Day 2

We began the day by going to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, which is so mammoth that you could put the national debt in it. Neither one of us had done any cave stuff since our childhood, so it was fun. We learned that the bats around that part of the country are in trouble due to a type of fungus that is spreading and killing them off. This isn't good because bats eat millions of mosquitos every night. So save a bat.
We then took some pictures of Fort Knox from the outside - billions of dollars of gold is there. Getting in is about as hard as breaking in to Fort Knox - it is closed to the public.

Next we went to the George Patton and tank warfare museum near Fort Knox. We found it really interesting. There must have been 100 killing machine tanks from all the wars from WWI to our present struggles. As I walked around, I kept thinking that God would certainly prefer for our knowledge and expertise to go toward other causes than in devising various ways to kill each other. But it was still something to see and read about all the many people who have fought to protect our country through the years - including the present day.

Next we went to the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum in Louisville. We watched bats being shaped from maple or ash wood in 30 seconds. We took some pictures of the largest bat in the world - it stands 120 feet high out front of the museum and is a replica of a Babe Ruth bat. I had my picture taken with a real bat used by Mickey Mantle and Pee Wee had one taken with a Johnny Bench bat. So today we saw tiny bats that move on their own and large wooden ones that people swing.

We finished the day in French Lick, Indiana. We stayed at a hotel that has a water slide park. We did a lot of water slides which was fun, but I made it a point to not call Steve by his nickname Pee Wee - somehow two men together at a water slide park, with one of them going by the name Pee Wee, in a town named French Lick ... I think I will elaborate no further.

Good Deeds: We had one big one and one small one. Near Fort Knox, we were on a road with a lot of traffic lights and a lot of lunchtime traffic. We were moving very slowly and saw a wreck maybe ten car lengths in front of us. Traffic was barely moving and three women were standing by the two vehicles. I got out and walked up and asked if they needed help. Pee Wee started directing traffic and got it moving better. Nobody was hurt - it was just a fender bender, but the two fenders were locked around each other and neither car could move. Pee Wee walked up with me and between him, me and a fireman who just arrived, we were able to move the cars around just right to get them apart. We got back in our truck, they moved their cars off the road, and traffic started moving. We felt good about that one. The other one was minor, but we are still counting it. When we were going down the water slides, we would leave from a platform that had 4 different starting points for 4 different slides. There was one lifeguard up there who would send the various rides off. Once he pushed a little too hard and flew off down the slide himself. That was pretty funny, but several of the kids on the platform started to take it as an opportunity to stampede the slides. We restored order until the embarassed life guard made his way back up the ladder.

We are probably heading in the direction of Illinois and Iowa tomorrow ... good night from French Lick - home of Larry Bird.