Sunday, July 13, 2014

Vacation 2014 - Day 4

We left the Wigwam Motel and went down the road to one of the few place for breakfast, The Watermill Restaurant in Cave City, KY. Home cooking and inexpensive. I got a call from work and felt like a traveling business woman. It was also strange because you can smoke in the restaurant. That is strange to me since in Florida that is not allowed. It is nice to eat without smoke or walking into a funky building.


We had made reservations online at Mammoth Cave since the website suggested it, especially in the busy summer months. We got there early since we had been going to bed at a decent hour and waking early all vacation. We drove around the side roads since we had an hour until our scheduled 10 am tour.


http://www.nps.gov/maca/index.htm


We chose the Historical tour. We figured 2 hours and 2 miles with the background of the cave would be good for our first ever visit. There was a large group of people. We walked down the entrance shown above. Then we were in the room pictured below.


We went through a long and sometimes small parts of the cave. This is where we climbed up towards the end of the tour.


I didn't take many pictures because it was so dark and there is no flash photography allowed. But here are a few.



The ground



Our tour guide gave the history of how the cave was charted and its ties to slaves. At the end of the tour he explained he is a decent of the original slaves. I looked up the NY Times article he mentioned at the beginning of the tour. Reading it and his personal story made the tour all the more fascinating.

Here is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/travel/in-kentucky-a-family-at-the-center-of-the-earth.html?_r=0

The husband and I were worn out by the time we came out of the cave. By then it was lunch time. We headed to the closest place on our way towards Tennessee again. Using my trusty google maps I found a BBQ place just outside the National Park in the appropriately named Pig, Kentucky.


Porky Pig Diner was cute, country with good food and decent prices. I love trying local places while traveling. If I am ever there again I am trying a Manhattan. Gravy, meat, potatoes, it all sounds good.

Since the husband was on his new quest for Harley-Davidson poker chips we had to hit up the dealerships in Bowling Green and Nashville. I managed to get to a couple thrift stores. I found a shirt for work and a cake carrier like the one below.



We ended up searching around Murphreesboro, TN for food and lodging. We went to Chuy's. We have been to the one in Gainesville, FL a couple times. The location in Murphresboro was even better. The service was awesome. My order cam out wrong and they were on it and fixed it right away. The manager chatted with us about it and tourist spots.

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