We woke up Sunday and showered and packed. Beverly left for church a bit before we left, so we said our goodbyes to her, with the sincere hope of seeing her again soon. We packed the car during intermittent heavy downpours, and drove off in them as well. That lasted about an hour before we drove out of them. From then on, we had smooth driving. Except for the signs to Mammoth Cave. I kept seeing them, and I kept checking on our time, and I decided we had time to check out a cave. So, I pulled into Mammoth Cave National Park, but we stopped at the first cave we came to – the Diamond Caverns. It was smaller, and so could be toured in one hour, which was appealing, since we were on a schedule.

We were on a tour with about twenty people. The path through the cave is paved with concrete, and there are steps for most places with an elevation change. There were a few low spots, but only low enough to make me stoop, and one tight squeeze. The only downside to the tour was the size of the group – with so many people strung out along the path, it was sometimes hard to hear.

The cave was called the Diamond Caverns because the first people to explore it mistakenly thought they saw diamonds in the cave. It has no mineral value at all, but is an interesting cave full of beautiful stone formations. The guide did turn off the lights for us to simulate what would happen if your candle went out back before there were lights, and it is always shocking at how dark dark can be. If your candle did go out, your only option was to wait for the next tour, which might be one to three days in coming. Yikes.

The cave was about a ninety-minute detour in all, but I’m glad to have done it. It was a good stop, and interesting, and it broke up the drive some. We drove for another few hours, stopped for a light lunch at one of the now ubiquitous Cracker Barrels, and we ended up pulling on to my sister’s street just as she and the whole family came back from their walk. That was good timing.

Sunday evening was spent in unpacking the car and then playing with the kids, who are six and three. I also made myself a small supper of grilled cheese. My niece showed me and Mer her room, and then I read her a story, and she went to bed. My nephew was mostly asleep by that time, so we headed back downstairs to the living room. There, the adults all talked and puttered before going to bed ourselves.

In the morning, I saw my niece to the bus, and then went running. There is a fairly new river walk in Tuscaloosa, and running from the house, along the whole river walk, and back to the house was a little more than five miles. By the time I got back, my sister was just leaving with my nephew to take him to daycare. Since Kelly works from home and had a lot of work to do, Mer and I decided to have a mellow day to stay out of the way. I walked to the store to lay in supplies, and then I made cookies. I later discovered that Kelly had given up chocolate for Lent. Oops. Mer graded all day, and made good progress on that. I sneaked in a nap, and so was pretty well rested by the time I went to meet my niece getting off the bus. We played together for much of the evening – doing an “invisible ink” puzzle book Mer and I had bought for her, and then I chased her around while she rode her bike. We finished the evening by reading another story together, and then she went to bed.

I followed not too far behind since Mer and I had planned a tourism day for Tuesday. Mer stayed up and graded a little more, and joined me at some point during the night.