Mammoth Cave National Park

We arrived at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky on Sunday after a relatively short drive northward from Atlanta.  We skirted Nashville despite the allure of the Opryland hotel.  I was told by a co-worker that it is the world's largest hotel, but Wikipedia tells me that my coworker is a liar and that it is only the 29th largest hotel in the world.

Instead we opted for Mammoth Cave National Park, which, according to our guide, is the longest known cave system in the world with over 400 miles of discovered passageways.  Wikipedia has confirmed the truth of this statement.

We took two separate tours; the historic tour, in which the guide spent a good deal of time apologizing for slavery, and the new entrance tour.  Lester preferred the new entrance tour as it felt more "cave-y".  The latter tour had more of a geological focus and more interesting limestone rock formations, like the Frozen Niagara.

We camped out two nights at the Mammoth Cave National Park campground; the weather was pleasant and Lester only had to kill one hornet.

We're on our way to Chicago now and passing through Indiana.  It is amazingly flat.

Packing Our Lives Away

We spent the day packing all the of the stuff that we think we'll be needing for the next several weeks. Needless to say, there is a lot. We've consolidated most of it, and hopefully it'll all fit in the car. Here is a picture of most of what we're bringing before the loading of the car began. This picture is still missing most of our clothing. In hindsight, we're probably bringing too much camping gear. We'll see tomorrow if it all fits!

The cats will be vacationing in Connecticut with Beckie's parents for the rest of the summer.  They had a harrowing 16 hour drive from Atlanta to Torrington, most of which BeaBea spent wedged behind Lester's head.  Gracie was inconsolable and would not leave the litter box.

New Car!

In preparation for the trip and all the gear that we'll need to be bringing, Beckie and I got a new car! It's a 2014 Subaru Forester. The first car purchase for Beckie and I and a significant update to the '98 Civic.