Of Strawberries and Spelunking

It's been a wonderful weekend! Fresh air, blue skies, and friendship. What could be better?

Verne and Collin left for a Scout camping trip on Friday evening. My friend Jennifer's husband and boys went also. This left us with some free time. I invited her over and we sat and gabbed and quilted for several hours on Saturday. Very relaxing. Thanks, Jen!

Later in the evening my guys came back home. I sat and stitched on a few strawberry pincushions while they told me all about their adventures. I originally saw these on Kelli's blog. There are more to come. They're ready to be filled and embroidered. Then I'll have a bowl full. They are easy and cute as can be!

We enjoyed a morning of worship with a sweet time of fellowship afterward. THEN, we went to Fazoli's for lunch, and had an exciting spelunking trip. For those of you whom don't already know, spelunking is caving. We had a great time. I prefer not to be in the hot sun, and so this was the perfect adventure for me. A cool 57 degrees. Mmmm.... delicious! We learned alot, too!

This particular cave was used for mining saltpeter. The earliest history of this cave is dated back to before 1769. During the war of 1812, about 70 miners worked in the cave. The saltpeter was used in making gunpowder. We learned that the miners often made moonshine, and kept pigs in the cave to eat the mash by-product of the moonshine so as not to be caught!

The cave features a primitive water system consisting of hollowed out poplar trees that were used as pipes to wash the saltpeter. They have recovered several old large kettles, tools, and an ox-cart as well. These are all on display near the end of the cave tour.

We saw bats who, thankfully, were sleeping, a packrat's nest, and stalagmites and stalactites. We learned that animals who make their homes in caves but return to the outside world to feed are called trogloxenes. These include bats, bears, packrats, snakes, raccoons, swallows, moths, and foxes.

One of my favorite parts of the cave was called Fat Man's Misery, Pinch 'em Tight, and Devil's Run. In this cave, they also called this stretch Signature Alley. The names are because this is a very narrow passage in which you must turn sideways to fit through it. A very large person would have a problem. Signature Alley is because for centuries, people have signed their names as they passed through this area of the cave. They no longer allow people to do this, but it was exciting to see it. We saw a great many signatures from the late 1800's and early 1900's. The oldest signature dates back to 1769, and belongs to none other than Daniel Boone! I would have loved to spend more time in this part of the cave reading the signatures.

Can you tell that I enjoyed this trip?