LOST!

No, we didn't get lost and it has nothing to do with the tv show we have never seen. But yesterday's (Monday's) destination was The Lost Sea Adventure in Sweetwater, TN.

We began our tour by entering a bright yellow tunnel that led us downhill into a cave. Our tour guide pointed out typical cave formations as we continued walking down about 3/4 mile. There are various lights throughout the cave and interestingly, there are ferns growing around all the artificial lights. They are the result of spores and seeds that have come into the cave on people's clothing and shoes and have settled near the lights, which are on about 12 hours a day. This gives the cave tour somewhat of a "Disneyland" feel to it, but it is still authentic.

During the early 1900's, the cave was home to an underground bar (The Cavern Tavern). Three dance floors and live music made it a rollicking time for locals. Oh, and they also made moonshine...imagine that. There is evidence that during the Civil War, soldiers mined the cave for saltpeter.

But what does a cave have to do with a sea? Well, the last part of the tour is a glass-bottom boat ride on America's largest underground lake...about three football fields in size. It is pretty cool, and according to the younger members of our family, a little scary, too. It would make a neat movie set, and was considered for the second National Treasure movie according to our tour guide. And how was it lost? About a hundred years ago, a young boy exploring the cave crawled through an opening and found himself knee deep in water. He tried to figure out how much water there was, but there seemed to be no end to it. He finally crawled out again and started telling people about it. That small opening could not be found again for over sixty years although people looked. When it was found, the boy was grown up into his 70's and was given credit for finding the lake.

We enjoyed this outing very much, although it was evident that the kids were beginning to not feel so great. In fact, for one of our sweeties, more than footprints were left behind (was that too much info???). We still had about a hundred miles to cover to reach the cabin, so we got on our way. We decided to take a lovely road called the Cherohala Skyway over the Appalachian Mountains and we were so glad we did. The scenery was incredible, and like much of this trip so far, we mostly had the road to ourselves. There were all kinds of trails that just beckoned for further exploration. I think some of us will be back again someday.