Eighteen, Nineteen

I just blatantly did not learn anything yesterday. I was really sick. So here's a thing for Wednesday and a thing for Thursday:

Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the most extensive cave system known in the world. THE WHOLE WORLD. I went there when I was probably 9 or so, but I would like to go again. The Mammoth Cave National Park is almost 53,000 acres; there are at least 367 miles of passageways in the cave. Apparently the cave is also home to an endangered, sightless, albino shrimp species. Hee! That's funny. There is one part of the cave known as Fat Man's Misery which is really narrow and hard to get through. I remember going through there and thinking the name was funny when I was a kid. Wouldn't it be cool to like live down there, in the cave, for as long as you could until you got caught? No, I bet there's horrible bugs down there.

On a similar note, I also learned about the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia; another touristy place in redneck country that I have been to. It is a 3,030 foot long steel arch bridge that goes over the New River. You have probably seen a picture of it. I remember being told that it was the longest bridge of that type in the world, but as of 2003 it no longer is; one in Shanghai is 105 feet longer. There's a big festival on the third Saturday of every October called Bridge Day when the bridge is open to pedestrians and there's all kinds of festivities. They have BASE jumping off the bridge even though apparently somebody died doing that in '06. Maybe they'll change it...it looks like bungee jumping isn't allowed at all because of some accidents. I have been rafting in this area twice and seen the bridge twice. That is also something I might like to do again, although I think at this point that I would be too out of shape to paddle my own boat down the river. Sad. I also got the worst sunburn of my life while rafting in WV, which, if you've seen me, is saying a lot. I mean, it doesn't take much.