Monday, May 14th: DRIVING TO KANSAS

We got up super early this morning to drive 10 hours to White water, Kansas.  We are taking  a little side trip to Independence, Kansas to see Laura Ingalls Wilders home (Little House on the prairie) .

I’m so glad that we decided to drive to Independence because we got to drive on Route 66 for awhile . . . . if we were just going straight to Whitewater, we would have missed Route 66, made famous by the Cars animated movie made by Disney.    As we drove there was a huge bill board advertising the Mule Trading Post and of course we just had to stop.   Lucky for us the store had a huge selection of Route 66 shirts.  We had a hard time choosing which one we wanted because they all were awesome.  It was such a funny hillbilly store because it was so old and run down, but they had great things to buy.

Brittany and Maddie had just woken up and they ran in to go to the bathroom and five minutes later they came back out laughing hysterically.  They told us their wonderful experience with the bathroom that actually had 2 toilets in it.  They walked in half asleep, sat down, looked over, and realized that they were both going to the bathroom right next to each other, and then they couldn’t stop laughing!  It is pretty funny!

We finally  made it to Independence, Kansas,  to see Laura Ingalls Wilders house, a small little replication of her original home.    The site was very cute and a little replica of her town.  It had an old post office, a one room school house, a general store, and the small little house. 

After we finished at Ms. Wilder’s farm, we drove 10 miles south to the border of Oklahoma just so we could say that we have been there!  Ha. . . the crazy things that we do!!  As we drove to the border of Oklahoma we saw a Sonic Burger in the little town . . . interesting but good for us because of course the kids wanted a Sonic Burger for dinner!!

Finally we arrived at Shelley’s sister’s house, visited for a while and got settled in with the RV plugged in at the front of their house.  As I was stepping out of the RV on my right foot , I stepped on their rounded curb, with flip flops on and twisted it right around the pinky toe, in the area of where I broke it.              OUCH . . . THAT HURT!!!  I could hardly walk on it . . . what did I do now???  Ugggg, what a drag!!!

Sun., May 13th: ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI to SPRINGFEILD, ILLINOIS

It’s mother’s day, and we all woke up at 3 am to Brittany getting sick again.  I guess that’s the epitome of being a mother.  J    Ugg . . . that is the hardest part about being in such small quarters . . . being sick!  Thankfully, again I don’t think it’s the stomach flu, I think it’s Brittany’s funny tummy.  I don’t know what she ate to set it off, but I know she ate A LOT of spaghetti last night because she was so hungry.  Poor thing!! 

So once again, while we went to see Camp Debois, where the Lewis & Clark expedition began and they camped out for six months the winter before they began up the Missouri River, Brittany stayed in the back of the camper sleeping!!  L 

The wonderful thing is that we hit the jackpot today because the visitor center was doing their annual celebration of Camp Debois because Lewis & Clark left the camp on May 14^th, 1804.  Every year they put together a reenactment of the camp near the anniversary of the expedition with costumes and tents with every kind of crafter you could imagine.  

 They had a man making brooms by weaving all the straw together; a lady spinning wool; a lady making candles & the kids got to make one;

a shoe maker making leather designs on shoes; a cooper making wooden barrels and he showed us how to put them together;

several ladies doing embroidery; a lady making baskets; in the fort they had all the soldiers, including captain Lewis manning the fire and guarding the quarters.

They also had a cabin that was replica of an actual family cabin and they were building an overhang and a porch on it.  It was fascinating and such a blessing to hit it on this weekend.  We stayed 2 hours later than we thought we would, but it was well worth it.  We just had to get going so we could see Lincoln’s Home in Springfield, Illinois.

Before we left the park though, we had to see the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.  It’s right here in Missouri that the 2 biggest rivers in the United States meet together.  It was awesome to see the 2 large rivers flowing together.

I made Brittany get out of the car to come see Lincoln’s home because she was feeling a little better and I didn’t want her to miss it.   We first went through the visitor center and watched the 20 minute movie about Lincoln’s life.  Then we went on the tour of his home in Springfield.  Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin on the Kentucky frontier and came to Springfield on April 15, 1837 at the age of 28.  Lincoln was not formally schooled but taught himself to read and write, and eventually taught himself to become a lawyer.   Though Lincoln was a new resident of Springfield, he was not a stranger to the town. Since 1834, Lincoln had represented Sangamon County in the Illinois General Assembly and helped move the capital from Vandalia to Springfield. The prairie city was growing rapidly.  For Lincoln, the young lawyer and up-and-coming State legislator, Springfield gave him many opportunities which could only help his already promising future. Here Lincoln could meet politicians and local leaders from all over the State. One was Stephen A. Douglas, a State senator who would defeat Lincoln in the 1858 election for the U.S. Senate. And here, too, he met his wife, Mary Todd.  Abraham Lincoln believed in the ideal that everyone in America should have the opportunity to improve his/her economic and social condition.  Lincoln’s life was the epitome of that idea.  We know him as the sixteenth president but he was also a spouse, parent, and neighbor who experienced the same hopes, dreams, and challenges of life that are still experienced by many people today.  We toured his house and walked around the neighborhood listening to the cell phone tour as we stopped at each house.  It was fascinating to learn about the history or his neighbors, most of which completely supported him as president, and others continued to mock him.   When Lincoln was assassinated, his body was brought back to him home town of Springfield and they had a funeral procession around town.  This log wagon was used in the procession commemorating where he came from and what he accomplished.

His body, along with all his family members,  are buried at the Springfield cemetery.  We went to look at the tomb and it was huge, with and obelisk and 4 statues at each of the 4 corners, representing a branch of the military.   It was amazing!!

As we drove downtown, everything was “Lincoln”.   The  train station where he left fro his political campaign and presidency is still in use today with several statues of Lincoln in the front.  There was also the Lincoln Presidential Library, Lincoln Museum, and Lincoln Ave.  Too bad Starbucks didn't have a "Lincoln" Springfield, Illinois mug!! 

After finishing looking at “Lincoln’s Springfield”  we went to the nearest Walmart to shop.  At the checkout stand we got a very nice but very ditsy lady who totally messed up our bill.  Needless to say, we were at the check stand for an extra 45 minutes.    Walmart is a love-hate relationship. . . we love it because it’s everywhere and convenient, but it’s not always the best food or help.  Finally we got it figured out and we drove to our KOA, which was way out in the middle of nowhere.  We drove by a beautiful lake to get to it.  Unfortunately, we were in late and out early so we didn’t get to see much of it!!

We left St. Louis, MO and had to drive about 95 minutes north to the little town of Springfield, Illinois.  It was a beautiful drive with fields of grass everywhere and the road was an adobe color instead of the typical cement color.  When we arrived in the town of Springfield, the town we dead . . . probably because it is a Sunday and everything is closed like the olden days.  We went right to the National Park site of Lincoln’s Home and signed in for a tour.   

Lincoln’s house had many of his original items such as his shaving mirror, his desk, and the expensive stove that they bought for $100.  An average farmer at that time made $600 a year .  . . Lincoln as a lawyer made $5000 a year so he had some very nice things in his house!!

Sat., May 12th: ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

We are in “Meet Me in St. Louis” today and we are going to the golden arch in downtown St. Louis,  Missouri.  They call it the “the gateway to the west” because explorers, trappers, and pioneers set out from the St. Louis area to go west.  
  

Thankfully we found the perfect place for RV’s to park alongside the Mississippi river and the best part was that it was free . . . that's a surprise!!  As we drove into the city we could see the Arch from miles away . . . it was very exciting!! 

Once again we were on the Mississippi River, only this time at the top of the river!  It’s hard to believe that 2 months ago we were at the bottom of the river riding a Riverboat on the great Mississippi and now we are at the top, where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet.  Do you know what river is the largest in the US?  It’s not the Mississippi as most people would guess . . . it’s the Missouri.  Everyone thinks of the Mississippi because it was the most use by boats and traders in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, but the Missouri is actually longer from west to east. 

It was very awe striking to walk up to  the massive arch.  I had no idea it was so big!  It is the biggest man made structure in the United States.  We walked up to it and there was no way that we could fit the whole arch into a picture it’s so big.  We walked up the stairs to the beautiful grassy area under the arch and directly in front of it is the capital building.

 

To either side of the bottom of the arch is a stairway down to the visitor center.  We bought tickets for the ride up into the arch, the Lewis & Clark movie, and the Lewis & Clark museum.  We watched the movie first on the expedition of Lewis & Clark and I have to say it is tied with Gettysburg as the best movie documentary shown at a visitor center.  It was a wonderful film made by the history channel and when I talked to Dave later in the day, he said he could pull it up on Netfix . . . I highly recommend it!! 

Next we got in line to go up into the arch.  Tickets are required but once we were in the room they give you a number on a certain color so that they know how many are able to go up the elevators at once.

This arch has an amazing history and it’s hard to believe that we actually rode up to the top of it!!

St. Louis played a very important role in this huge migration to the western territories.  It was founded as a French fur trading post in 1764 and became the center of commerce along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.  For over 100 years trade built, shaped, and transformed St. Louis into a bustling metropolis. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are most notably the first famous explorers into the territory along the Missouri River on to the Pacific Ocean.  They left from their camp where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet on May 14^th 1804.  Other well known explorers continued to set out from St. Louis, such as Zebulon Pike (also the man who climbed what's now known as Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs) on his southwest expedition (1806-1807), and Stephen Long  to survey western rivers and mountains. (1819-1821).  In 1882 St. Louis politician and fur trader William H. Ashley advertised for 100 men to work as trappers in the Rocky Mountains and those who answered became the first of the legendary mountain men.  Mr. Ashley created the rendezvous system where trappers, Indians, and trader met to exchange furs and merchandise in St. Louis and this helped open the West to expansion. 

From 1841 until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, thousands of wagon train headed west on a four to six month journey.  Many gathered supplies in St. Louis, taking steamboats to the trailheads near Independence, Missouri.  Over 3000,000 settlers traveled west for many different reasons; some were seeking gold; some were seeking free land; and some just religious freedom. 

St. Louis was also a major military depot throughout the 1800’s, supplying western forts with guns & ammunition, as the army fought the tribal groups and forced them into reservations.    The city was a place of negotiation of many Indian treaties where the tribes reluctantly gave up their lands to the government.  The Gateway Arch is a memorial site to all the events surrounding this mass migration and expansion of the west.  It is called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial because Thomas Jefferson was the force behind this major expansion.  Although he estimated that it would take 1,000 generations for Americans to fully expand across the United States, but instead it took fewer than 90 years.   The Memorial was designated a national historic site in 1935 to honor the frontier. 

To create the memorial, 40 blocks of old buildings were leveled in the core of the downtown area.  In 1947 a competition challenged architects to design a memorial that would symbolize the story of westward expansion.  The judges chose Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch from 172 entries.  The arch was built between 1963 and 1965, and it’s strength is due to the stainless steel outside, carbon steel on the inside, and concrete in the middle.  Nothing like it had ever been built or even attempted at 630 feet high and 630 feet wide.  The elevator system inside the arch was built in 2 weeks and is a combination of an elevator, Ferris wheel, and a steam boat.   It was an interesting ride . . .  very cramped and a little jerky on the turns, but what do you expect in such an amazing structure.  It’s hard to believe we actually rode up to the top at all. 

The view from the top was amazing and breathtaking.  The shadow of the arch was on the east side.  It had small little windows to look out through at the very top center of the arch.  I'm sure they kept them small so that people don't get fearful of the look down. 



After the amazing ride down the elevator that was a whole minute faster than the ride up (4 mins up and 3 mins down), we went to the Lewis & Clark Museum.  They had an incredible display of artifacts and a wonderful timeline of their history.  A nice young ranger was demonstrating the different skins of the animal and what they were used for.  The main one was, of course, the buffalo, and he explained what each part of the buffalo was used for:  the hide was used for moccasins; the fur for blankets; the horns for utensils, drinking cups, carving tools, cutting tools, etc.; the bladder for making a ball; the dung for making fires; and the meat for eating. 

Lewis and Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the territory west of the Mississippi.  They set out from St. Louis, Missouri in May of 1804 and didn’t return until September of 1806.  They had an incredible journey traveling on the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.  They encountered many hardships in traveling on the river with losing supplies, getting stuck in shallow waters, rapid waters too rough to travel through, and encounters with Indians.  They survived hunger, harsh winters, illness, difficult terrains, the Rocky Mountains, lack of supplies, and many other difficulties, but they were successful in mapping the new territory west.  They were blessed with the help of many Indian tribes who showed them the territories, and ultimately they encountered an Indian woman, Sacajawa,  who helped through the rest of their expedition west.  Without her help they wouldn't have probably made it the entire way.  God blessed their travels with every detatil along the way. 

Lewis was the artist who mapped out the details of the expedition, and Clark was the naturaist who gathered plant, tree and animal samples to send back to Jefferson in Washington.  They were a perfect team together using their differences to get the job done.  They never disagreed, but worked together effortlessly to work through every detail  of their expedition.  Watching the movie tells the whole amazing story and I highly recommend watching it on Netflix!!   There were many incredible displays in the museum such as the tipeewhich was made with the tanned buffalo hide and sewn together with hand spun yarn.  It represented all the Indian encounters during their expedition.    The prairie wagon is a great representation of all the wagon trains leaving St. Louis for the west after Lewis and Clark paved the way. 



We closed down the museum and gift store and then walked to Starbucks to find a  St. Louis, Missouri mug since we've started collecting them from all the cities that we have been to that have them. . . I don't know what we were thinking, but now Shelley and I are on a mission to get them all!!  

As we drove back to the KOA, we searched  for the area where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet.  We found the memorial site which was right down the street from out KOA, and we decided that we must come back in the morning since it was all closed.   It was a wonderful experience to see the " Meet me in St. Louis" area and get to know the history in much more detail!     

Friday, May 11th: NASHVILLE to ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

This Nashville KOA is huge and has many amenities, especially a large heated pool.    Yesterday the kids were begging to go swimming but we ran out of time so we decided to let them swim this morning.  We hung out at the pool until about noon and then we packed up to leave for a long 6 hour drive to St. Louis, Missouri. 

As we were leaving we realized that we forgot to go see the Grand Ole Opry Hotel right across the street, which our driver yesterday said is a must see.  We pulled over to park at Cracker Barrel and walked across the street to the hotel.  The hotel was beautiful, gigantic, and amazing.  We even ran into Minnie Pearl from the good old country "Hee Ha" show.  She was adorable. 

In the center of the hotel there was an indoor atrium and river.  Many rooms looked over the atrium and had beautiful balconies with incredible views. 

The restaurant had an creative water fountain where the water jumped from one lily pad to another and a beautiful waterfall.  Walking over the bridge to see the waterway there was many lovely boutiques.   We had fun in the Brighton shop and a store called Lindsey Philps that makes these adorable interchangeable flip flops.  They have Velcro on the straps so that the look of the shoe can be totally changed with a different strap.. . . . so fun . . . . I wanted them all!!  Bummer that I’m not supposed to where flip flops because of my foot!  L

We were all ravenous when we walked back to the car so we decided to try this  famous southern Cracker Barrel Restaurant for some take out food.   We were pleasantly surprised that it was a good down home country restaurant and store, not like an IHOP!!  We just had the impression that since it was such a southern chain that it was like a Denny’s or the southern Waffle House.  The store had beautiful old fashioned type gifts, toys, vintage clothing and home décor, and specialty foods & preserves.  Outside as you enter the front doors, they have beautiful wooden rocking chairs lining the patio.  Again we had too much fun in there.  We ordered our food to go and the girls ordered breakfast pancakes with eggs and bacon, because they serve it all day.  The food was delicious and very well priced.  It quickly became the favorite restaurant of our group and now we are all hoping it comes to Santa Rosa. 

We had a fun day but stayed a little longer than we wanted in Nashville and we had to drive 5 hours to St. Louis, Missouri.  Oh well, I guess this is what this trip is all about, but it seems we still don’t have enough time to do everything that we want!!!

Thursday, May 10th: NASHVILLE, TENNESEE

We are so excited to go into Nashville today.  The girls got all dressed up and curled their hair, I think in hopes of seeing someone famous.  I’ve heard that it’s very common to run into someone famous in downtown Nashville.  They were so giddy and adorable getting ready, it was precious.  We are going to the Grand Ole Opry tonight, so I guess it’s good that we all get a little dressed up!    

The KOA had a wonderful shuttle van that took us to downtown Nashville (for a fee of $10 per person), on Broadway Street.  Our driver was hysterical and wonderful because he told us all the little details of Nashville and what to do here.  He was full of information.  Tennessee is definitely the Music Capital of the South.  Broadway is the main street downtown and everywhere you go somebody is playing some music.  You can even walk right into a bar during the day with kids, and listen to a band without paying a cover charge.  We walked into several and most of the bands were really good and just waiting to get discovered. 

We are definitely in the south again with the ya’ll and southern droll!!   The south also has incredible hospitality and they are so friendly.    Every store we went in, the people were awesome and so helpful.  We walked down Broadway Street and went into almost every store.  We went into several boot stores and looked at all the really fancy boots for $300-500.  The girls wanted a pair so bad . . . too bad they were so expensive.   

Finally in one of the stores the girls decided that they wanted a glamorous cowgirl belt and a cowboy hat.   The clerk gave them an incredible deal and marked the items down even more than they were . . . he was a very nice gentleman.    I even got a cowboy hat so now we’re all cowgirls!

We walked up the street to the Ryman Theatre which is where we are going to the Grand Ole Opry tonight.  They have self guided tours all day which we were going to do, but once we got there we decided that since we paid a lot of money to go to the Opry  tonight that we would just enjoy downtown until the show.  We went back down Broadway Street to a restaurant called Wild Horse Saloon. 

We were told by our wonderful shuttle driver this morning that this restaurant has free line dancing in the early evening.  We decided to eat an early dinner before the show and do some line dancing.  The kids were thrilled!  Between the 3 of us, we ordered 2 entries to share.  One was barbeque pulled pork nachos and the other was fried chicken strips with cole  slaw and fries.  Does that sound good ole southern or what??  The girls loved the chicken strips and I loved the nachos. . .  they were amazing!  The coleslaw was excellent too.

At 5:30 a cute young lady called all the line dancers on the dance floor.  Our kids were in the front row and they were incredibly excited.  They loved it!  She taught the steps of basic line dancing and then put on the music.   They all were laughing and having a great time.  They seemed to pick up the steps well, although there were moments of messing up!!  J  I even joined in for a little while and it was a blast!! 

After we danced and ate we walked back up the street to the Ryman Theater.  The Ryman Theater was the original Grand Ole Opry house and now still has shows during the week that are usually some of the old timers and tend to be less crowded

The history of the Ryman Theater began in the 1880’s when Thomas Ryman, a riverboat captain and Nashville businessman, attended a revival by the traveling evangelist Sam Jones.  He went to the revival just to harass the preacher but instead his heart was touched and changed, and he instantly gave his heart to Christ.  He then decided to raise money for a permanent place for Jones to preach.  Seven years later, after spending $100,000, the Union Gospel Tabernacle was completed, renaming it the Ryman Theater after Thomas died in 1904.   From 1904 to 1943 it was used for many different events such as: religious revivals, operas, ballets, jazz recitals, political debates, and even boxing matches.  In 1943, a contract was signed to rent the Ryman out on Saturday nights for the popular live radio show with country music playing.  From 1943 to 1974 the building became known as the “Mother Church of Country Music” and rarely had an empty seat in the house for the Saturday night Opry.  The lines were often around the block.  Old country stars like Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and Bill Monroe, helped shape country and blue grass music from the Ryman.  In 1974 a new building became the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Theater was left alone for 20 years.  In 1994, after major renovations it reopened for shows.  In 2001, it was named a National Historic Landmark.  It was a beautiful theater and the music was amazing. 

Tonight at the Ryman was the “Grand Ole Classics” and Loretta Lynn was the star . . .  she is as classic as you can get!  Larry Gatlin was the host and he was fabulous . . . he is hysterical when he spoke and even when he sang.  There was also a newer girl name Teona Goans and a young man who were just starting out.

When Loretta Lynn was about to sing Cole Miners Daughter, she announced that Zoe DesCharne was going to play her on Broadway in the ‘Cole Miners Daughter” and she had her come on stage to sing with her!!  It was a fabulous evening and program. 

After the show, we walked up the street to find a bank and accidentally ran into the Lifeway building!  Lifeway is the company that produces all the Beth Moore Bible studies that I do.   Right in front was a fabulous statue of Billy Graham preaching.   What a treat to see that!   

To end the evening with a bang we decided to go back to the Wild Horse Salon for more music and line dancing!  We just couldn’t get enough of Nashville’s music fever!!  We stayed for an hour and then took the last shuttle of the evening back to the KOA.  What a fun day!!

 

Wed. May 9th: KENTUCKY: MAMMOTH CAVES

I was right . . . it sure is beautiful here in the camp grounds of Mammoth Cave.  We woke up to beautiful tall trees, the smell of the woods, and wonderful sunshine.   National Park Camping sacrifices luxury with beauty because there aren’t any hook ups but we get to walk and sit amongst the trees and there is nothing like it.    We were able to walk right down to the visitor center to sign up for our cave tour.  It was hard to pick which one to do because they had so many choices, but we asked 2 Rangers and they both said, “definitely do the New Entrance tour because it’s a good mixture of everything.”  So we took their advice and I’m so glad we did. . . .the tour was amazing. 

Mammoth Cave is the longest natural cave in the world.  Beneath sandstone and shale lie limestone formations and tunnels 150 to 250 feet down inside the earth and 395 miles long of explored passageways.  The tunnels wind around back and forth, up and down around a 27 mile circumference, just like the small intestines wind around in our stomach.  The rock and soil combination of the land has created this beautiful cave over all of the years after Noah’s flood.  The land in Kentucky has low pockets, or divots, all over the hills where the rain water saturates the land.  As rainwater infiltrates the soil, it picks up small amounts of carbon dioxide gas that reacts with the water to form a weak carbonic acid, making the groundwater mildly acidic.  Mammoth Cave was formed by the slow dissolution of limestone by groundwater.   Over the years as groundwater dissolves the limestone, it form underground streams and create the underground streams.  All of the streams flow into the Green River.   Rain water continues to sculpt the caves today and volunteer explorers are still finding more passageways every year.

Some of them were “Millions of years ago” and we all snickered at each other, and I was very thankful that we had just come from the Creation Museum.    He told us that the cave is all limestone rock with sandstone and shale on top.  Before it was a National Park and guides were giving tours they would let people write on the walls, but now it’s against the National Park laws.  Many famous people would come to the caves and he showed us that John Wayne had carved his name in the wall.  From where we were sitting we were 150 feet into the cave but there is another 250 feet below us and that is where the streams all run eventually into Green River.  The temperature in the cave also stays at a constant 55 degrees at all times no matter what the weather is outside.  It felt perfect in there and a little balmy so it wasn’t cold and it wasn’t hot.   He showed us how the cave is lit up with all the lights and then he told us he was going to turn off the lights for a minute and that we were not to make a sound.  WOW!!  It is spooky quiet and dark.  Then he told us to put our hands in front of our face and we couldn’t even see them!!  Can’t imagine exploring this cave like they did in the 1800’s with lanterns!! 

Next we walked to the stalagmites and stalactites.   This great big one was called the Niagara because it was to big!!!

To be continued!!

Mammoth Cave played an important part in the start of American tourism.   It was publicized the “mammoth” cave of Kentucky during the war of 1812 and became an attraction by 1816.   It is one of the many wonders of nature in America like Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone Park, the Giant Sequoias, etc.   It was authorized as a National Park in 1926 and was fully established in 1941.  The Union Pacific Railroad ran tracks to the park and brought in wealthy vacationers by loads to see the “Mammoth Cave”.  With its 53,000 surface acres and underlying cave ecosystem, Mammoth Cave National Park is a treasure.

We took a bus from the visitor center for our cave tour and drove to an entrance that looked like a vault door.  There are only 15 natural entrances to the cave, but only one of those is allowable to enter with a tour.  There are 5 manmade entrances and as we were driving our ranger explained to us why it is called the New Entrance.  A wealthy business man named Robert Morrison came to Mammoth Cave in the early 1900’s to explore and he discovered this wonderful cave that could attack paying people.  He blasted the land that was not National Park property but close to private property and made an entrance.  He started tours and charging people to view the caves.  But he was sued and put in jail for violation of property.  But this didn’t stop him. . . when he paid his fines he came back again and bought a piece of the cave property closest to the entrance of the cave property for himself so people would see his tours first.  He blasted an opening and called it the “New Entrance” so people would think it is something new that they needed to see.  He was smart and actually made thousands of dollars.  He ended up selling his property back to the National Park but made a 1.5 million profit.

As we entered the door we climbed down steps after steps after steps of narrow passage ways through the rocks.  It was awesome!  The kids were thrilled!  We climbed down 150 feet of steps, walked a little ways and then stopped to sit on some benches inside the cave while the ranger told us all kinds of interesting facts.