So it is a tradition in my families, and definitely a tradition in mine, but this national park picture is the first for the Sartins. We were glad to enjoy this trip with them, as it was the first with all of our family together on a vacation since a disney trip way back in the day. Perfect time to get away just for a few nights, and while Kentucky may not be on everyone's list, this trip is a pretty standard journey in a Junkin journey.
We met up with the Sartins in Good Hope after Sunday services and made our way up to KY. We easily got the better driving arrangements pulling in both Stella and Sylus, while the rampaging, wrestling, constantly jabbering sillyness that is the Davis Eli duo went in the other car. I didn't see much, but James said the cars behind us were going crazy all over the road. We arrived at our rooms in Kentucky, and I think they were built about the time the park was founded in 1961. But while small for a family of 6, they fit us quite well, with some strategic placement of the rollaway bed. We did learn on this trip, that Ruby is little, but she takes up a lot of space in those beds. The next morning as we prepared for our Cave Tour, we had breakfast from McDonalds, and watched a deer that had walked up near the hotel.
My favorite story of the whole trip, although most don't seem to find it as funny as I do, occurred at the hotel room as we were walking to our tour that morning. Magan had fixed her make-up and curled her hair in her fancy way, and Marcia said "We are going in a cave, you don't have to curl your hair". Magan, always polite, but silently passive aggressive said "I like your ponytail". "Oh Bite It" came the reply. So So funny, and one picture below of those sisters shows this story well, but also shows the smiles of two that have been through alot together, and it is hard to imagine either one without the other.
Luckily I had purchased tickets the month prior, as the whole week was almost already sold out. COVID times have limited the capacity quite significantly. Our tour was at 9:30AM, so we were one of the first ones in. And while the tour was limited to the large "mammoth" like rooms, and we did not get to see some of the more common formations caves are known for...we definitely felt how big it was in these main areas. And were watchful for the bats, even washing out shoes to keep...i don't know...something is killing bats, and it is bad, and the park rangers told us all about it...blah blah. I did learn that the brick huts in the cave were to "help" tuberculosis patients in the nice dry cave....ummm, it didn't work.
After our cave tour, we went on a fun hike, but a long hike, and an amazingly far uphill hike on the last portion. We thought we would see a large sinkhole, but we instead found a sign that said there was a sinkhole, but then we realized we might not know exactly what a sinkhole looks like. After the hike we ate lunch at the cave diner and the girls all worked on their junior ranger badge, which all three earned. A picture below shows their very first badge earned, of what I hope is many more.
Our last stop as we headed toward the Ark Encounter was a visit to Big Mo's rock shop, where Magan found some bookends, and Ruby got her picture with the Big Mo fossil from an old sea creature.
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