tour over the star chamber tour.. I would recomend reading the wikipedia article about
Mammoth Cave National Park and even more importantly Stephen Bishop a slave who explored and named a vast amount of the cave by
candle light.. At one point our tour guide turned off the lights and got out a lantern (See photo below).. Then he started talking about how quiet and
dark it is in the cave system.. He then blew out the lantern, and then told us to be quiet.. Within a few seconds you could hear your own heart beat.. Now
having said all of that can you imagine exploring a cave by yourself by just candle light? Talk about some balls.. Sheila and I figured that if you face
being bought and sold that you really have nothing to loose, but still I can’t even fathom it..
Our tour guide with the lantern. Look how dark this photo is! For you camera geeks I had the ISO speed at 1600, 1/2 second exposure using an fstop of
1.4 and thats all i got..
This is one of the best photos I took.. 1 second exposure f/1.4..
There were marking all over the cave from initial tourists.. Here are a few on the Giants Coffin from the 1800s
Me blinded by the sun after returning from the cave. It was completely overcast when we returned to the surface, but I was still a bit blinded by the sun
after a few minutes when this photo was taken..
Sheila pointing at the caves.. Down in the hole!!
After a quick stop in the gift shop we headed back to North Carolina.. We stopped one night in Asheville and get some beers, crash in a sorta freaky Days
Inn, and then finally get back to the City of Oaks on Saturday.. It was nice to be home..