A couple of months ago I watched the movie "The Blind Side". There was a scene where the Sandra Bullock character is interviewing the Kathy Bates character for a tudoring job. At one point Kathy Bates told her that there was something she had to tell her up front...."I'm a Democrat" to which Sandra Bullock just shrugs. Now as I am watching this I'm trying to figure out what her political affiliation has to do with anything. Well, after driving through Kentucky, I now understand. We drove from St. Louis down to Mammoth Caves and then up to Louisville. While I was driving I spied the following bumper stickers: "Charlton Heston for President" (I'm certain that is an old bumper sticker), "SARAH.....Girl Power!", and, my personal favorite, "Nancy Pelosi is an idiot"...Not because I necessarily think that (although it can be open for debate), but because it made me laugh out loud. I didn't realize there could actually be someone to manufacture such bumper stickers. Anyways, I got the point!!!
I will say I do love Kentucky. It's is a very beautiful state and there is so much history there. I really wish we would have planned for more than two days!! For our first day, we headed to the Mammoth Caves. It was rainy and humid as we drove down. When we arrived at the caves, we decided to take one of the shorter tours. It was an hour and fifteen minutes. Outside of the caves, it was roughly 70 degrees and 100% humidity....inside the cave it was 54 degrees. We could feel the cool air quickly as we approached the cave. Here is the entrance to the cave.
Now, our tour guide was very witty. He talked about the fact that the cave "calls" to some people and how those people feel the feel to explore the cave whenever they have the chance. He then said he was not one of "those people". You had to be there to see how he said it. Totally cracked me up. It is, however, a good thing the cave "calls" to people because roughly, oh, about 400 miles have been discovered. Pretty cool, huh?
The lighting wasn't really good but I did manage to capture a few photos. It was very interesting to learn that the cave was used to mine salt peter in the early 1800s. The salt peter was used to make the gun powder used during the War of 1812. We also learned that the cave was later used in experimental treatment of tuberculosis patients. A doctor thought the cool air might help to cure the patients. The experiment lasted only 10 months and didn't render a cure :( Anyways, here are a couple of photos from inside the cave.
By the time our tour had been completed, it had started raining outside. And, wow, did it make a difference!! We went from 54 degrees to really awful humidity. You could really feel it coming out of the cave!! This was really disappointing because I wanted to take photos along the path we walked. It really was so beautiful. However, because of the humidity this was how my photos turned out.
Hmmm.....not very good!! We look very misty. And I don't know if photoshop will work.
After this, we were on our way to Louisville and my first taste of bourbon.....
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