I am glad a few of you enjoyed my post on my activities at the convention. There were at least 1,300 people there who have their own stories to tell about their activities at the convention.
For example, here is a photo from one of the trips that I was invited on, but skipped: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccrea/908029564/in/set-72157601003827595/ I believe the water level in most of the caves was a few inches lower than normal during the convention. I forgot to mention in my last post that the girl at the ticket booth in Marengo Cave looked familiar. I assumed I had seen her at the convention, but there were so many people there. Later, we realized we had been caving together a few days earlier at Eric's River Cave. I might have recognized her in caving overalls and mud, but she was in her tour uniform and make-up. Her name was Heather. Also, Bob Richard's new map of Marengo Cave is proudly displayed in the gift shop. The rest of this post is about my last hours in Indiana and my journey home: After leaving Marengo Cave on Sunday afternoon, I had to drive southeast in the direction of the Louisville Airport where my plane was scheduled to leave at 6:30 the next morning. I thought that in the few hours remaining, that I still had time to see some stuff, but in hindsight, I should have gone straight to the motel. I took the back roads all the way and ended up in Jeffersonville on the Ohio River. I drove west along Riverside Drive where there are several touristy restaurants with a view of the river and the bridges. I stopped at "Falls on the Ohio State Park." I had little time to take it all in, but I tried nonetheless. I toured part of the museum, and then walked along the fossil beds. I would bet money there is a cave under those fossil beds, but it is probably filled in with mud and water. There were some little holes in the cliff that looked like you might could call them a cave. I would like to learn more about the fascinating geology of this place. Side note: [ The Forest Service should rename the Hoosier National Forest or at least the eastern half of it as the Hoosier National Karst Preserve. In my opinion, the cave management there should take precedent over the tree management. I bet there are thousands of caves in southern Indiana that haven't been found yet, because they are under the soil and possibly all the passages are filled in. Maybe we need a U.S. Federal Karst Service ?? Or the entire Forest service should be renamed the Federal Natural Resource Service?? ] I had one more stop I wanted to try before leaving Indiana and crossing the Ohio River. I wanted to go to the Outdoor World store ( Bass Pro Shops ). I wanted to see if they had any gear that we don't get down here in Houston. The store there is much bigger. It has much nicer displays, and even a tiny artificial cave, and a nice restaurant. I did see some gear that I had not seen in Houston. Upon arriving at my hotel room at the airport, I was concerned that I might not have a room. Fortunately I did, and it was already paid for. That was a huge relief, as I was worn out. My next problem was I had a lot of muddy wet caving gear. I spent all night in the shower scrubbing the stuff clean. And then hung it up to dry, which was almost pointless as my plane was leaving in a few hours. At this point, I was past exhaustion. I could have put the clothes in the hotel dryer which was down the hall, but I screwed up and didn't have any money for that. I didn't have the energy left for that anyways. I tried to sleep 30 minutes, but I don't think I ever fell asleep. I left the hotel all stressed out at 3 in the morning to try to get checked in on time and return the rental car. That was the smartest thing I did, as the line was much longer than I expected. Both duffel bags were 16 pounds over the 50 pound limit. I had 2 carry-ons and both were stuff completely full of wet caving gear. Had I planned this a little better I could have saved $ 25, but I would have had to buy bigger carry-on luggage. [ You get one large carry-on that you check in as you enter the plane, and you get another carry on that must fit in the overhead bin. I don't think they check the weight. ] My carry-ons had my steel dinner plate and 2 steel bowls, several biners, and a wet thin wet-suit and my wet B&C Nylon caving overalls, and about 6 LED flashlights, and they didn't even open the bags. But unfortunately, Continental charged me $ 50 for the over-weight duffle bags. I only had 40 cents to my name, but miracously my debit card paid for it. I think that was because the rental car place was still closed when I turned in the key. I am sure I am going to have to deal with unexpected rental car charges this week, as I didn't get the tank completely full and the car needed washing and vaccuming out the cave mud. Did you know they charge $ 7 a gallon if you don't fill up? I hibernated like a bear on the plane, and slept nearly the whole flight. Upon arriving in Houston I drove immediately to work where I found several stressful problems waiting for me. I eventually made it home to the welcome arms of my 2 1/2 year old daughter who was very glad to see me. However, my mind is still underground in southern Indiana. Is anybody going to Cave Capers next year? http://www.caves.org/grotto/cig/pages/capers.html I wish I could find a way to fit that event in my future vacation schedule. Reflecting back on my trip, there were a few things that didn't go as planned, however, a lot of stuff went better than I planned. The weather was much cooler than I had expected and I did more caving than I thought I was going to do. I think I drove many of the back-roads in Crawford County; however I didn't even see half of the Hoosier National Forest nor many of the tourist attractions I had talked about before the convention on the NSS message board. I learned a lot about southern Indiana on this trip, so my next trip should be even more fun. I would like to take this time to thank Mr. Kevin Betz and his co-whorets who took me on all my caving trips. I wish I could have caved with them more, and hopefully will get to join them again someday. Anybody else want to go back up there? Has anybody been above the waterfall in "Waterfall Cave?" If someone has a trip doing that, I could probably be convinced to go back up there in 2008. In closing, here is a photo of about 2/3 of the EZ-up tarp structures after the "Photo Salon Storm of 2007." The other third is on a trailer not in the photo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccrea/945185643/in/set-72157601003827595/ Maybe somebody can write EZ-Up and get a group discount on some replacements. David Locklear --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
