The Mega Cavern

Today, we visited, according to TripAdvisor.com, the #1 Louisville attraction: the Mega Cavern.

It’s far more than a touring ride through a cave. (And by the way, do you know what the difference is between a cave and a cavern? A cave is nature-made; a cavern is man-made!) This is a historic limestone mine that’s now an entrepreneurial marvel. It has six zip lines, an aerial ropes challenge course, bike paths, document storage, car-RV-boat storage, as well as a tram tour.

In the gift shop, there were these unique, hand-made slingshots. I almost bought one, assuming they were locally made, until I flipped it over and saw “Made in China.“

These, I had no interest in buying.

The following sign apparently was in use back in the excavation days.

Fortunately, we didn’t hear a series of short, audible signals.

Here’s our tram, just before we boarded.

Before we came to Kentucky, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to wealthy, then we could buy-out an entire tour, and enjoy it all to ourselves.” Guess what actually happened? We were the only ones who booked this tour, so this ride was all ours!

This cavern was immense, with many huge, open spaces called rooms. There’s more than 4,000,000 square feet of space; 17-miles of passageways.

The following two panoramas are of one room.

There was a staged scene from the mining days…

…and an imagined set-up for a nuclear fallout shelter.

Here’s a description from their website: “During the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s, state officials made plans in case of nuclear attack to house 50,000 people in the cavern because it’s a natural bomb shelter.”

The Cavern has also hosted Christmas light shows in recent years. Some parts were left on for this tour.

There were huge salt piles stored here. The brown coating is cavern dust.

In the hallway from the parking lot to the cavern, the walls had many plaques of trivia.

It was a fascinating and unique experience!

Home

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We had a chance to dine at the delicious Feast BBQ restaurant. Tasty full-rack baby back ribs, collard greens, mac & cheese, and Mexican-style tacos.

https://www.feastbbq.com/

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At a nearby pond, I saw a really strange flying thing with what seemed to be four square black wings, flittering just above the water. When it landed on some brush, I rushed to get closer. Check it out.

When I used the camera zoom, the mystery was solved.