During our travels west, we did lots of hiking mountains and riding bikes along the coastline. The more we did this, the more we became intrigued by the mysterious landscapes around us. Several signs for caverns in the area made us wonder about possibilities in visiting some caves. When searching for some of the best caving in the US, surprisingly it pointed us to Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky.

Kentucky could easily be a weekend trip for us, so we decided to wait until we were back east. As a matter of fact, it isn't that far from Nashville, and we had not been there either (but wanted to go). You see, this is how we make decisions about traveling. We pick a spot that sounds interesting or exciting and then we add five more things to the trip. When we realize that it isn't humanly possible to do all the things in the time allotted, we scale back to something reasonable. Ok, back to Kentucky...

Louisville

No game the day of our visit but got to see the field

Our plan was to hit Nashville first, then make our way back to Kentucky since we will be camping at Mammoth Caves National Park for a couple of days. Might as well have city and hotel fun before being camping stinky! As we headed south, and about the time we felt as though we couldn't stand being in the car anymore, we found ourselves near Louisville. We parked near the Ohio River front, with the city as a back drop, and took a little walk through the park and the streets of downtown.

The city may make many think of Louisville Slugger baseball bats, but as we made our way into downtown for lunch, we found the heart of its livelihood...bourbon. Bourbon stores and bourbon drinks were everywhere. Since neither Mandy or I like bourbon, we stuck with something much lighter before we got back on the road towards Nashville and stayed the night in Bowling Green.

Nashville

Large guitar on the edge of Broadway St displaying some of country's greatest!

We rolled into Nashville around noon. This was just in time to catch a walking historical/music tour of downtown Nashville to kick start our time there. I have to say that the tour was fantastic! It was 3 hours long, included a lot of history and exposed us to a lot of parts of town. I am not a huge country music fan, but even I thought the tour was great. It not only talked about country music but also the evolution of all types of music that originated in Nashville. The tour also included the town's role in the Civil Rights Movement, key players in music industry, and neighborhoods that continue to have a major role in music.

The tour dropped us off on Broadway Street, the epicenter of daily activity and nightlife. The strip was full of bars and restarants. You didn't even have to go inside to hear the latest bands playing. A simple walk down the street was like a full country concert. The only thing missing was a drink in our hands, and we did have to go inside for that.

Printer's Ally.  Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are inside shooting their latest video together. — Printer's Ally. Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are inside shooting their latest video together.

Just about any place we stepped into had autographed photos, graffiti and decades of wear and tear that told stories of those who made it big and those who crossed paths in these same bar stools. Nothing in the downtown area seemed to scream over-the-top "old twangy county" until we got to Opryland. Ahhh, there it is...mile-high bouffants, diamond-studded belt buckles, cowboy boots galore, deep Paula Dean southern drawls and gold-plated everything.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do! So we purchased a couple of tickets to the Grand Ol' Opry. On this particular weekend, the show was to be dedicated to those who serve or have served in the US military. Although there were no major acts performing that day, the highlight of this variety show was the band, "wounded Warriors." This band was made up of soldiers who were wounded in war and they definitely stole the show with their renditions of some of the most infamous US patriotic tunes. At moments, the respect level for these soldiers were so great that you could hear a pin drop in the theatre. Their message that day was piercing to the heart.

Another unexpected highlight for us was the Pancake Pantry, a long-established restaurant near Vanderbilt University. It was so good that it was worth waiting 2 days in a row in the line that snaked out the door and along the sidewalk outside.

Mammoth Caves

Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky is the caving adventure we were after. We camped in the national park for a couple of days to explore its caves and take a few days to become one with nature. In fact, we braved a fair-sized thunderstorm in our tent our first night. We escaped the storm with only the smallest puddle of water in the corner of our tent. We were fairly certain that we were going to be swallowed by a sink hole that night.

You can take Mandy camping but can't take her away from the latest newspaper

Earlier that evening (before the storm), we were able to do some exploring. We opted for a 3-hour lantern tour of the caves. Here, we were able to hike the 3 miles of caves by lantern light only. We learned a lot of crazy things about these caves. For instance, did you know that Kentucky has nearly 400 miles of discovered caves underground? The national park used to be owned by a doctor who kept tuberculosis patients underground? A lot of these caves used to have underground rivers. Kentucky is littered with sinkholes. Billions of years ago, Kentucky used to be the tropics of the US. It, along with southwest US were under water. This is what created these caves to begin with. Is anyone else concerned about the whole state of Kentucky? The history of these underground caves was mind-blowing. We were even able to ride a boat into one of the caves with a river inside. It was amazing to think about living your daily life above ground while all of that activity was happening below ground. One example of these two worlds colliding was at Kentucky's corvette museum: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/27/photos-corvette-museum-finds-greater-fame-in-sinkhole-theyre-going-to-keep-it/

Here, you can experience a collapsed sinkhole in the middle of the museum. Crazy to think about a sinkhole swallowing up a piece of earth at any moment. Whoa.

View inside the caves without our lantern

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