I need a vacation to recover

From this past weekend. Wow. I feel like I spent most of it on the move! And I have the sunburn and sore muscles to prove it. :) But I had so much fun.

Saturday morning I headed out with my little sister ST and her family (Mom=MB, Step dad=SB, Sister=KT). We went to Lewis and Clark Caverns state park, and took the tour of the caverns. It's a lovely 1.5 hour drive; we went one way (through Townsend on 287) and then came back the opposite direction (on 69 through Montana City.) It was a very pretty scenic drive in and of itself, with the added bonus of the cavern tour.

We got there just around 1pm, in time for the tour at 1:25 pm. It was an absolutely beautiful day; the skies had finally cleared after the past week of constant - and much needed - rain. We were all geared up in jeans and t-shirts. The temps were only supposed to hit the low 70's and the caverns themselves are 50F year round. Well, it was 80F or above, I'd swear. And the caverns were blessedly cool, but I did not need the jacket I carried inside. Wore it anyway, because it was tight going in some spots.

Anyway. You have to hike up a trail about 1/4 mile to the actual entrance. Doesn't sound too bad at first, until you realize that that 1/4 mile rises 300 feet. Yep. It was brutal. MB and I had to stop quite a bit along the way (every place they had a bench, lol) to catch our breath. I used my "camera" as my excuse. Had to take pictures, don't you know. And I got some lovely ones.

Once inside, it was pretty impressive. The caverns are huge. We walked a total of 2 miles over the 2 hour tour, and that was only in caverns that are accessible to the tours. There are plenty more they don't let people in. Back when it was first discovered and opened for tours, you actually had to climb up the mountain (we drove) then climb down a rope 200 feet (I think that's what it said) into the bottom of the first cavern. Then you would go through the rest of the caverns, etc. Without the benefit of the stairs and tunnels we had. Those were created in the 1930's and 40's by the Citizen Conservation Corps. Anyway. Once they were done, they had to go back up the rope to get out. Yikes. The trip back then was a total of 14 days or so. [Interesting side note: They have a b/w picture of a group of nuns that made the trip down into the caverns. Those must have been some tough nuns!]

Anyway. There is a huge sign at the entrance to the trail, warning anyone with heart, breathing or back problems that there is a lot of climbing, bending, stooping and so on in the caverns. And how! There were some spots I wasn't sure I'd make it through. And I'm only 5'2"!!! Poor SB, he's much much taller. One spot, called the beaver slide, you actually have to sit down and slide through, while ducking. The kids breezed through that one. MB, SB and I had a little more trouble. Me especially as I was carrying my beloved camera and taking great pains to protect it. (Mom & Dad might remember when I fell once while visiting them in Japan, and I made sure I landed with the camera on top of me. Gotta protect that camera! As I always say, I have insurance. It doesn't.)

At one point in the caverns, toward the end, we are going up these steep steps, our group of about 20 strung along like so many Christmas lights on a wire, when the guide calls down "headache rock up here" and the word gets passed down the line as we start going up and approaching it. Just then the lights went out at the upper end, where headache rock is. And then one by one down the line off they go. So now we're totally in the dark, with only the flashlight held by the guide. And of course, I am at the back of the line. (It's easier to take pictures that way. Nobody in the way.) It was actually rather funny, because everyone kept moving. I guess we had too much momentum going or something! Or were just too stupid. And the guide starts yelling "Don't move! Stop! Stop!" LOL. Poor kid (she had to be all of 20). Must have freaked her out. So now what? Smart thinking on some one's part, everyone pulled out their cell phones and turned them on, using the cell phones to light our way. Of course, we had to give MB heck about this because when we got to the park, she made us all leave our cell phones in the car. LOL. So we had no lights. But the person in front of us lit our way.

The rest of the tour was uneventful. Beautiful, even if we didn't see any of the bats. But I love seeing caves and caverns. Although at several points I started to feel a little claustrophobic.

We went a total of 350 feet under ground, but were still a mile high at the lowest point of the caverns.

After the tour we started home, stopping at one of the picnic spot along the way for an early dinner. Then the scenic route home, stopping at an old country church built in the 1800's that's supposedly haunted, and was abandoned for some time. Well, it's no longer spooky as it's being refurbished, and the building and lands are all fixed up. Oh well.

Then Sunday I went to my little sister's house early in the morning, my legs already feeling cranky from the walking Saturday. Shortly after 9am we were out in the yard, working on the garden. We didn't get as much in as we'd planned, but didn't do too badly. Friends had tilled the garden a week or so earlier, but we got the roto-tiller once more to break it up again. Only it broke halfway through. Oh well. But we did get in the corn (red and yellow) as well as the peas, spaghetti squash, and Kentucky wonder beans. We still have a ton more to do though. MB had big eyes when she planned this garden. LOL. Scully had a blast out there; she is now well-behaved enough that she can be let loose outside with no fenced yard in sight! They live out in the valley on some 20+ acres. There have to be a million rabbits out there (only a slight exaggeration) and Scully behaved beautifully.

I got a nice sunburn, and worked out some new muscles in my arms. Especially my right arm. Woke up part way through the night from a nightmare I was having a heart attack to find my right arm in lots of pain. Sunburn + muscle cramps don't make for a good night's sleep. Slept most of Monday morning between loads of laundry (it was raining, anyway, started again midday Sunday), and then headed to my little sister's house for the first BBQ of the season. Which got rained out. And where we entertained ourselves by clipping the Westie's hair. With scissors. (Hey, the electric trimmer wouldn't work, and she needed it.) Not bad for a weekend's worth of work.

Of course, I'm now back at the office and exhausted. ;)