Mammoth Cave

I have a life-long friend that lives in Tennessee.  I live in Indiana.  She teaches in a year-round school system and was about to be out on fall break.  We had not seen one another for almost a year and a half.  One conversation led to another and we decided to rendezvous in the middle at one of my favorite places on earth- Mammoth Cave National Park.
I've always loved camping but had not camped for nearly two years.  I hauled my equipment out of the barn and cleaned and scrubbed and organized for nearly a week.  Finally, with my little Honda loaded to the max, I was ready to head out.  Doug shot this photo of me just before I departed.  Yup, I'm a treehugger.

Me and my trusty steed

Just south of where we live I headed into Bedford, IN.  We live in the limestone belt.  The photo below shows common topography for this part of the state.  The air was thick with clouds all around.  

driving through the clouds

The Ohio River runs between Indiana and Kentucky.  I like to cross into Kentucky at Louisville over the Kennedy bridge.

Crossing over into Kentucky

 My friend and I were in contact via cell phone off and on during the trip and as I entered the park and saw this sign I pulled over to meet her.  We timed it perfectly and she arrived about ten minutes after I did.

She and I grew up together.  Her mother was my kindergarten teacher.  My family was moving and her daughter was in my new school district.  Her mother, my teacher, invited me over to their house one day after school to play so that I would have a new friend when I went to my new school.  That was when we were five years old and we have been friends ever since.  We went through Girl Scouts together from second grade through our junior year of high school.  We were Girl Scouts when most didn't think that was too cool, but we didn't care.  We always had fun camping and hiking together. 
We  quickly made camp and set out to hike a few trails.  We had a couple of  days of perfect fall weather.  The woods were pristine.

 We came upon this shag bark hickory tree and decided it looked like an old man with his arms extended.

The deer in the park are accustomed to people being all around and are quite tame.  The campers before us had spilled dog food in our campsite and we had deer coming to snack despite the fact that we were right there.

tame

We planned our meals together and had bacon 

and fried potatoes for breakfast on our first morning.  We both like to drink tea and heated our water over the flames.  Food tastes delicious when cooked over a campfire.  That is my Grandma's old orange cast iron frying pan.  I love to cook in that old skillet and only use it on camping trips.

Our home away from home for a couple of nights was a tent.  Because we are getting older, and the ground is getting harder, we slept on a Coleman mattress.

I was thrilled to accompany her the first time that she toured the cave.  We took one of my favorite tours, the historic tour.  I have a special connection to this cave and love to see people's reaction the first time that they experience it.  The photo below was taken as we were coming back out of the cave into the sunlight. 

A friendly ranger snapped the photo of the two of us.  Friends for forty-eight years.  Shew, that is a long time!

Photo below is of me at an overlook in the park.  My favorite outfit- shorts, t-shirt and hiking boots. 

We were able to explore some areas that I had not visited before and we hiked around Sloan's Pond. 

We hiked, we cooked out over the fire, we talked, we laughed, we giggled.  Oh, we giggled like the school girls that we used to be.  The second night (our last) we stayed up late and talked and laughed.  We were up later than anyone else in the campground and were trying to be quiet.  If you are a female and reading this, you know that trying to be quiet usually just makes it worse. 
When we headed for home we departed later than we meant to (of course) and as I was near to home, the sun was just setting.

Back home again in Indiana.