Mammoth Cave National Park

Yesterday morning Brian and I ventured down into the great Mammoth Cave. We did a 3 hour, 3 mile guided tour called the Violet City Lantern Tour. We learned that Mammoth Cave was mined for salt peter, which is a component used in gun powder. The cave was also used as an experiment to treat people who had tuberculosis, which proved to be unsuccessful. They did not allow flash photography or tri-pods on this particular tour so I don't have any pictures inside the cave. The tour was supposed to replicate what it may have been like 200 years ago exploring the cave with just oil lanterns.

After the tour we drove north to visit the Jim Beam distillery. We are right on the time zone border so it is an hour later than where we were camped in Mammoth Cave. We missed the last guided tour but free tastings were still going on which was all we really wanted anyway. We drove a little further north after that to have some bbq in Louisville. We went to a place called the Frankfort Ave. Beer Depot. and it was pretty delicious.

The rain has been relentless. The first night we arrived, the weather was warm and the wind was strong. Later that night we had really heavy downpours and the wind felt like it was going to push us over. The rain hasn't really stopped since and the temperature is in the 50's. Guess we'll just have to keep moving south.

 model of the cave - longest in the world

 cave entrance