What Begins In A Valley, Ends In A Cave

A Trip Three Years In The Making

To make a long story short, in late-2018, I quit my 9-5 office job and went back to work full time in a kitchen. In the late winter, I got the feeling that I should take a road trip across the country. My brother had taken many and my friend took one that was massively inspirational. But, the biggest draw was a trip to Death Valley in the summer of 1998 after I graduated from college. There was something about the desert at night that made me dream about going back. So, given my relative freedom and the uncertainty of whether or not I’d ever have a chance to do it again if I got another desk job, I put together a trip which resulted in my 2019 cross-country road trip.

Honestly, I’m a bit of a home body and a part of me felt compelled to take the trip…like it was sort of an American right-of-passage. The weird thing was that by the end of those three weeks, which took me through the Badlands to Devils Tower in the north, down to San Diego and back up through the Grand Canyon and the amazing parks of Utah, I found that I didn’t want to go home… at all. For the first time in my life, I was happier traveling.

Little time was wasted before I was thinking about and actively planning the next trip, one that would take me west through the south because I loved the desolation and/or isolation of driving through the desert. Like everyone else, those plans were canceled due to the pandemic in the spring of 2020 and the carry over into 2021. I’m not complaining: Having a road trip canceled is a minor inconvenience compared to what happened to countless others. Regardless, that’s how I got here, so that’s that.

Departure and a Relatively Short Drive

It was a bit difficult getting on the road by 7 AM given that’s when I usually wake-up, but the weather made for a beautiful drive. After the past 19+ days of non-stop work making the final preparations for the trip, I was more than happy to just sit and drive for a little over six hours from Akron to Cave City, Kentucky. I took this drive about five years ago when to drove to Tennessee to witness the total solar eclipse of 2017, and it was as forgettable as I remembered it. (Well, at least the drive TO the eclipse was forgettable… the return was pure hell!) What I mean is that it doesn’t look a whole lot different than southern Ohio or West Virginia and there isn’t much to make me want to stop and take a longer look. I arrived at my motel with a couple of hours to spare before my tour at Mammoth Cave National Park, which was nice because I could get this blog post started and unpack a few things.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Mammoth Cave National Park was only about a 15 minute drive from my motel in Cave City. It was required to arrive early to pick-up the ticket for my tour, but I showed-up much earlier in-order to have plenty of time to stamp my national parks passport(s) and get a pin and magnet.

The drive to the new cave entrance required a bus ride and I wasn’t looking forward to riding on a bus full of people. If it wasn’t the first day of a 40 day road trip, I wouldn’t care, but the idea of getting covid on the road bothers me. But, hey, it is what it is and nobody else seemed to care so I just went with it.

The new entrance to the cave is located at the bottom of a sink hole which takes a bit of the magic out of the adventure. It felt more like walking through the door to somebody’s basement, but I understand the practical nature of the situation. The tour consisted of walking single file down many, many flights of grated stairs and tight pathways. The ceilings are low in places and I did manage to knock my head once. Along the way, there are stops where the tour guide took questions and discussed the history and geography of the cave. The highlight, ironically, was when they shut the lights off and let us experience the true, pitch-black nature of the cave, which was stunning.

A Roaming Stone

After the tour, I remembered to go back to my car, before checking-out the historical entrance to the cave, so I could grab my first roaming stone for placement. Fortunately, there was a trail that lead from the path where everyone else was walking, so I was able to hide it without anyone seeing me. I’ll be interested to see if anything comes from it, but I’ve got plenty more where that came from.

Back To Blog

And, this is where you find me, now. My plan for the trip was to blog at the end of each day and I’m realizing it’s going to be much more difficult than I’d imagined. I’ll try to keep it up.