Greetings Cyberworld!
Let’s talk about the second day of our big trip. No, no Space Camp yet, but we did have a couple of other super-fun items on our agenda. We awoke to the sound of chirping birds (much more pleasant than the night-time cacophony of frogs) and got to see what the campground looked like for the first time – nice place in the daylight. We ate breakfast, shook some bugs off the tent, and packed it up before officially checking in to the campground. Yeah, I know. That was a little bit backwards, but we were grateful for the broken gate that allowed us to slip in and sleep on the ground the previous night.
For our first big adventure, we were off to the Cathedral Caverns. Who doesn’t love a good underground hike during a hot and humid Alabama July? The first part of the tour was your average cave tour with a handful of speleothems scattered around. BUT THEN. . . we entered the main showroom of the caverns!
The story goes that Jacob Gurley owned the caves (1950s-ish, I think) and decided to quit his job and start giving tours as a full-time occupation. Mrs. Gurley considered this to be a ludicrous idea and was quite upset. She refused to visit the caverns or have anything to do with them for several years. Well, she finally relented and agreed to take a tour. When she entered this room with all of its formations, she fell in love with the caverns (much as I did at this point). She decided to call it “Cathedral Caverns” because she saw some formations that looked like (pictures below) a church bell, two columns of a cathedral, and a pipe organ. I guess I’ll buy that, but I have to wonder why her husband hadn’t already given the caverns a name.
Other formations we enjoyed were Goliath, the Frozen Waterfall, and Most Improbable (a 22-foot tall, 4-inch wide stalagmite that somehow was not broken during the 1812 earthquake that left cracks in both Goliath and the Frozen Waterfall). You can thank Black Sheep for these photos. Her camera is much more amazing than mine!
After emerging back into the sweltering Alabama heat, it was off to grab some lunch and find our paddleboard guide. Note here that I loaned Black Sheep a pair of sunglasses along the way. Forrest had the boards all ready to go when we arrived, so we signed our waivers, I clipped my dry bag to my board, and off we went. Slowly. But then, it was supposed to be a relaxing activity, so that was okay. Forrest told us about a lighthouse not too far upstream, so that was our goal.
During our journey, I noticed Black Sheep was without sunglasses. I inquired as to the reason since water tends to reflect sunlight and this would be the most logical time to take advantage of the ultraviolet protection offered by said sunglasses. Black Sheep said they were resting on the front of her board. I suggested she might find a safer place to keep them, but she assured me they were fine.
We eventually arrived at the lighthouse. Cute little thing. Sorry, no pictures; you know how cameras are with water. Here we just relaxed for a bit. We floated, I snacked, we paddled around a dead tree, I tried to climb it (not recommended), we headed back. Somewhere in here I noticed that Black Sheep had fallen off her board and was not getting back on as quickly as usual. I paddled over and the conversation went something like this:
Me: Is everything okay?
Black Sheep: I think I lost your sunglasses. Do they sink?!
Me: You think?
Black Sheep: But they’re supposed to float!
Me: I am going to put this in the blog and tease you forever.
So we had our little lesson in buoyancy. Archimedes had this figured out centuries ago, but Black Sheep, well. . . I love my sister, but let’s just say I didn’t loan her my back-up pair of sunglasses. Yes, I take a back-up pair of sunglasses on all my trips.
by GDJ
We did make it back to the dock, however, and with a little bit of time left, Forrest showed us a few “tricks” to try. I was about as good at those as I was at tree climbing. When we were completely exhausted, we thanked our gracious guide and went back to the campground to shower and change into clean clothes.
Now in our freshened state of presentation, it was time to pick up Mike from the airport and go to dinner. Paddleboarding sure can work up one’s appetite! There was dinner, there was ice cream, and there was going back to dinner because Black Sheep left her cell phone. Losing things seemed to be her theme of the day. Nay, I’ve known her long enough to know it’s actually the theme of her life. By the time we got back to camp, it was after dark again. Fortunately, we already knew that we are experts at setting up a (super-simple) tent in pitch blackness, so we utilized those skills again and went to bed. Frogs are obnoxious!
-Pink Elephant
“Pre-Flight Adventure” by K. Mogren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
“Cathedral Caverns – Main Showroom,” “Goliath,” “Most Improbable,” and “Frozen Waterfall” are courtesy of Lisa Mogren.
The Mogren Space Case 