Road Trip V

Destination Four: Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky

I’m not a caveman and by that I mean the idea of hanging out in caves only makes me want to see the sun even more. But Mammoth Cave was worth the 3 hour/3 mile voyage with lanterns. Its mammothness comes from its length. There are 400 miles of cave – the longest in the world. Not the biggest cave room for acreage but longest in tunnels. I think a better name would be “Longest Cave” but Mammoth will have to do.

After the trip below I came up and saw 25 deer – no kidding 25 in the stretch of about a half an hour. Why someone would find sport in killing these creatures is beyond me.

Destination 4.5:

The birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and his humble beginnings in a log cabin. When I was a youth I remember reading about Abe’s early years. How he learned math and writing, writing with coal on a shovel and such.


Destination Five:

West Virginia – the last state! Hoorah! But where to go?? Harper’s Ferry is where. A full day was wasted searching until I picked Harper’s Ferry off the map, located in the northeast corner of the state. I did not know why I wanted to go there but it seemed significant some how. Of course when I arrived the “how” was evident in its history. Yet again a National Park, Harper’s Ferry was a town frozen in time. What struck me most was the Brown Insurrection and a quote by one Frederick Douglass – “John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic.” Besides a case of wine, I purchased Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave. Written by Himself. A tale of how he educated himself – learned to read and write while a slave. How he was inspired to do so and how it opened his eyes to freedom, which he was eventually to attain. A fitting end to my road trip and the completion of my 50 state journey: A reminder of the bloodshed to keep this country whole, those who were kept down along the way and more importantly those who rose up.