Thursday, May 21, 2009

Floyd Collins

Update: After posting about that Floyd Collins note, I discovered that it was left by my mom and dad's neighbor, who is a caver. She heard me mention going to Mammoth Cave and she works downtown too and saw our car. I was freaked out that someone was reading my mind as I had been looking into a trip down there the day she left the note.

We were originally supposed to head down to Cave City in March but decided to wait for when our friends could board their puppy and stay the whole weekend. The chance came up this past weekend, and we made sure to visit Floyd Collins. I bought a book about him in the Mammoth Cave gift shop and I'm sucked in. It's such an interesting story and I find myself wanting to get right back in the car to go explore the various places mentioned.

If you want to visit his grave, the smart thing to do is go buy your cave tour tickets--if it's a fairly busy day, you'll be on a tour later than your purchase time and you'll have an hour or so to kill. Perfect. Simply turn right out of the main parking lot and you'll see a gate on the left--turn there and keep driving (and goodness, watch out for turkeys) and you'll eventually come across Mammoth Cave Baptist Church. Floyd's grave is in the front near the church. Take a little gift--his grave is covered with them and many cavers stop to ask his blessing and leave an offering before descending.

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