Spelunked

Yesterday Ken did an advanced rider course and I failed to get anything noteworthy accomplished. I did tweak and mail a short story, and work out (in our room, with exercise bands), but no significant writing. It didn’t help that Ernie and Pauline had shown up late the night before and on Tuesday joined me in the suite and then dragged me off to lunch. Ken’s course finished early, and we eventually all toddled off to a group CCR dinner, after which Ken and Ernie wandered off for a bit while Pauline and I came back to the suite and continued drinking…

Today Ken and I had a leisurely morning (shall we say), then finally forced ourselves out to explore. We went to Ha Ha Tonka State Park, where we explored castle ruins, hiked under a natural bridge and to a cave entrance, and watched a hawk (or possibly a turkey vulture) soar lazily overhead. Then we collected Ernie and Pauline and went to Bridal Cave, one of the area’s biggest caverns. While we were waiting in the gift shop (where I bought an adorable little faerie tree made out of amethyst chips) to start our tour, the sky glowered and darkened, lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and suddenly there was a deluge so strong we couldn’t see the other side of the cove. The little hummingbird outside the window vanished somewhere safe as giant drops of rain and even a bit of hail swept by. Glorious!

Then we spelunked our way into the cave, where we saw the most adorable little bat and of course wandered through all sorts of gorgeous cave rooms. I love caverns. Our tour guide was pretty funny, too. I think our favorite part was when he turned out all the lights so we could experience real, full dark…and when the lights came back on, Ken and were caught kissing. :-)

Our tour guide had said the storm would be past by the time we finished our tour, and sure enough, the sun was back out—and ‘though it was still pretty humid, it was noticeably cooler (thank goodness!). We stumbled upon a German restaurant near the cavern and had a lovely meal (I went for weinerschitzel and spätzel and a glass of Chardonnay), picked up some more groceries, and now we’re hanging out in the suite drinking (is this becoming a theme?) and geeking out on various computers. Although I just made Pauline laugh so hard her face got as red as the sunburn on her chest. Go me!