Headed South...

After leaving Elkhart on November 11, we stayed in Indy to get our (hopefully) last dose of blowing snow.  Traveling south, we spent two days in Mammouth Cave National Park.   We stayed there last year and could not go on any of the tours due to my bad knee.  This year, I was determined to see the cave.  We chose the shortest, least strenuous tour.  I thought we would walk out of the Visitor Center and into the cave entrance, but getting to the cave entrance involved a bus ride a few miles from the Visitor Center.

Caves are incredible!  I was surprised that the air in the cave was not damp or stagnate smelling.  Our guide explained the cave "breathes" every 18-24 hours.  Stale air out, fresh air in.  Of all things, we met a new bug - a cave cricket.  The cave cricket, according to our guide, is the only cricket in the world that does not make a sound.  No chirping.

After touring the Wind Cave last summer, I expected this guide to do the lights out demonstration.  I was not disappointed.  When many of these caves were discovered initially, candles were the only form of lighting the way.  Blow out the candle, and you have deep darkness.  You can't even see your hand in front of your face.  Even more disturbing is the silence.  Our guide was able to get the group to be totally silent for a few minutes, and after awhile I had to really work at not making noise.  My ears rang in the silence.  People who have been lost in caves and found tell stories about talking, shouting and singing to themselves because the silence even more than the darkness was so disturbing.

Our tour lasted a little over an hour, but there are other more strenuous tours available including one of six hours where you are a spelunker crawling between very tight places in the formations.

 Unlike the Wind Cave in South Dakota, Mammouth Cave has constant water dripping.  The stalactites and stalagmites take hundreds of years to form as in the pictures below.

Early explorers and visitors to the cave were not as conservation-minded as we try to be now.  Visitors would just break off pieces of the formations for souvenirs.  Fortunately, that was stopped early on, or there would be no formations to look at.

Reluctantly, we left Mammouth Cave and headed for our annual trek to Red Bay, Alabama.  The Whale engine and generator were in need of maintenance, and we initially had a short list of up-dates and repairs.  Our stay in Red Bay lasted three weeks and a day.  Tiffin has stopped taking any appointments for service.  First come, first served.  We started in an express bay after waiting a week to get in.  In express, we get three hours of service to complete as much as possible.  We actually would have been done after that if someone hadn't spotted our sagging ceiling.  I hadn't noticed it, but Jerry had.  The technician checked it out, and told us it would just get worse.  We needed to be scheduled into a regular bay to get this fixed - a two day job and most have to stay in a hotel while the glue dries.  When we finally were able to get into a regular work bay, our technician worked the job so we didn't have to be in a hotel.  It's worth going to Red Bay for maintenance as the techs know our Whale, and they are so great at working with you to minimize the hassle.

The best part of Red Bay this trip was meeting Cathy and RJ.  They were parked across from us, and right away we started talking back and forth.  What a great couple!  We compared stories of traveling and things we have had done to our motor homes in addition to like hobbies and interests.  We hope to see them again when we pass through Arizona this spring.

We also met Theresa and Dwayne.  They have full-timed for 11 years, and their MH is also that old.  Dwayne is a distributer for a company that makes Native American flutes.  He always has a pocket flute hanging around his neck.  I love the soulful sound of the flutes, and started thinking how playing one could help build lung capacity.  I'm now the proud owner of two flutes. Something new to learn...

Finally, our maintenance was completed yesterday, December 11, and one month after leaving Elkhart, we are on the road headed south.  Currently, we are driving the Natchez Trace headed to Jackson, MS.  The Trace is beautiful even this time of year.  We stayed last night in Jeff Bigsby Campground at mile marker 193.1 - one of three free campgrounds on the Trace.  The sites are primitive in that there are no hook-ups, but most of the spots are pull-throughs with enough room for a big rig.  At below freezing temperatures, we had our pick of spots.

This morning was clear with a promise of a great day's drive.   Soon....