Not so good caving trip

Today was caving day.  I'd been waiting for quite a while.  I had also been planning this trip for a while.  Several times I thought about whether or not is was worth trying to continue as it was such a pain to put together and my drivers came and went.  But, finally the night before everything seemed to be good.  We met down at the Facilities Barn and we got a late start.  But we eventually got to the mouth of the cave a little after 11.

We made good progress working our way through.  We got to the upper level and soon turned onto the passage to go to the Art Room. 

                                (Esther, Elizabeth [Daniel's sister] and Jason as we stopped to wait for others in the passage to the Art Room)

We stopped and ate lunch close to the Art Room.  I thought beforehand it would be a good place to eat as we are surrounded by cool formations.  After we were done eating Ben and I did a little exploring while the others talked.  Then, when we came back somebody started singing Amazing Grace and we turned out all our lights.  Then we had fun throwing glow sticks up into the air.  After that we continued on.  It didn't take long to reach the Art Room.

                                            (One of the pillars in the Art Room)
I always enjoy seeing the lines of calcium pillars sticking up out of the ground.  But my favorite is probably the gypsum formation that is towards the back.

It was about this time that I could see a couple of the girls, more noticeably, Megan, were getting really tired.  On the way back out, and after we had exited out of the "mini-canyon" we stopped and she asked me how much longer it would take us to get out.  I told her about 45 minutes.  I felt bad about it.  Every time we would stop she would sit down and want to sleep.  I had thought it wouldn't be a tough trip as I cut it down to visiting the bare minimum because I wanted it to be easy.  But I guess it was tough for her.

We continued on, stopping periodically.  When we were about halfway through the midsection by-pass The group behind us stopped.  Lydia had hurt her ankle.  So that delayed our getting out by a long time.  Daniel and Ben slowly helped her out.  I felt pretty useless as all I could do was show them the way out and find the easiest way down for Lydia.  I almost feel like it was my fault she got hurt if I had just went slower and told them to be more careful.  Esther had an extra shirt, and Daniel tried tying that around Lydia's ankle, but that wasn't enough.  So I gave up my coat and that did the trick.  It was the best foot support Daniel could devise.  But we finally got out and Daniel insisted I take a picture of him, Ben, and Lydia.

(Our group, left to right: Megan, Jason, Joel, Hannah, Esther, Elizabeth, Ben, Lydia, Daniel)

Well, we finally got back to the cars.  Daniel, Ben, and I ran off into the woods to change.  Then we loaded up.  Daniel and his carful took off.  I had been riding with others in Megan's car.  Well, I told her to turn right but I guess she didn't here.  Joel repeated to go right instead of left and Megan turned around.  it just so happen when she turned around she ran over a little sign that was on the ground.  Joel got out to see if anything had happened.  It turned out, a long metal rod from the sign went straight through her tire.  I got out and looked at it, and then told Megan to pop the trunk.  I dug out the spare tire, lug wrench, and jack.  I spent the next 15 minutes changing Megan's tire, with Joel helping me.  The jack was a pain, though.  it was poorly designed.  You could not hardly turn the jack handle to screw it up as the handle kept running into the ground.  And it didn't help the car was real low.  While I worked with the jack, Joel used the end of the lug wrench to dig out under the tire. 

We finally got the tire changed, and got the tools put away.  For once in my life, I felt useful and I was glad to help Megan out, especially with her being exhausted.  And she really appreciated it.  But anyway, that was our caving trip that didn't turn out too good.