Final station stop: Kentucky

Aug 20-24 Kentucky

Drove to Kentucky to stay at Yogi Bears Jellystone Park for a few days - our last destination for exploring. After this, we are making a run for the border to head home. The park was great - tons of stuff for the kids, not to mention photo ops with the statue of Yogi (amazing what a thrill even that is for them). Cindy Bear and Boo Boo (for all you Yogi fans) were also on hand in costume for the kids to meet. Aside from a pool, this place also had a great water slide - so much fun! The girls thought it was fantastic - Megan’s first time on a water slide. She looked so tiny shooting down all by herself - very cute. We even watched a movie outside one night - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp - I loved that book as a kid!


Mammoth National Park was our first place to investigate, as it has the worlds largest cave system - over 365 miles of surveyed passages (geologists guess there might be an additional 600 miles yet to explore!). A public attraction since 1812, this park is now a World Heritage Site - pretty impressive.
We took two separate ranger-led tours with each showcasing a different and unique section of the caves. The first caves were unbelievable in the sheer size of these underground “rooms” - absolutely massive. The temperature went from being around 90 degrees on the surface to 54 degrees in the cave - natural air conditioning! As we entered the cave, about 20 yards in was called the “Twilight Zone”. This was the point in the cave where natural light from the surface will no longer reach - from here you need to have an alternate light source. Only 20 yards in! As we walked back through the caves on our way out, the lights were on a system to go out behind us. You want to see PITCH BLACKNESS, that’s the place to go - wow. Let’s just say that kept the stragglers in the group moving quickly forward to keep up.

The second tour took us in a different entrance to the caves, and gave us an incredible display of formations. The rest of the system had no water running through it so interestingly had no formations, whereas this section was just the opposite. As we crouched through tunnels and climbed stairs, we were surrounded by mystical looking stalagmites and stalagtites, columns, “cave bacon” (they really looked like bacon strips!), “drapes” and so many more. One of the most impressive formations was the Frozen Niagara - truly looked like a rock version of cascading water. This underground world didn’t even seem real - I half expected to turn a corner and see Yoda sitting there watching us.

Before leaving the park, the girls were awarded their Junior Ranger badges for completing their work books. They beamed as Ranger David handed them their badges and them announced in a loud voice to the entire visitor center that they had two new rangers, which prompted applause from all the rangers. Pretty cool for the divas. Driving back out of the park we saw lots of deer, TONS of butterflies, and even a wild turkey.

The next day we headed to a water park for the day to cool off.
A splash pad, lazy river, wave pool, and best of all (for the biggest kid - AJ) three huge water slides. He managed to convince Megan to go down one with him, but Emily and I were not interested. Give me a death-defying roller coaster any day, but water slides make me nervous - who knows why... Megan had fun going down once but wouldn’t do it again, so we left AJ to play on the slides on his own. Apparently one of them was fully enclosed and pitch dark all the way down...yeah, that sounds fun...?? I think I’d be in a full panic attack by the time I shot out the bottom. To each his own, eh? The girls and I watched a magic show, and would you believe Emily got up on stage to be an assistant! Bold move for Em - I was really proud of her. She was thrilled when she was given a magician’s wand as her prize for helping out...which of course prompted an ocean of tears from Megan who wanted one. You can’t win, can you?

Editor's note: Due to AJ sporting a Speedo at the park, no photos beyond this one were knowingly taken ... (there was nowhere for him to keep the camera was the excuse).








The other part of the park was all the rides, and we lucked out that this part of the park was virtually empty. The girls went on tons of rides and mostly were the only ones on them - when does that ever happen? Emily and AJ ventured onto a rickety roller coaster, only to find that it was brutally rough and Em ended up with a huge scrape and bruise down her arm - nice. Really gave her that child-abuse victim look - just what we were going for. Luckily the rest of the kiddie rides were gentle, so her confidence was restored. AJ and I even took turns riding a huge wooden roller coaster that was AWESOME!!
(Wade - if the Disney Yeti ride made your heart race, this one would have stopped it completely...)

The final site to explore here in Kentucky was the Makers Mark whisky distillery - you can guess who put this on the list of things to see. A scenic drive took us there - to the world’s oldest operating bourbon whisky distillery (built in 1805 originally as a gristmill distillery). This area is known as the “Bourbon Trail” as there are so many distilleries you can tour. We had a great tour through this one, and learned the history and step by step production of the Maker’s Mark product. The Samuels family had been making whisky since 1780, when the current President’s father decided to create a whole new recipe in the early ‘50‘s. Instead of using rye as most other whisky’s do, he replaced it with soft red winter wheat for a gentler taste. The end result was the Maker’s Mark product - distributed worldwide from this tiny distillery in the countryside. The tour ended with AJ dipping his own bottle into the signature red wax that Maker’s Mark bottles are known for.

We even managed to have a campfire on this last stop of the trip, as the evening temperature finally dropped enough to stand it. With the evening temp being in the hundreds over the last few weeks, it was not even conceivable to have a fire - ugh. I must admit, I wanted one last chance to cook a s’more and watch the flames - all part of the camping experience. We had some wildlife hanging around the fire with us, however not what you’d expect. A bunch of cats roamed the campground, and came to hang out with us, as well as four ducks that patrolled the area. Here we were, sitting around with a couple of cats stretched out to relax, and four ducks all snuggled down for the night with their bills tucked in...two feet from our fire. Quite the scene.

One final update on our escaped convicts...they are “escaped” no more. The guy and his fiancee/cousin were captured, so that puts an end to that saga.
From here we head north through Ohio all the way home - just stopping for the night once on the way. By dinner time tomorrow, we will be happily back in our house with Cooper prancing around - we’ve missed our furry four-legged boy!

What a trip this has been - so many things we’ve experienced and amazing that we’ve had this time together. As much as we are definitely ready to be home, I feel so lucky that the twists of life allowed us to steal this window of time to have a Sparkes family adventure.

Thanks for joining us as we chronicled the journey.