By Shelby
Since Monday was a holiday, all the libraries in Jeffersonville, Indiana were closed. We went to Perrin Family Park to work instead. It was very humid. The temperature was finally comfortable at 75 degrees, but the humidity made it unbearable. Eventually, we had to use AC. For lunch, we made Philly cheese steaks. It was actually a pretty quick process. We just had to chop up the onion and bell pepper. The steak was already shaved into thin pieces, so we just threw it all in the cast iron skillet and cooked it. It turned out delicious. I would definitely make it again.
Tuesday, we worked from the Clarksville library near Jeffersonville. It was nice to be in air conditioning again. After work, we drove into Louisville, Kentucky to check out the Big Four Bridge. The Big Four Bridge was an old railway bridge that connected Jeffersonville with Louisville. It’s since been converted into a pedestrian footbridge. It was pretty cool to walk over the bridge into a different state.
Once it became dark out, the bridge was lit up with multi-colored lights that changed color every few minutes. It was very cool. We stayed for a while, hoping we would get to see the colors change to rainbow but they didn’t. As we were driving away, the lights changed to every color. That was kind of a bummer.
As we drove through Louisville, we saw the Louisville Slugger Field. It seemed like a pretty nice city. Once we left Louisville, we headed for Elizabethtown, the closest city with a Planet Fitness to Mammoth Cave National Park. We took a short detour to drive through Fort Knox. From the road, we caught a glimpse of the Fort Knox Bullion Depository. Once we arrived in Elizabethtown, we went right to the Planet Fitness to get ready for bed. Unfortunately, they were doing renovations and the locker room was closed. We drove back about 20 minutes to go to the next closest Planet Fitness.
Wednesday, we decided to go to Mammoth Cave National Park. We had booked a 4 hour, 4 mile cave tour into Mammoth Cave. It was very cool, both literally and figuratively. The cave was about 56 degrees year-round. We got lucky since this is now considered the off-season. This tour usually had over 70 people in a group, but we only had around 20. That was really nice. The first mile of the tour was pretty flat. Our ranger guide pointed out some neat mineral formations. At the end of the first mile, there was actually a bathroom with running water. It was really interesting.
The rest of the tour was a little more difficult. The path became very narrow as we crossed through slot canyons and narrow passageways. We climbed up Mt. McKinley, a steep hill within the cave. A bat flew over our heads at one point. We took a short break every hour to sit down, get a drink, and use the restroom. The ranger told us about how the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) first made the trails inside Mammoth Cave.
Near the end of the tour, we entered a wetter area of the cave. There were a lot of stalactites and stalagmites. Since it was wetter, there were also a lot more bugs and spiders. I didn’t really see any kind of insects in the dryer areas of the cave. At the end of the tour, we emerged back into sunlight. It was nice to feel the warm air.
After eating lunch in the car, we headed out to do a 3.5 mile hike around the park. The hike was actually a combination of multiple different trails. Our first stop was the historic cave entrance. This entrance is the largest natural entrance into Mammoth Cave. As we approached the entrance, the air temperature became much cooler. Since we weren’t on a tour, we weren’t allowed past a gate inside the entrance, but it was still cool to check out.
Our next stop was Sunset Point, a lookout over the park that supposedly had great sunset views. We weren’t planning on staying at the park that late, but we checked out the view anyway. Next up was the River Styx Spring, a natural spring where the underground River Styx emerges. It was very pretty. There is actually a cave tour offered that follows along the river in the cave, but it was fully booked.
After viewing the spring, we continued onto a trail that followed along the Green River. We took a short detour to see the entrance to Dixon Cave. Dixon Cave is not open to the public. It is reserved for the bats that hibernate there. The cave used to connect to Mammoth Cave until the roof collapsed in one section. Once we got our pictures of the cave, we continued following the trail all the way back to the visitors center. We went back to the same Planet Fitness we’d slept at the previous night.
Thursday, we went to the Hardin County Public Library to work for the day. In the morning, I got a much needed haircut. That afternoon, we met up with Spencer’s family, who live in Kentucky, and got dinner together at Impellizzeri’s Pizza. It was nice to meet more of Spencer’s family. After dinner, we drove toward Lexington, where we stayed the night. The drive through Kentucky was beautiful. I hadn’t known Kentucky had so many hills and mountains.
Our plan for Friday was to spend the day at the Red River Gorge in Daniel Boone National Forest. Our first stop for the day was Natural Bridge State Resort Park. We hiked about 3 miles round-trip to reach the Natural Bridge. The Natural Bridge is a sandstone arch rock formation. It was really neat. The longer trail that we took to get there seemed to be less popular than the main trail. This meant that there were tons of spider webs we had to walk through. At the start of the trail, Spencer grabbed a long stick to hold out in front of him to try to brush away the webs that crossed the trail. We didn’t see too many actual spiders though, compared to how many webs we saw, just a couple creepy looking ones. Once we walked across the bridge, we walked down some stairs to see the bridge from below. To get there, we had to walk through a very narrow pathway between massive rocks.
Our second stop of the day was Rock Bridge, another natural sandstone arch. This one crossed over a river, unlike Natural Bridge. The trail to Rock Bridge was only a mile and a half. We stopped for a quick lunch before starting on the trail. Along the way, we passed a small waterfall. This trail seemed to be more popular than the one we took to Natural Bridge, and we didn’t walk through many spider webs.
Our last hike of the day was to Sky Bridge, another natural sandstone arch. Apparently, there are over 100 natural arches in the area, which is pretty impressive to me. Natural arches seemed more of a Utah thing than a Kentucky one. From Sky Bridge, we had a beautiful view of the Red River Gorge below. The trail to Sky Bridge was only a mile long loop, so it didn’t take too long.
When we finished our hike, we drove on to Billy Branch Picnic Area at Cave Run Lake to hang out until sunset. We took a short detour to Nada Tunnel, a very narrow former railway tunnel. It was very cool. There was only room for one car to pass through at a time. The Prius just barely squeezed through it felt like.
At Billy Branch Picnic Area, we relaxed in the car for a few hours. We got a nice head start on going through pictures from the week. As the sun started to set, we walked down to the lake. It was very scenic. After the sunset, we drove a little over an hour to Ashland, a small city on the border of West Virginia and Ohio.
Saturday was pretty low-key since it had been such a busy week. In the morning, we stopped at a car wash to attempt to clean off the thick layer of dirt, bugs, and grime that covered the Prius. It was somewhat successful. For lunch, we went to KFC. We figured we had to get Kentucky Fried Chicken while in Kentucky. After lunch, we went to the local library to hang out and plan out what we’re doing next week. We’re planning on doing the usual on Sunday. Laundry, finishing up work on the website for the week, and relaxing. We plan on working from Ashland next week before heading into West Virginia.
Fun Facts from Week 20:
The Big Four Bridge got its name because it carried four railways: the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis.
The government says that Fort Knox holds $6.22 billion dollars worth of gold.
Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave in the world by far, with over 400 miles of it explored.
4 responses to “Week 20”
Love everything you are posting. Can’t get over your fantastic planning skills. Keep enjoying.
Thank you! We’re really glad you’re loving it! 🙂
Love seeing the country through your eyes. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for following our adventure! 🙂