Made it to Cocoa Beach

In the morning I walked around the aquarium in Chattanooga and found another letterbox stamp. Then I started my long day of driving. I stopped in Atlanta for gas but I didn't really do anything there. Somewhere Tennessee I stopped at a nature park to take a break and I found another letterbox stamp. Then I spent some time sitting by the pond and stretched my legs out.

When I reached the state of Florida I stopped at the Visitor’s Center to pick up some maps of Florida and I sampled some free orange juice. Then I drove the rest of the way to Cocoa Beach. It was too dark to go to the beach when I arrived so the first thing I did was stop at the Ron Jon Surf Shop and Cocoa Beach Surf Company to look at surf boards and the giant fish tank with sharks. Then I turned in for the night at a Residence Inn in Melbourne.

Mammoth Cave

I woke up early in the morning and ate a yummy breakfast of leftover blueberry bread that Mom had made. Then I headed out toward Mammoth Cave. The park is surrounded by a gorgeous wooded area and I saw deer and wild turkeys while driving. Unfortunately an ice storm came through a few weeks before and many of the trees were fallen. Since I had time before my tour I hiked the Sand Cave Trail (with my pepper spray). Sand cave is a 75 food high sandstone overhang that has a small waterfall that flows over it. This cave is famous because caver Floyd Collins became trapped in this cave when a rock fell on his leg and rescue efforts continued for days, attracting much media attention, before eventually they reached him too late. I saw his grave in the Mammoth Cave cemetery.

At 10:00 I took the Grand Avenue Tour of Mammoth Cave. We walked 4 miles through the caves and went approximately 300 feet underground. The caves are a constant, cool 54 degrees. We entered through the Carmichael Entrance and some of the areas I saw were the Snowball Room (where we had lunch – I had a very delicious vegetable soup), Boone Avenue, Grand Canyon, the Drapery Room, and we exited at Frozen Niagara. The tour guides, Jerry and Richard, talked about the natural and cultural history of the cave as we wandered through. Jerry’s great-great grandfather was actually the slave of the owner of one of the caves in the area and he gave tours to wealthy people who would come through the caves in their tuxes, and fancy dresses. Jerry had many wonderful stories from his family that he told about the caves. The majority of the cave is limestone but there are also many gypsum formations that are fantastic to look at; my pictures don’t do them justice. The only animal I saw was a cave cricket
(Hadenoecus subterraneus). My favorite parts of the cave were the snowball room (which got its name for the white snowball sized gypsum formations), and the very end which was the Drapery Room (that’s where I am in the picture). That part of the cave had oodles of stalactites and stalagmites.

After the tour was done it was time to continue on the drive. I drove out of Kentucky and through part of Tennessee. I stopped in Chattanooga for the night.