Author: Mike Pekrul

Late start today. Slept till almost 9. Crazy! I have not been able to do that for a long long time. I used to listen to people saying that at “a certain age”, sleep is no longer as important as it once was. I always thought that was BS, but the older I get, the…

Yesterday and today were moving days, getting from Cave City, Kentucky, to Geneva State Park, in Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie east of Cleveland. Hard to tell any difference between this shore and the coast out west. 😳 We were able to add two more states to our map on this trip. It…

The longest (public) tour in the longest cave. That has to be worth something too, right?? Today we went on the Grand Avenue Tour. Over 4 hours and more than 4 miles through the earth. This was our favorite tour, because it covers some of everything. Big tunnels. Tiny tunnels. Tall slot canyon tunnels, with…

The deepest point in the longest cave. That has to be worth something, experience-wise, right?? Today we went down deep, to the (currently) deepest (publicly accessible) point in the cave. So many disclaimers. The River Styx Tour. In 1989 or 1990, I was here and we went all the way down to the basement and…

Today’s tour of Mammoth Cave was the Star Chamber Lantern Tour. Most tours of this and other caves I’ve been in are all done with electric lights. Placed strategically around the passages, they light the way and highlight the features. Seeing where you’ve been and where you’re headed lets you feel the size (or lack…

Slept late. Woke up to Susanne and my birthday present from her. I’ve had a partial set of children’s books since I was quite young, inherited from family. Bomba The Jungle Boy, by Roy Rockwood. Kinda along the lines of Tarzan, the adventures of a young boy lost in the Amazon jungle, raised by natives…

In the words of the great Willie Nelson… “On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again.” Well, here we are. We left this morning at the “post-retirement” crack of dawn, 7:30am, and headed north (even if the interstate signs did say west). Six hours later, we arrived at our first…

They kicked us off the ship!! WTF! Some long excuse about our ticket ending and needing the cabin for the next paying customer. Blah blah blah, I wasn’t really paying attention. They gave us breakfast and sent us ashore. 😞 I do have to say, this was BY FAR the easiest time I’ve ever had…

Today we’re in Costa Maya, Mexico, aka Mahahual. Sort of. The ship is docked here, but we have no excursions booked, so rather than go to shore just for the privilege of buying overpriced made-in-china souvenirs, we just stayed on board. Susy lay in the sun for a bit and I parked it in the…

We went ashore today via tender, something I’ve never done before. The port of Belize City in… you guessed it, Belize, does not have facilities for cruise ships to dock, so they just anchor up a few miles from shore, and then a fleet of “small” boats come and take people to and from shore.…