Campground Culture

Camping here at Indian Lakes RV Resort, in Batesville, Indiana, got me thinking about something that we rarely consider, but something that is nevertheless very real-- campground culture.

Every campground has its own sort of culture that defines it. Some campgrounds are rustic and quiet and great for relaxing in. Some campgrounds are primarily parking lots for your RV while you go to amusement parks or other points of interest. Their sites are tiny and crowded and you may find yourself trying not to stare into your neighbor's window. But you don't mind too much because you're not there for the park ambiance anyway. One park we've been to in Florida has a decidedly French culture-- it is the main winter get-away for our French Canadian friends. One park we stayed at in the Spokane area was, we quickly discovered, a weekend party park for the locals. We won't be going back there. Ever.

Indian Lakes also has a culture. I will call it a "suburban golf cart" culture, for lack of a better name. It is a very large well-kept park, something more akin to a sprawling neighborhood. The roads are all beautifully blacktopped with no annoying potholes. We found what we initially thought was a great pull-through spot on a corner. Before very long, we realized that we were on the hub of a literal parade route. Yes, every Saturday evening at 7:30 everyone who owns a golf cart or ATV climbs in their little vehicle, cranks up their music, and drives around the park, right past our site, and around, and back again. It's quite a sight.

If that were the only parade, it wouldn't be an issue. Might even be fun. But the reality is, these cart-drivers start up in the early afternoon, driving around for no apparent reason but to drive around, many with their music in loud "share" mode, and it keeps on going like this until more or less "quiet time," which is 11:00 p.m. It's worse on the weekend, and I'm writing this on Memorial Day weekend, which might possibly be worse in that it's an extra day longer. 

Sunday afternoon in the neighborhood

The bathhouse and laundry in the center of the hub

Our spot on the crossroads

If this is the kind of thing that draws you, you'll love this place. I'm sure the people are friendly, though I haven't met any of them. I own I'm a bit of an introvert and not much of a party animal, so I've kept (and will continue to keep) pretty much to myself during our two week stay. (We leave on Friday.)

On Tuesday, Mark and I will check out the swimming pool, which opened this weekend. No way I'm going over there until the crowd clears out.

I can't really give the place "bad marks," because it's really all about the culture. Apparently there's no shortage of campers who love this particular culture. You may, too. My idea of happy camping is a bit quieter. If we ever do come back, we'll know better and look for a more out of the way spot off the parade route. 

Have a blessed week and safe travels!

Exploring the Caverns at Mammoth Cave National Park

Mammoth Cave National Park has about 420 miles of explored cave tunnels. They estimate there are likely another 400 miles yet undiscovered.

Mark and I walked about three of those miles.

We took two of the several tours the Park offers. The first, "Gothic Avenue Tour," began at the historic natural cave entrance and showed us the main tunnels that began as a saltpeter mine in the early 1,800's. (Saltpeter was used in the making of gun powder.) 

In those days, the Cavern was privately owned and was managed primarily for monetary gain. That included tours, almost right away upon its discovery. Nobody really cared about preservation, and lots of things were allowed that would be considered criminal today. In those tunnels, the workers and visitors both added to and subtracted from the natural surroundings. They loved to paint their names and visitation dates on the ceiling and walls, and build "memorial" rock pilings to commemorate certain places. We found a stone memorial to Minnesota, among other places. They also took memorabilia in the form of broken off stalactites, which can be seen as cave damage in some places.

Mammoth Cave joined the national park system in 1926 and was protected from that time forward from any further ransacking. 

The "Gothic Avenue Tour" was a three mile round trip but more or less a flat walk.

Our second tour was the "Domes and Dripstones" tour. It was my favorite of the two. This one took us down narrow passages and many, many stairs to about 250 feet underground, ending in a cavern named "Frozen Niagara." Fortunately, the trip back up took the incline in smaller increments, giving us plenty of time to recover between each set of stairs or ramps. Still, my legs felt the exercise the next day!

If we ever get a chance to come back again, there will still be plenty to see. 

Before we explored Mammoth Caves, we hopped across the road from our campground and took a tour at Diamond Caverns, which is a separate cave system from Mammoth-- at least there's currently no known connecting tunnel. In fact there are several separate caves in the vicinity, though we didn't get an opportunity to visit any others.

Diamond Caverns is what's referred to as a "wet cave," which means it is still forming. Most of Mammoth Caves are "dry." Finished. Dead. At Diamond Caverns, they are so particular about keeping the cave from human touch that we were forbidden to bring in anything but our own bodies...and a camera. No bags, no walking sticks, nothing that might inadvertently bump against the cavern walls. This tour took about an hour, but was only about a half mile of walking-- mostly standing around listening to the tour guide chatter about the history of it.

We had a great time here at the Diamond Caverns RV Resort. Between the caves and Bowling Green, there's plenty to see and do. We'll certainly come back again if we get the chance.

I've dumped all my pictures below for the curious. This silly blog downloads pictures in reverse order, so for the best viewing, I recommend you start at the bottom and work your way back up.

As always, until next time, safe travels to all!

Domes and Dripstones exit door

Mammoth Domes & Dripstones (D&D)

Mammoth D&D

Mammoth D&D - that's a pool at the bottom

Mammoth D&D - going down to the "Frozen Niagara" formations

Mammoth D&D

Frozen Niagara formations

More of the Frozen Niagara

More Frozen Niagara

Mammoth D&D - many of the passages
were quite narrow.  We had to squeeze
around this rock.

Mammoth D&D - Watch your head!

Mammoth D&D - heading up again

Mammoth D&D - "Grand Central Station" - our first
rest stop after the long decent.

Mammoth D&D - Fish graffiti

Mammoth D&D - looking down.

Mammoth D&D - down, down, down

The unremarkable entrance to the Mammoth D&D

Mammoth Domes & Dripstones tour starts with a short
bus ride

This is the natural entrance (in this case, exit)
to Mammoth Cave

Gothic Avenue tour - The Minnesota Monument

Gothic Avenue (GA) monument and graffiti

GA - "Devil's Armchair" formation

GA - "Loaded Camel" formation

Old sign in Gothic Avenue

Gothic Avenue formation (forgot the name)

GA - nameless formation, different view

GA - leaving their mark

GA - much of the passages looked like this

Gothic Avenue ceiling

GA - Saltpeter mining

GA - Looking back at the natural entrance

Coming down into the natural cave entrance
for the Gothic Avenue tour

Diamond Caverns ceiling formations

Diamond Cavern used to be a popular wedding venue

Diamond Cavern formations

Diamond Cavern - See the damage above -- this was part of
a cave tours "war" where competing cave owners would
come in and do deliberate damage to make their opponents'
caves less interesting.

Diamond Cavern - this formation is called "cave bacon"

Diamond Cavern - "popcorn" ceiling

Diamond Cavern - more "cave bacon"

Diamond Cavern formations

Diamond Cavern formations

Entrance to Diamond Cavern

Mark's Day Out

Our spot at Diamond Caverns RV Park

After leaving Alabama, we headed north to Park City, Kentucky, to the Diamond Caverns RV Resort, just inside the border of Mammoth Caverns National Park. The Diamond Caverns RV Resort is a Thousand Trails park situated right across the road from the actual Diamond Cavern, which we visited earlier this week. I'll post about it next time.

For reasons which escape me, it took us a full week after landing in Park City to get out and do anything. And we decided to start our excursions with two places that interested Mark very much and me very little. Not one to waste money on things I don't really enjoy, we decided that Mark would have a more enjoyable time without me than with me, so he took a "boy trip" to Bowling Green to look at cars and trains.

His first stop was the National Corvette Museum, where he got to see Corvettes, old and new, and discover some of this iconic vehicle's history.

From there he stopped over to the Historic Rail Park & Train Museum, where he got to see, touch, hear and explore important railroad artifacts of this region’s heritage.

An enjoyable day was had by all. 

The rest of Mark's photo's are posted below. I'll make this short, but more adventures will follow in a few days

May God keep you in his care.