April 17-18

We headed toward a bucket list destination, Mammoth Caves in Kentucky.

Beneath the sandstone and shale ridges of Mammoth Caves National Park lies the largest cave system on Earth.  After 4000 years of intermittent exposure, the full extent of this water-formed labyrinth is unknown. Mammoth Cave’s over 420 miles of surveyed passage-ways make it over twice as long as any known cave.  Geologists think there could be 600 more miles of passage-ways still to be navigated.

Mammoth Cave played an important role at the very start of American tourism.  As an attraction, the cave predates all national parks.  During the War of 1812 saltpeter was mined to make gunpowder. The “mammoth” cave of Kentucky became an attraction by 1816.  Mammoth Cave was authorized as a national park in 1926 and fully established in 1941, only 40 miles of passageways had been mapped back then.

In our true fashion we had already purchased tickets online to make sure we got the Saturday morning Extended Historic tour.  All we can say is AWESOME! 

There are multiple tours to choose from, so we took advantage of the free afternoon and signed up for another tour, Domes and Mounds.  For this tour we had to be bussed a few miles to use a different cave entrance, it was like going through the door to Narnia (in the middle of the woods). Don’t want to use the word “AWESOME” to much but there is no other word to describe the experience. 

 April 19

Still in Kentucky, we headed for our next destination on HWY 65, when we saw a sign for Abraham Lincolns birthplace.  We made a quick exit off the highway so fast we looked like we were in the turns at Daytona 500.  I quickly looked up the directions to see that we were only 15 miles from the birthplace. When we arrived, we found out it was listed as a national historic park.    This site today is best known for the Memorial building that houses his birthplace cabin, the first memorial building built to honor Lincoln in Hodgenville, KY.  The cornerstone of the memorial was laid two years earlier on the 100^th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, February 12, 1909.  The building was dedicated by President Taft on November 9, 1911, before an audience of 3000 people.

Did our first Harvest Host of the trip that night.  FYI, Harvest Host is businesses, farms, wineries, etc. that let RV’ers stay for one night on their property at no charge.  There are normally no services so you must dry camp for the night, but they are great places to stay when you just need a safe place to sleep.  This Harvest Host was a winery /brewery that had a gravel parking lot, perfect for the night.  We made sure to patronage the business with burgers and beer for dinner.

Next the Colossal, Enormous, Gigantic, Immense, Massive, Big Kahuna of this trip, finding the official 1929 starting point (sign) for the Mother Road, Route 66.