Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: Mammoth Cave National Park

My summer became so busy somewhere around the first week of August that I lost any time I had to finish my Roller Coaster Road Trip stories, and I want to finish talking about the trip because even cooler things were yet to come.  So here I continue...

Mammoth Cave National Park

Our last stop in Kentucky before we hit Tennessee was Mammoth Cave National Park. I really wasn't sure how this experience was going to be, considering I'm not that crazy about caves and we had just done a cave thing in Louisville.  Besides, after visiting the Jim Beam Distillery, it was already getting late in the day and we weren't sure how much, if any, time we'd have there.  Luckily, we had entered the Central Time Zone...

Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system known in the world.  It is located in Edmonson, Kentucky, not too far from the Tennessee border.  The ride from the highway's exit to the site seemed to take forever, and no wonder because the park sits on more than 52,000 acres of property...huge! Eventually we made it to the visitor's center and thanks to the changing of time zones, we had a couple of hours to spend there, enough to take one of the many tours they offered of the immense system of underground caves.  

We took a look at the schedule of tours, there are several to choose from with a wide variety of lengths and level of difficulty, and quickly found one that was perfect for us, a short introductory tour.   We had to wait a bit for our tour to begin, but that was alright because the grounds were beautiful and there was a mini-museum inside the visitor's center that was pretty darned interesting. 

At tour time we were greeted by our guide, one of the rangers at the park.  I forget his name, but I won't soon forget him.  He was a well-spoken gentleman, and he was very proud of his heritage. I remember him distinctly because his pride was unlike anything I'd ever come across.  You see, he was descended from slaves and from the way he spoke you could tell that he believed it was an honor to be so.  He praised and appreciated the contributions his people had made in this country, and he exhibited no signs of bitterness that one might expect.  He carried himself with dignity and humility throughout the time we spent with him and though he was just a tour guide, I admired him as a person. 

Prior to going down into the cave we were to explore, the ranger told us about himself and then gave us a few warnings.  The first one was to be on the lookout for timber rattlesnakes.  Rattlesnakes? Gulp!  I immediately scanned the ground around me, but we were on a paved walkway, so I really didn't think one would come out and attack us.  Next he explained about this disease that's been infecting and killing millions of North American bats, and if we were to see any bats on the floor or exhibiting strange behavior, we needed to call on him pronto.  Third, the air temperature in the cave was going to be decidedly cooler than the air outside.  With that information, we were off...

Upon entering the cave you could feel the cool air rushing up and out.  We descended a flight of stairs towards the entrance and once we were all inside, the ranger closed a safety door behind us. We were inside a passageway that lead towards an old saltpeter mine from Civil War days.  It was eerie, to say the least.  The tour was what one might expect of a cave system.  The area of the system we were in had one large room, where the saltpeter mine was, along with another long passageway that went deeper inside.  For effect, lights were turned on and shut off as we walked along, and at one point the ranger wanted us to feel as early Native Americans felt when they first explored the cave as much as six thousand years ago.  He turned off all the lights!  

All in all, I highly recommend a visit to Mammoth Cave National Park if you ever find yourself in the area.  The park itself is beautiful and the cave systems fascinating.  To learn more about it, just click on the link within this post and check it out, and stay tuned for some more places we visited on our Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014.

  

Here are my previous entries on our road trip:

Hitting the Roller Coaster Road

New States

King's Island and The Beast

The Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster

Holiday World

The Coasters of Holiday World

Louisville, Kentucky: Big Four Bridge and Waterfront Park

Zip Lining at Louisville Mega Cavern

Kentucky Kingdom and the Louisville Highlands

Weezie Tries to Stop Smoking

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail

Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: The Kentucky Bourbon Trail

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail was something I had never heard of before this trip, but the more I talked to people about the journey, the more I heard about the trail.  Apparently Kentucky is the bourbon capital of the world, and although I do not like bourbon, I thought that visiting one of the distilleries during our trip would be a cool thing to do.  After all I enjoy wine tasting and even more recently, beer tasting, so I suggested a stop at a distillery on our way towards the second leg of our trip in Tennessee.

 

covingtontravel

Heading southward on Route 65 towards Nashville, we stopped off about an hour in to visit the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky.  Jim Beam is one brand of bourbon that I knew and the place is steeped in bourbon history, having a heavy hand in the industry for more than 200 years.  We found the place easily enough and at first glance it reminded me of the many wineries that dot the North Fork here on Long Island, made for tourism, with gift shops, tours and tastings in a beautiful setting.  

Taking a pass on the 90-minute tour of the distillery, we opted for the do-it-yourself tour instead, which included two free tastings.  The gentleman in the tasting room suggested we choose a straight-up bourbon first, and then a flavored version, which I did.  Though the flavored one (cinnamon) was alright, I decidedly decided I still do not like bourbon.  Blech!

Anyway, checking out the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, even if for an hour or so, was yet another cool thing to do whilst in Kentucky.  If that's the sort of thing you're into, there are plenty of other bourbon distilleries along the trail to check out, including Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, Evan Williams and more.  Visit the trail's official website here for more, and in the meantime check out some more pictures of our trip to Jim Beam...

Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: Kentucky Kingdom and the Louisville Highlands

There are a couple more things I wanted to talk about concerning Louisville.  It was our home base for four-plus days and it was chosen because it was where Kentucky Kingdom, the former Six Flags park, had just reopened, and it was also centrally located to all of the parks we wanted to visit, including Kings Island and Holiday World.  Like everyplace we go on a road trip, we always try to find things to do in the area, local attractions or places that we think might be cool, and so Louisville definitely had some of that, including the Big Four Bridge, the Mega Cavern and a couple more cool spots we got to enjoy.  I wanted to share these with you in case you ever find yourself in Louisville and are looking for something to do...

Kentucky Kingdom

Kentucky Kingdom first opened in May 2007 and provided great amusements for locals for the better part of 22 years.  Its most recent owner, Six Flags, decided to close the park in 2009 and it remained that way for the next five years.  When I'd heard they were reopening this year, the news was what jump started this year's road trip.

Kentucky Kingdom is not a large park at all.  It was even smaller than Holiday World and we only needed a couple of hours to get through it all.  There were only two roller coasters, well three really, but one of them won't open until next season.  The two that were open were pretty good, actually.  There was a steel one called Lightning Run and a woodie, Thunder Run, which I liked very much.  In fact, take a look below and catch a ride...it's not that bad, especially on video...

All in all, Kentucky Kingdom is a fun place.  The water park area of the joint looked pretty cool and there were plenty of non-coaster rides to go around, as well.  If I lived in the area, I could see myself buying a season pass for those summer nights when there's nothing to do.  Here are a few pics from the place...

The Highlands

One night Rich, Eddie and myself found that we had some free time.  It was right after we'd walked the Big Four Bridge and I was looking online for something to do when I found the Highlands.  In short, the Highlands is a neighborhood that's hip, artsy, neighborhood with lots of cool shops (used record and CD stores, too!) and restaurants.  It was just what we needed to pass the evening away with shopping and dining.  Again, if you ever find yourself in Louisville and are looking for something to do, check out the Highlands.

Here are some photos I took there...

Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: Zip-lining at Louisville Mega Cavern

One of the most daring things Rich, Eddie and I did on our trip was zip-lining at the Louisville Mega Cavern. Now the three of us had zip-lined before, on our last trip, but that was in a camp in Ohio, and it was outside. This one seemed way different...zip-lining in a cave.  I was intrigued!

The Louisville Mega Cavern is an old mine under the roadways of Louisville, Kentucky that's been transformed into a tourist attraction, and a cool one at that.  I'd find out later in our trip that this whole area of the country is full of caves (It's also prime sinkhole country, too!), and since there aren't many...any...caves here on Long Island, I definitely wanted to check some out.  The attraction is made up of over 17 miles of underground corridors and offers not only zip-lining, but tram tours and an aerial ropes challenge called Mega Quest.  Though we would've liked to have taken the tram tour, we only had time for one thing and it was the zip-line.

When I was researching things to do and I saw that this Mega Cavern had zip-lining, I quickly called my pals to see if they'd both be interested.  They were and reservations were made.  We got to the cavern 15 minutes early, as we were asked to do, and the butterflies were already kicking in.  Once we signed in, we had to wait for our guides in the Mega Quest area (which was hella cool), and before you knew it, we were gearing up for our adventure.

Once we were all dressed for our adventure, it was off to a quick practice run on a 'bunny zip,' which was located right there in the staging area.  Since the three of us, and most of the 10 or so people in our group, had zip-lined before, this was a piece of cake and eased at least my mind going into the first of 6 zips on the course.  That didn't last long, though, as our first zip-line was called 'Devil's Drop.' 

Now I know it's hard to make out in this picture, but this photo was taken at the top of Devil's Drop.  Those are little red lights waaaayyyy down there within the darkest reaches of the cavern and there's the line across the bottom.  Though I'd zipped before, those butterflies were fluttering oh so wildly in my stomach as I stepped to the jumping off platform.  I have to say, though, that once you jumped, it was nothing but a pure adrenaline rush, as were the rest of the zip-lines on the course.  

Our guides, Joe and Mallory, were awesome, friendly and knowledgeable, and the others in our group, an Aussie couple in particular, were great companions, as well.  In addition to the zip-lines, there were two 'challenge bridges,' which I hadn't worried about until I was actually on them.  Joe told us that people usually love them or hate them and I definitely did not like them.   Even though we were hooked on to lines overhead, it was terrifying to walk across the weak-looking scaffolds perched way above the darkened depths below. Picture Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom.

Joe and Mallory took a selfie with my camera, lol

All in all, zip-lining in a cave was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.  I highly recommend the Louisville Mega Cavern, especially for the zip-lining, but even just to check out via tram.  It's definitely one of the coolest attractions in Louisville.  In the meantime, check out some of the other things we did on our Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014 below and stay tuned for more...

Hitting the Roller Coaster Road...and then some!

New States

Kings Island and The Beast

The Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster: Hella Cool!

Holiday World

The Coasters of Holiday World

The Big Four Bridge and Waterfront Park

Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: Louisville, Kentucky - The Big Four Bridge and Waterfront Park

One of the best things about these roller coaster road trips is getting to visit places and do things you wouldn't ordinarily do on a vacation.  Every time my friends and I take a road trip to ride coasters, we always try to see and do things that are nearby, and it's always good.  One of our home bases for this year's trip was Louisville, Kentucky, a place that I'd never dreamed of visiting, but I'm glad I did.

  

allhailtheblackmarket

If you're from the Northeast and you ever visit virtually any Midwestern city, at least the ones I've been to, the first thing that'll strike you is that it seems as if not many people actually live in the cities.  All of these big buildings and the streets are empty.  I first noticed it on our last road trip when we visited Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati is a fairly large-sized city, but the one night we spent there it seemed like a ghost town.  No one around.  That's a far cry from New York City, where I'm from, where the streets are teeming with people virtually 24/7.  

Louisville is one of those Midwestern cities that seem almost deserted.  It's not as large as Cincy, but it does have a skyline and even though we were there at the beginning of the work week, it was still pretty empty at the time we were there. Though Louisville may not be a vacation destination for many of you out there, there are some pretty cool places to see and things to do here.

TripAdvisor lists 78 attractions in Louisville, and like attractions in any city, some are not for everybody. There are places there that many would love to visit, I'm sure, like the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory or Churchill Downs.  Then there's the Mohammed Ali Center and the Louisville Zoo. Well, we didn't do any of these things, but we did get to see some cool stuff anyway.   

The Big Four Bridge

One of the coolest things we did in Louisville was visit The Big Four Bridge and Waterfront Park.  I love bridges.  They fascinate me.  So when I saw the listing for the bridge and park in downtown Louisville, this was one of the places I wanted to see.  The edifice is a former railroad truss bridge first built in 1895 and refurbished in 1929.  The bridge spans Louisville and neighboring Jeffersonville, Indiana and is today simply a pedestrian bridge, and a beautiful one at that!  The three of us took a walk across the span and it was awesome.  The bridge offers great views of Louisville, as well as some good exercise.  Take a look at some photos...

Waterfront Park

Waterfront Park is indeed that, a waterfront park.  Nestled under the Big Four Bridge, this spot offers spectacular views and a nice place to sit and relax.  There's a playground, complete with sprinklers and barbecues and swings and such.  

Pretty cool, huh?  If you ever find yourself in the Louisville area, be sure to check out The Big Four Bridge and Waterfront Park for a relaxing afternoon, with some great exercise and spectacular views.  In the meantime, stay tuned for more of our Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014 and Louisville, Kentucky!