Always Look on the Bright Side of Life...

6/3/2009

Today just started off bad. I awoke much earlier than expected to the sound of screaming German children in the campsite next to mine. Then I went to charge my camera and discovered it's dead. The lens won't even extend from the camera itself. The battery is fully charged but the lens is no longer willing. 

Ok, no big deal. I have another, yet much crappier, camera that can take some decent pictures of me spelunking. A quick breakfast, a sink shower, and I was on my way to meet with my tour guide. 

We met on the back porch of the visitor's center. Ranger John started describing the journey ahead of us twelve. As he described how we would have to inhale to get around one rock and exhale to pass another, I couldn't have been more excited. Then he said, "let's check over all of your gear." 

He glanced and me and said, "This fellow has the ideal outfit for spelunking. Cargo pants, long sleeve shirt, and sturdy shoes. Right now I'll have all of you hike your pants up so I can inspect your shoes." Then he checked out my shoes and said, "Oh, doesn't look like these will work out." I had the rest of the ensemble right, but not the shoes.

Apparently, it is an unbendable rule that you must have hiking boots that come up over the ankle. Mine stopped just short. I even brought soccer shin-guards that covered part of the ankle, but apparently that wasn't enough. I wasn't allowed to go. The trip I had booked a month in advance and had been looking forward to just as long, wasn't going to happen. 

As one of the rangers stood explaining my options, I was just fuming. He said, "here are the other tours you can take today.....blah, blah, blah." I didn't hear anything else he said. Other tours? I didn't want another tour. I wanted the Wild Cave Tour, the tour that has chest diameter requirements, the tour that takes 6 hours, the tour that made other people in the visitor's center say, "you have to be nuts to do that." That's the tour I wanted. I didn't want to walk around where the other tourists and people with bad back's walked. I wanted a challenge. 

I sat weighing my options. Finally, I decided any tour would be better than no tour. I went with some other package. As I walked away from the ticket counter with my new ticket in hand and the difference of the two tours refunded, I was still rather upset. I thought of how I wouldn't be satisfied until I really spelunked that cave. 

And it dawned on me, just go tomorrow. I'm not on any strict schedule. What's another day in Kentucky? I walked back up to the ticket counter, asked to go on tomorrow's tour, and asked where I could purchase the proper hiking boots. 

Sadly, the nearest place was Wal-Mart. Barf. Whatever. The boots were only $35.00 and I'll probably return them tomorrow. So, here I am at Arby's. Using their free wi-fi. (Ohh yea, that fast food rule ended before it began. It seems that fast food rules the highways.)

At 10:05 this morning, once I was booted off the tour, I was ready to pack up camp and hit the road with all the rage I could muster. I was pissed. But after taking a few moments to really assess the situation, I settled down and made the best of what I was dealt. I'll be on my way back to Mammoth Cave National Park now, maybe take in a bike ride. Either way, I'll have had a great day. I'll have an even better one tomorrow.