Nolin Lake State Park / Mammoth Cave National Park

 October 26, 2020

Today we closed up camp and headed to Nolin Lake State Park on a cloudy day.

  The drive was lined with hills covered with colorful trees.

We stopped in London, Kentucky to get some gas.  

Jim noticed that while the truck was level,  

the RV was not.  Looking underneath he saw a broken spring.

This could be bad.  We called B&R Truck and Trailer.

Jim conveyed our situation to Rick who said come on over.

It was less than 2 miles up the road. We started to drive up

and Rick started signalling for us to back it into the bay.

Jim maneuvered the truck and rv back into the bay.

Rick and his mechanic jacked up the tire and started looking around.

Yes, it's confirmed a broken spring. 

Tire off. Spring off.

Rick called the RV dealer in town but they did not have the part in stock

but could get it tomorrow.  Not good enough for Rick.

He got in his truck and drove off to find the part.

Sure enough he came back in about half an hour

with the part!  He said it was the last one in town.

His mechanic and he put the new spring on the RV

and remounted the tire. 

 We settled up $191 cash, we gave him $200

and some Cinnabon Pound Cake.  

Within an hour and a half of discovering this serious issue

we were fixed and back on the road.

Thank you guardian angels for taking care of us today!

It was a long drive on a twisting country road leading into the campground

but the campground opened up to large campsites with easy road to navigate.

The lake looks low.  Fall color good. 

We will investigate more on Wednesday.

October 27, 2020

We have tickets for the one and only tour that you can take during these

CoVid times at Mammoth Cave National Park

the Extended Historic Trail

The crowds are limited so plenty of space for social distancing.

Here we are at the entrance, with our masks on.

This is Mammoth Cave's largest entrance and 

where it all began at least for modern man.

Supposedly John Houchins found this cave

while hunting for black bear in the 1790s

by chasing a wounded bear to here.

This is a spacious cave, but here at the entrance

 in Houchin's Narrows Jim looks tall.

That tiny black spot in the middle of this photo

is the one and only bat we saw on the tour.

War memorials in the cave.

Saltpetre Vats

Wooden artifacts from the early 1800's when

Mammoth Cave sediment was mined for saltpetre.

Three vats and a pump tower operated here.

The Rotunda, this area is enormous.

Display case of torches that would have been used

by prehistoric cultures.  Imagine how little of 

the cave is lit up when this is the only light you have.

Can you tell we are smiling?

Of course not, we have our masks on.

Remnants of the saltpetre operations, one log brought water in

the other log took the nitrate solution out.

They rinsed the dirt from the mine to get the nitrate 

to make saltpetre to make gunpowder which was used in 

the War of 1812.

Old oil lamp.

Also on its own would not light up too much of the cave.

Giant's Coffin originally called Steamboat Rock.

Looks more like a steamboat to me.

A peek into one of the TB huts used by

Dr John Croghan a former owner of the cave.

He did not cure anyone of TB,

perhaps because he heated the cave with charcoal

and filled the cave with smoke

which darkened a lot of the cave roof here

which was originally a white gypsum.

Here you can see the dark areas on the ceiling

as well as a TB hut in the distance.

And that was the end of our 2 mile

self guided tour inside Mammoth Cave.

Of course, we hit the trails outside.

Here we are at Sunset Point.

Here is a view of Sunset Point without us blocking it.

As the sign says, this is the Green River from

the Green River Bluff Trail

Some red leaves from the shores of Nolin Lake.

I went down to see if I could get to tomorrow's

trail from our campsite along the lake.

Yes, we can.

And finally, the spot were I worked 

on the blog today at my campsite.

October 28, 2020

Today we are hiking trails here at Nolin Lake State Park.

Here is our path to hike the Waterfall Loop and the Omega Loop.

Five miles in all.

No waterfalls but we did see where water could run down if 

it were around, I think it must be a Spring thing.

The lake level is low as well.  All that sand area

could be covered with water.

The view thru the trees is still nice.

Lots of colorful leaves on the ground as well.

A few boards along the trail to avoid soggy ground.

I like the short long pattern they used.

It was a young forest that let in a lot of light.

Fishermen coming in to the boat launch.

If you are a tent camper you can have this view from your site.

Well rain is falling this afternoon, 

the laundry is done,

time to read a book.