Meremac Caverns

We decided to visit Meramec Caverns on a whim Sunday morning when coming home from Cobblestone.  Our original destination wasn't open yet and Meramec Caverns was just down the road as well as the flooding river.  So to kill time, we drove to it to really just go to the bathroom, see the flooded river and look around some; we never intended to go through the cave.  Shawn loves going through them tho, so after making sure there was no massive amount of steps I was going to have to climb, we decided to tour the cave. 

It's a huge cave, took about an hour and 20 minutes to go through and we walked about a mile the sign said.  I toured all of the cave except for the upper room - there was about 50 steps to get to that room.  But for the people that don't want to climb the steps, there is a ramp you can go up to a separate room to continue the tour.  That's where I went. 

Throughout the whole trip, they are warning you to be careful because of the wet concrete.  Well who is the first, and only, person to fall in our group?  Yep, me!  I couldn't believe it!  We were walking down a little slope to leave the main cave, the concrete was somewhat wet, and I was even holding on to the handrail and down I went.  It all happened so fast!  I remember hearing Shawn ask if I was ok and I saw some people ahead of our group turn around and ask if I was ok.  I said I was and jumped up as quick as a fat girl could get up!  I finished the walk out of the cave and knew the whole time that underneath my capris, my right knee (which by the way is already my bad knee) was jacked up!  It was burning so I knew I had scraped it and I could feel some blood underneath my pants.  I also scraped the inside of my right foot some.  Upon checking in the bathroom, my knee wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still scraped up. 

Before we left, we stopped at the smashed penny machine to so I could get one.  Once again, I didn't know they had one and was excited when Shawn pointed it out to me.

Between our experience at Squire Boone Caverns and this cave, I think my caving days are over unless it's a sit down and ride on something cave tour like Louisville Mega Caverns was. 

(I'm not sure why this picture is turned this way; I tried ever way I could in Blogger to fix it and it kept turning sideways.)

 



 

Shawn gives my new smashed penny "two-thumbs up"

 



They have zip lining at Meramec Caverns and there were lots of people zipping through the parking lot!  (Can you see the person in the middle of the picture just above the tree line?)

 



 

Due to all of the rain we had had in the last day or two, the river was flooding!  It was spilled over into the parking lot of Meramec Caverns!

 

 

 

Our Overnight Getaway

Over the 4th of July holiday, Shawn and I took an overnight trip to the Corydon, Indiana/Louisville, Kentucky area.  We had lots of stops on the itinerary....Paula Deen Buffet, Squire Boone Caverns, the hotel, Cheesecake Factory, the mall, and then the next day we went to the Louisville Mega Caverns and to the Kingfish Restaurant. I've blogged about Squire Boone Caverns and Louisville Mega Caverns in separate entries, so this entry will be an overview of the entire trip along with pictures :)

Our first stop was the Paula Deen Buffet at the Indiana Horseshoe Hotel and Casino.  I had read the reviews on this restaurant and there was more bad than good reviews.  Shawn's brother and his wife had went a few weeks ago and they said it was good, so we decided to check it out.  The food was alright - nothing horrible, but nothing spectacular either.

Our next stop was Squire Boone Caverns (you can click on the link above, to see about that stop).  After that excursion, we were ready to head to the hotel.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Corydon, Indiana.  It was the perfect choice!  The hotel was nice and clean, everyone was super friendly, and everything was super comfortable. 

After we had checked into the hotel, did a little swimming, and then unpacked and got ready, we drove into Louisville to go to the mall to do some shopping and then headed to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was delicious as always!

At the Cheesecake Factory, I had the Farfalle with Chicken and Roasted Garlic.  And for dessert, I had the Chris' Outrageous Chocolate Cake (A Cheesecake Factory Original - Layers of Moist Chocolate Cake, Chewy Brownie, Toasted Coconut-Pecan Frosting and Creamy Chocolate Chip Coconut Cheesecake.) 

On Friday when we checked out of the hotel, we drove around Corydon for a few minutes, then headed to the Louisville Mega Caverns (you can click the link above to find out about that stop).  After the cavern tour, we headed to lunch at the Kingfish Restaurant in Jeffersonville and then headed home to pick up Gavin and then our puppies.

We had alot of fun and I truly enjoy these little getaways to spend some quality time with my husband!

Louisville Mega Caverns

Friday when we were on our way home from the Louisville area, Shawn wanted us to go to the Louisville Mega Cavern and take the tour they offer.  We saw this tour was available a couple of years ago when we were in Louisville, so we decided to give it a try.  After the previous day's tour and events that wore me out, I made Shawn call and find out if there was any steps involved before committing to it.  I was happy to find out there was no steps and not much walking.  We just sat on a tram while it drove us around the man-made caverns and listened to the tour guide explain what we were seeing.  It's definitely not what I was expecting, but it was very interesting and I'm glad we went.  There was alot of history about the cavern so please click the link above to find out more about it.  Below are pictures I took during our tour.  It was pitch black in the cavern so alot of my pictures didn't turn out.

We had to buy one of these headlamp hats for Gavin. I've posted pictures of him wearing it at the bottom of this entry.

There was a couple different signs throughout the cavern to tell you where you were at in relation to be outside of the cave.  And the spray painted number indicates with cavern wall you were near.

This is the only underground cave/cavern you can zip through.

Our tour guide, Kevin, was super friendly and funny and very knowledgeable of the cavern and it's history.  He also ate a worm!

And a few pictures of Gavin sporting his new lighted headlamp hat...

Squire Boone Caverns

On Thursday, Shawn and I drove over to Corydon/Louisville for a little overnight getaway.  One of the places we went to was Squire Boone Caverns and trying to find it was a whole different story!  Shawn wanted to go to Marengo Caves, but I remembered that SBC was near and I had went as a child, so I wanted to go back again.  And because I had already been before, I didn't bother looking up and reading any reviews as to what might be expected.  Now I realize I should have. 

The cave was nice and interesting, but it's a short cave, and because of a rock fall in quite a few years ago, you can't go all the way through the cave.  At the midpoint you have to turn around and come back out of the cave.  You enter the cave through the gift shop and have to descend down 72 steps - on a steep, metal, spiral staircase in the dark, wet cave.  It was slippery and after going down in circles for so long, everything starts looking weird!  I finally made it to the bottom, with about 25 people behind me and waiting on me to get down to the bottom (Shawn wanted to be near the tour guide, which is why we were the first ones in the cave.) By the time I got to the bottom, my legs felt like jello and I was wobbling around the cave, taking each step very careful, especially since it's dark and wet and a little slippery inside the cave.  The temperature outside that day was about 101 degrees, however inside the cave, the temps are 58 degrees year round.  It's sad to say that I did not need the jacket I was carrying because I was sweating the entire time we were in the cave. 

 I had already told Shawn that when it was time to leave the cave, and start the climb up the 72 steep, metal, slippery steps in the cold, dark cave, that I wanted to be at the end of the line cause I knew it would take me a while to climb them.  Guess who was at the front of the line climbing those steps?  Yep, me!  I could of killed him!  The first few weren't so bad, then it started getting harder and harder for me, I couldn't hardly breathe, I couldn't see.  I just kept looking up to see if I could see the end in sight.  I couldn't really stop and breathe either because I had 25 people behind me who were climbing the steps too.  By the time we reached the top and exited into the gift shop, I literally thought I was going to croak!  I was gasping for air and just wanted to lay on the floor.  The gift shop didn't have a water fountain and we didn't have any cash to buy a drink.  I finally told Shawn that I was going to go to the car and sit in the air.  He wanted to look around at the rest of the stuff; needless to say, he did that by himself.  One thing we did do before leaving the gift shop though was get a smashed penny from the smashed penny machine for my collection :)

By the time I waddled to the car and started cooling off, I was done with that place and just wanted to get to the hotel, put on my swimsuit and relax in the pool!!  Which is exactly what we did!

(And I later found out that my thigh muscles would hurt for about 4 days after all the climbing I did too!)

Here is a before and after of me at the cave:

BEFORE

And AFTER: