published 16th of june, 2022
After Nashville was a real highlight, we left Tennessee for Kentucky with a bit of nostalgia. Mammoth Cave National Park was our destination.
I have to admit some national parks are overrated, this one is definitely one of them for me. Maybe it's because I can't see everything due to accessibility. The park basically offered cave tours, which were created for wheelchair users, but the website said that the elevator that goes into the caves has been out of service since August 2021 due to technical difficulties. Great thing, isn't it? However, I always try to make the best of it. I therefore decided on a designated wheelchair-friendly trail. Sebastian would now say it was nothing more than a walk through the forest, which could also have been at home with us. In a way I have to agree with him... I don't like doing it and very rarely! 😉 At least you don't see that many curious squirrels and deer here.
We didn't stay long in the park as the actual attraction (the caves) was out of my reach. So we drove around the national park, because the ferry, which would have taken us out of the park in the shortest possible time, no longer ran in the evening. On Google Maps I had seen a parking lot at a dam. There were still a few cars with their boat trailers there, but the space was big enough and I thought we wouldn't bother anyone there. There was also no prohibition sign. Nevertheless, at half past ten someone knocked on the bus door and said we mustn't stay there. Since I was already in bed, Seb' said I should just lie there. I gave him the address of the alternative place to stay I had originally planned, Blue Holler Offroad Park. I could tell the route was off-road, but my mattress cushioned it so well that the next morning I went to the Hellen was very surprised by the extreme mogul slope.
Both at night and in the early morning we had the feeling of being in the middle of the race track. Dirt bikes and quads circled around us. To be honest, I was a little jealous. The next morning I would have loved to explore the slopes with an off-road rental, but unfortunately the things could be driven with foot pedals. So we continued the journey to real horsepower. We drove to "Double J Stables". I hoped to go horseback riding. But it was the weekend and the tour had been booked out for weeks. At least we were allowed to look around a bit before we drove on.
On the way I looked out for the next "Harvesthost", again very rural and quiet.
The hostess came to say hello on her quad shortly after we arrived and invited us to visit the gift shop on her other farm (about 5 miles away), which we scheduled for the next morning. When evening came, we only had company from our friends the glow worms ("Fireflies or Lightningbugs"). In the morning we drove to the farm with the stables.
We made acquaintance with the horses, dogs, cats and the pig. And of course the young girls (of different ages) who attended the summer riding camp.
For the sake of decency we then wanted to go to the gift shop. He was housed in a small house with a few steps. I told Seb' to go in by himself, but he meant well and asked a member of staff to help get me in. To be honest, it wasn't important to me to get in there and I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything inside. My feeling was right. For the sake of decency we took beer cheese and a pack of "hot chocolate" with us - completely overpriced. It happened when I was carrying it out, the employee had trouble holding the wheelchair and I crashed my back and head on the concrete slab at the end of the steps. Not only did it hurt a lot, I was also annoyed because it wasn't worth it at all and I didn't have a good feeling carrying it in. The rest of the day didn't really get any better either. As we continued north, it got cooler and rainier.
I actually wanted to go to Hocking Hills State Park but it rained all day and we decided to skip it and looked for a parking space nearby. My choice fell on Lake Logan with parking right on the water.
That evening I dug a sweater out of my clothes for the first time in weeks.
