Eclipse Eve

So we finally got to the final destination.   About 1050 miles from home.   Slept in as nothing on the agenda much for today.   We had a nice breakfast of eggs and stuff on the grill outside.  I was smart enough to book a spot near the shower house so that was convenient.   We took a ride into the thriving metropolis of Cadiz, Ky ( Pop 2558).   Nice little town and they were ready for the Eclipsers to show up.  Many a shop had t-shirts and such, as well as photo ops with face cut outs.   Here are a few pics from town:

Naya trying out a pig.  There was a pig on just about every corner, each one painted differently.

Enjoying a nice bistro set up in the Antique store.  I bought a nice 3 gal drink cooler that color matched the Pineapple.  Period correct too, Ted Williams Model from Sears Roebuck!

Took this pic for my Mom.  Right up her alley lol.

After a run through a few antique stores, we hit the local grocery to stock up for dinner and Monday's viddles.  Afterwards, we dropped off the food at the site and headed over to the resort conference center for a talk by an astronomer.   I forget his affiliation, by highly knowledgeable and has been chasing Total Eclipses since the late 1960s!  I went in thinking I wouldn't learn anything, but I was wrong!  Picked up some good tidbits of info on things to look at, etc.

We drove down to the 'beach' and formulated our plan for the next day on where to set up, etc.  Then at 4PM there was Archery.  I took a pass and chilled at the campground but Lucy's Dad and Naya both got some bullseyes...

Other than that it was a pretty low key day.  Probably the most relaxing day (aside from tomorrow) of the whole trip....

Day 8 - Adventures in Plumbing!

Okay so now that Jeannie had joined us, our Solar Eclipse Expedition was complete.   We loaded up and rolled out of the Singing Hills RV park, but I took a few photos on the way out.   Nice place.  Owner Eldon is SUPER friendly guy and interesting to talk to as well.

Our Spot for the 4 nights we were there.

Nice New Shasta Retro Trailer.  All the look of a Canned Ham with modern conveniences 

I'm doing this wrong.  These people have corporate sponsors!

Parting view just before we left.

As Jeannie had missed the previous days at Mammoth Cave we went back and did the self guided tour as all the others were sold out (people flooding in for the eclipse).  We stopped for a photo op first!

The tour was about a mile walk (half a mile each way) into the areas we had already seen.  We spent about 90 minutes in the cave again as it's so cool in there.
We packed it in and headed west!  We only had about 125 miles to go this Saturday so it was close to noon when we left the Cave.    5 minutes into the trip, the girls are screaming about a water leak.... WTH?  I don't have any water on board (or so I thought).   I managed to crack an old brittle fill line to the water tank which we didn't fill, but was now 3/4 full.  Apparently a check valve was letting the shore water into the tank when we were hooked up at the campground.

I figure out pretty quickly that it's not a stop event just yet.  I have Lucy rustle up the nearest Home Depot/Lowes and it's only a mile or two out of our way.  So we head off so I can buy parts for repairs.

Fixing the hose from the fill outlet to tank.

New hose and my plumbing nightmare and water heater.

The ancient hose that cracked and the tape that didn't do anything to slow down the leak.

It's hot out (90s) and I'm sweating my butt off but we get it all squared away in about 40 minutes of so.  In the meantime, Lucy's Dad went to the grocery store and got us some sandwiches and stuff, so we maximized the stop.  
Back on the road and aside from a stop for gas, it was a pretty enjoyable drive on a US highway.   Not alot of traffic and easy cruising about 65mph.   We arrived at the campground around 4PM or so.

This was the slopey spot.   I got the coach evened out from left to right, but the front was definitely uphill.  Lucy and I had the coach to ourselves and it was tricky sleeping.  The first night we tried head toward the front but my knees collapsed and I woke up in a squat.....so the next two nights I slept head down and that was alot better.

We took a walk down to the lake and I wasn't impressed with the beach.  Muddy squishy bottom and pee pee warm water made for a less than enjoyable swim. Got showered off and back up to the site for dinner.

Day 7 - Wow, been out for a week already!

Today I had decided to take it easy.  It is a vacation after all right?   My sister-in-law was flying into Nashville (about 2 hours away) in the early evening.   Originally, I said, I'll hang out at the RV park all day and catch up on my magazines, sit in the hammock and take it easy.

I kinda wish everyone got going earlier so I didn't have a lot of time to think about it...Yep, I changed my mind at the last minute and hopped in my FIL's Mercury.

The only plan was he wanted to take us to downtown Nashville (I had been there for 2 days for work about 2 years ago).  On the way through Bowling Green, he pulled off at the Corvette museum.  Ended up going in and spending about 90 minutes looking at all the vettes.   Some really cool concepts and one offs.  

The Cormaro - 96 Camaro body on a C5 platform.  Sneaky test mode!

My buddy the LT1, same engine in my Station Wagon!

Not to mention the victims of the now famous sink hole.

Now it was lunch time and we decided to get some Nashville Hot Chicken.  We chose Prince's as it was on the north side of town (direction we were coming).  Sketchy neighborhood in a run down strip plaza.   And the line was out the door!   We waited about 90 minutes to get our food with more chicken being delivered through the dining room while we stood in line!

I got the mild and it was fine, I tried Lucy's Xhot and it was really spicy!   Delicious fried chicken, worth the wait for sure.

Now we were a bit later than hoped and missed getting into the Capitol Building by 5 minutes...  There was a State History museum a block away and we got an hour in there before they closed.   We then walked down to Honkey Tonk Row on Lower Broadway.   We went in and out alot of shops and had a few beers here and there.

About the time I'm thinking, great we can go to the airport and get out of here, we find out the flight has been delayed by 2 hours.  Greaaaaat.....now is the part I feel like I made a bad decision.

To make a long story short, we got back to the RV park around midnight, and pretty much went to bed right away after a shower.

Day 6. Spelunking in Mammoth Cave.

Thursday, August 15th.  I wake up around 0830, and I go and have some breakfast.  After breakfast, we get in the car to go to our 10 o'clock tour, which is the Domes and Dripstones tour.  The tour has us get on a bus to transport the tour to another entrance.  I met this kid named Foxe, and we talked about the Hunger Games, and how much this forest looked like the forest in that movie. When we were going into the cave, it was literally a door in the side of a rock.  The door led to a small set of stairs, and we walked down this set of stairs for 15 mins or so.  Near the end, Foxe and his family caught up to us, and we were talking about how much cave crickets looked like spiders.  When we were exiting, we went through a set of rotating doors, and walked out into the hot, bright, real world. My family saw a bus that had room for 4 more people, and we hopped on. The bus left, and when we got back, we went into the hotel gift shop.  I was looking around to see if I could find a shirt I liked. (all the ones I liked they didn't have my size)  I picked one out that I liked (that they had in my size)  We had lunch in the hotel restaurant, and afterwards it was time to go to the trog tour.

 We walked over, and at first, I thought I was gonna be the only girl there. I was wrong, there was another girl there. I went into a room, where they had all the caving supplies.  I was the tallest, and I got the XL outfit. (They are designed for kids)  They went over safety rules, showed us how to put on our helmets, and led us outside.  After all the parents got done taking pictures, we went to the historic entrance, and went in the cave for the 3rd time.  We stayed on the path until giants coffin, then jumped over the railing, and branched off from the path.  We went through a cave a couple times, and then went deeper.  There were some times where we had to crawl on our hands and knees, and other parts we had to crawl on our stomach. (those were the fun parts)  We went to this hole called the Worm Hole, which leads to a room called the Spaceship, which was a dead end.  The tour guide had us turn off our lights, and he turned on a lighter, showing us what it was like in the old days. After that he turned off his lighter, showing us complete darkness.  We crawled back out and started climbing back towards the surface. I was sad, and I didn't want the tour to end.

 But every good thing must end. After the tour, we went back to our campsite and relaxed. We had dinner, and soon it was time to go to bed.