Sunday, June 21, 2009

Here we go again!

We're taking off in about half an hour to go camping again. This time it's down south of Bloomington (IN) and it has electricity and water hookups! YAY! And a swimming pool and a playground. Still haven't been able to import my photos from last week. So by the time I can get them done, I'll have tons to show y'all!

Have a good week!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Our First Camping Experience -- Summer '09

Last Sunday, we packed up the trailer, put the kids in Grandma's car and drove five hours to get to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. It was a pretty uneventful trip down and set up of the trailer went smoothly. And although Grandma's trailer has electricity and water hook ups, the park didn't. So, no television for the kids (darn), no running water to wash dishes, and worst of all, no air conditioning!! Unfortunately, it was hot and sticky, with no breezes coming in those tiny windows. Made sleeping even more uncomfortable on that little couch.
Mammoth Cave is not just a cool name that the park rangers thought up. The park sits atop miles of caves. So far they have mapped out 367 miles of caves. Or something like that. Grandma was gung-ho on going spelunking. Okay, it wasn't really spelunking, but it sounds better than "walked down some stairs into the cave." :D
The first tour of the cave that we did was called the "Snowball Tour." They drove us out in a bus and dropped us in the middle of nowhere. Then we walked down 183 wet, cold stairs to get into the cave. Don't know why Wyatt was so freaked out by the stairs, but he wanted to hold my hand the whole way. At the bottom of the stairs, we walked for about a mile, admiring stalagtites and markings from explorers before. They also took us down a side tunnel and made everyone turn off their flashlights/cameras/phones to get a sense of how dark it was down there. No light comes in. I couldn't see Larkin -- and I was holding her! For some reason, I couldn't get any bars on my phone....... We made it to the Snowball Room, which is an underground cafeteria. Grandma had brought some snacks, so we munched on those while waiting for the tour to resume. After lunch, we headed back the way we came. I knew I was going to have to climb those 183 steps to get back out, but I knew I could handle it. Until we got to the incline right before them, when I realized that my legs had turned to jello. But, I was not the last one up those stairs -- I left that little old lady from California in the dust! :D
The second day, we took another tour. It was the "New Entrance" tour. This one had almost three hundred stairs to go down! Not only were they cold and wet, they also got narrower as you went down. Plus, the cave crowded in a few places. Oh, and there was a 60 ft drop off to the side. Good place to get over your fear of heights, small spaces, creepy white spiders and crickets.... This tour was much more fascinating. There were really cool formations of stalagtites and stalagmites. Eventually they will grow together and close off portions of the cave. I highly recommend the tours. They're a great workout!
Wednesday was supposed to be rainy all day, but we decided to go down to Bowling Green and take the kids to an amusement park called Beech Bend. It didn't look like much driving up to it. We decided to let the kids go to the waterpark first. There was a splash pool for Wyatt and Larkin. I have pics, but my cord is acting up and I can't import them. Anyway, there was a jungle gym in the middle of it, with slides and buckets and fountains. Wyatt was having a ball sliding down into the water. Larkin stayed by the edge of the pool. She didn't like the shower of water if she wandered too far towards the slides. Caelyn and Piper took off to the bigger kids water slides. They had a yellow one, which was all open; a red one that was semi-enclosed; and a blue one that was completely enclosed. The girls had fun going down those. Wyatt convinced Grandma to take him up and he came down the yellow and red slides with her. He really didn't want to go back to the baby pool after that. Caelyn and Piper lasted about an hour in the pools before they changed and went on the amusement rides. We caught up to them about two hours later when we were ready to leave. Even with everyone getting a little red, I think they had a good time.
Storms broke around midnight on Wednesday and continued into Thursday. We almost came home a day early, but Grandma, Grandpa and Piper decided to take another cave tour. More power to them! All the rain had soaked our firewood, so when they got back, we cooked dinner in the trailer. The radio was on during dinner and clean up, which was good as there was a tornado warning for us. We got the two little ones out of bed, everyone put on their ponchos and we headed over to the campground bathroom, where we hunkered down while the storm passed over us. Kentucky's extreme weather is like a regular thunderstorm here in Indy!
Friday consisted of getting everyone ready, the trailer packed up and the kids in the car to come home. We apparently didn't learn our lesson as we're headed back out Sunday for more. This time we're going to Spring Hill State Park (I think) somewhere south of Bloomington. At least we'll have water and electricity! I'll post pics as soon as I can get the cord to work.