When you take a nature day and almost get eaten by a velociraptor…

Hahahaa… I can’t resist taking weird photos when the situation arises, which is what happened when I saw this guy. And why you’re actually seeing my ugly mug again… I wish I could look more genuinely frightened, but when I’m being silly, it’s hard to keep a straight face.

Anyway… This awesome guy was part of a display at a tourist attraction. Well… I’m not sure I can say “tourist attraction” as most people wouldn’t consider a cave tour to be a “tourist attraction”. I mean, I think they’re pretty cool. When I was little, tours of local caves were our summer vacations. Literally… My parents never really took my sister and I on cool summer trips like other kids. We didn’t go to Disney or the beach. Nope… We went to see caves, this one attraction with miniature trains, a coal mine you rode through on a train, a park you walked through that was nothing but woods and waterfalls, the game preserve… I know, not very exciting, huh?

But still, there was something fun and exciting about these little day trips. Kids don’t often appreciate the wonders of nature (then or now) but some of the stuff is pretty fucking cool! And, for some reason, I had been thinking of going on a cave tour again. It had been a long time and I had some fond memories of all sorts of neat formations inside. Plus, back then, the cameras we had didn’t really allow for good pictures inside a cave (like you could use a Polaroid Instamatic or a 110 camera, both with flash bulbs). But thanks to cell phones, you can get some awesome pictures!

Like this, for instance…

I forget the names they had given for pretty much every formation in the cave, but this is one of my favorites. It was bridal something… The entire thing is calcite and the colors come from whatever the water that formed it ran through. The red is from iron, the gray magnesium and the green is from algae. The white was obviously untainted.

If you’re wondering what’s up with the brick structure and plaque… Well, apparently they used to hold weddings at this particular formation. They stopped doing that in 2009 because of lack of interest. Say what?! Honestly, I think that would be incredibly awesome to have your ceremony done there! Think about how incredible your wedding pictures would look with that as a background! Maybe that’s just me… Or maybe it’s because the floors are wet and a bit gooky for a white dress and pretty shoes… I mean, you’re supposed to wear sneakers or hiking boots for the tour because of the chance of slipping. So change your shoes when you get to this formation! Though I suppose there is that other issue… You’d be freezing your ass off! The cave, like all others, is a constant 52 degree Fahrenheit. Literally… all the time, all year round. That’s why it’s a nice summer activity. When it’s hot as balls, visit a cool cave. Bring a coat…

This was just one of many formations I thought looked cool as hell…

Stalactites and stalagmites are formed by water dripping. The thing is, it’s not like your leaky faucet. These are tiny little drips that aren’t that steady and regular (though the ceiling does give you what they call “cave kisses” when it drips on you). These drips take such a long time to form these really cool structures! The guide told us that the one formation would grow about an inch in 150 years! It was the biggest stalactite they had and was estimated to be about 250,000 years old! So yeah… that’s something to appreciate. Nature works long and hard to make these beautiful things. That’s why you’re not allowed to touch them as the oils in your skin can damage them irreparably.

I don’t recall what the guide said they called this one… Before she told us, she asked what we thought it looked like. As I was the first one in line on the tour (I’m not sure why that happened…), I said it looked like a bird. That’s not what the people who named it saw, however… Even the tour guide didn’t see what I saw until I explained it.

To me, this looks like the back of a bird, you know, when they have their wings folded behind them. And if you look towards the bottom, those two thin formations look a lot like skinny little lord legs. And, obviously, the rounded portion at the top would be the head. Can you see it…? The guide seemed really surprised when she was finally able to see it how I saw it. Who knows? Maybe on future tours she’ll mention that someone thought it looked like a bird.

Maybe that’s why I like cave tours… They’re kind of inspiring in a way. Some of the formations may look like nothing to most people, but I’ll see something in them. There was one I saw… It was stark white and all the walls around it were a brown color. The white stood out like a sore thumb. And the way it was shaped, it reminded me of an old Greek statue. Sometimes my imagination starts lagging a bit and my creativity suffers for it. So maybe I need to go on cave tours more often to give my imagination a kick in the ass when it starts slacking off.

Up by the bridal area, I happened to notice this interesting little spot (several feet below the walkway) and asked the guide. Apparently I had found the only other portion of the cave, aside from the entrance, that led to the outside.

This, I remember, is called “lumbago alley”. I’m sure you can see why… The story is that the man who first explored this little outcropping was about six feet tall. You can tell by the picture that someone of that stature wouldn’t have had an easy time navigating an area so small. Even on the walkways there are areas so low that I had to walk hunched over to get under them (granted, I am fairly tall for a woman).

In any case… When the man emerged on the outside, he was complaining his back hurt (lower back pain used to be called “lumbago” back in the old days). I can see why… A six foot tall dude walks through this tunnel hunched over for that long, his back is going to hurt. Hence how the tunnel got its name.

Still, it looked like a really cool little tunnel! I had to hold my phone down over the railing to get a shot this good. I was worried about dropping my phone because, you know, that would have been just my luck. Thankfully I didn’t and was able to bring you this really neat picture!

One of the most awesome parts of the tour was when we got to the minerals on display. Granted, not all are native to the cave… The cool thing is that the guide turns off the lights and shines a black light on certain parts of the wall and on these minerals they have set on part of the rock wall. As you can see, they fluoresce under a black light!

Honestly, it looks much more impressive in person. The picture doesn’t do it justice…

But imagine… the cave is dark as fuck with the lights off and suddenly, when a black light is turned on them, these minerals start to glow! And really bright, too! And they all glow different colors, which was really cool to see! Bet you didn’t know rocks could do that! Or maybe you did, I don’t know… It’s still impressive, though.

However, this is the main attraction of the cave. This small river (for lack of a better term) is quite interesting. The water is always the same level and always crystal clear no matter how much rain falls. They have no idea where it starts and they have no idea where it ends. They’ve sent out ping pong balls with the name and phone number and never got replies. They even tried biodegradable dye and positioned people in areas where they felt the water might come out to. No luck… It’s a bit of a mystery.

Personally, I think the entire thing is completely underground, fed by springs deeper than cave level and it feed back down into an area deeper than the cave itself. Who knows… But that’s part of the appeal. It’s just a big mystery…

After my fun and interesting cave tour, I decided to take a walk on a nature trail. Because, you know, I obviously like to punish my knees and hips… Actually, I’m trying to lose weight and get the exercise I desperately need.

And I ran into this beautiful girl on my walk. I was about 20 or 30 yards away from her at this point. She heard me coming and I began speaking to her nicely and she was kind enough to pose for some pictures. It’s odd… I’ve done this before where I’ve been very close (a lot closer than this) to doe and spoken to them and they seem to listen. Holy shit, I’m the deer whisperer! Hahahaa…

She walked across the trail like she was on a leisurely stroll and went into the woods on the other side of the trail. As I walked, steady but quiet, I saw her in the woods. I was much closer then, maybe about 10 yards at most from her, and I took more pictures that she was kind enough to pose for. When she tired, she walked off and I thanked her for the pictures.

That was quite an amazing experience, but not really unusual for me as I speak to deer a lot when I see them. I don’t know what it is about me that animals respond to that. I have the same effect on llamas… Anyway, I continued my walk until I reached the one mile marker then headed back to the parking lot for a total of 2 miles plus the quarter mile at the cave. I must be nuts…

After I got home, I finally decided to set this up…

I had been looking into getting one of those home herb gardens because I’m apparently turning into one of those weirdos who wants to grow fresh herbs… I mentioned it to my mom and she told me she had one. My oldest niece had gotten it for her one year for Christmas and she never used it, so she said she would bring it up for me on Friday. Yesterday I decided to set everything up.

It’s really nice, actually… The kit contains these “spikes”, if you want to call them that, that contain soil with the seeds in them. you just pop them into the holes in the tops, cover them with these little domes until they sprout and that’s it. All you have to do is keep the water full and add liquid fertilizer every so often which, thankfully, the garden will tell you when to add everything. That’s a huge plus for me as I never know when the hell to water my plants or fertilize them (hence why they don’t get fertilized and get watered when I think they should be watered). If only all plants were this easy to care for!

I’m not sure how long it will be, but hopefully I’ll get 2 types of basil, curly parsley, dill, thyme and, the one I’m looking forward to most, fresh mint to make iced tea! There’s nothing like using fresh mint to make iced tea! So refreshing in the summer!

And so… that was my hippie-dippy nature day.

Was it exciting…? Kind of, I suppose. I wouldn’t exactly call it “exciting”. It was just a nice, relaxing, peaceful day that I got to spend out in nature, one of my favorite places to be. That may not sound exciting or even pleasant to some, but I enjoyed it. I needed a bit of relaxation. Things have been stressful and hectic and I just wanted to get away and out of my head for a little while. I think I succeeded nicely!

I also took care of some things around the house that I’ve been neglecting later after I got home. So I guess my outing did me more good than I thought. It gave me a good swift kick in the ass to get some shit done for once.

However, my knees and hips are not thanking me today. Actually, it feels as if they’re committing acts of terrorism on me. Part of that is my fault… I knew I shouldn’t be so ambitious as to walk 2 miles on that nature trail… So next time I’ll think before I decide that a 2 mile walk with arthritis is a great idea. I hope…

Have a hippie-dippy day, dear readers! Enjoy!