We left Natural Bridge State Park on a rainy morning. Better to have the rain when we drive than on a day off! And isn’t a rainy day a good excuse to find some tasty pastries and tea? We found just the place in Lexington, KY – European Delights Gourmet Bakery. And we got extra pastries for tomorrow morning!

Driving through Lexington brought us past beautiful, picture-perfect farms. We didn’t see many horses, but I bet those huge, pristine barns were full of them. We weren’t far from Louisville – maybe we should have stayed for the Derby. Perhaps another year.

Our mid-day stop today was Mammoth Cave National Park. This cave system truly is mammoth! There are over 400 miles of connected caves, and more areas continue to be discovered. We took a 2 hour tour and got to see some of the most prominent features. Unlike our kayak tour, there were over 100 folks on this tour. They offer about 10 different tours with many departure times throughout the day – and they were sold out for the day (luckily, we had reserved tickets ahead of time). The cave system is on multiple levels. As the nearby river continued to erode the earth, the water in the caves would drain through a lower level, leaving the upper chambers dry. Our tour took us to a depth of over 300 feet. Tours have been given in the cave for over 100 years, and those early tours were by oil lanterns and lasted 8-16 hours. They didn’t have the smooth walkways that exist today, so there was a lot of scrambling over the rocks. The guide at the back carried a large pack and halfway through the tour would lay out a large picnic for the group. It sounds fun to me!

We settled into our campsite in Paducah for the next 2 nights. This is an urban campsite – a small family run business. We can hear the highway and some noises of the city, but it’s a good spot to let us explore Paducah. Tomorrow’s highlight will be the National Quilt Museum. Stay tuned!