Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Other Side of Kentucky

After our couple days of climbing we headed west in Kentucky to Mammoth Cave National Park. The route there took us through many beautiful farm towns and the city of Lexington. It was interesting to see the difference between farms in eastern vs. western Kentucky. What we saw in the eastern part of the state was the “poor American farmer”, and the farms in the western counties were beautiful sweeping fields of green, hundreds of cows and horses, and a very large and beautiful home overlooking it all. Does one farmer work harder than another?

Not only did we notice the farms, but we also took a road that overlooked what seemed to be a canyon or gorge. There was nowhere to pull over to check it out on the narrow road, but it seemed like a place that could be explored for weeks. I’ll have to look up the name of this area.
Lexington was a very nice city as well. Very clean, and there seemed to be a lot to do there. We didn’t stop even though all of the bourbon distilleries wanted us to.

After a tour of Kentucky we finally made it to Mammoth Cave National Park. It’s a very large park with very nice visitors’ center. We signed up for a short tour of the limestone caves. What I really wanted to do was the 4 hour full value tour, but to Mike’s relief the tour was only offered on the weekend and it was Wednesday. Caves and what can be lurrking and crawling in them are one thing that creep him out. The one we did was called Domes and Dripstones and showed off some tall openings in the cave and stalactites and stalagmites.
(no flash photography allowed)
We also saw a fossil and creepy huge cave spiders. I really wanted to explore more, but they don’t just let you go in there and start spelunking whenever you feel like it. We did learn a lot though, and the next time I’m in western Kentucky I’ll be stopping in for my 4 hour expedition!

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