Spelunking

Blasting my CDs (never had a CD player before in a car) along the highway, I finally decided I'd stop and take a peek at a cave I hadn't been to before. There are certainly enough to go around in this part of the world, and heavens-be should I miss one. So I pulled off onto a little bumply road and drove awhile until I found myself at Onondaga State Cave Park.

It was Very hot, and I nearly ran right over the parking curbstone, still being rather pooped. Finding it a little hard to focus, but under the circumstances that seemed understandable. Tired, long drive, bright light. Figured I'd look around the gift shop and the exhibits and then decide in my sweet time if it was worthwhile taking the tour.

It was cool inside, but a tour was gathered to go right then, so I had to decide pronto or wait an hour or two. I think there was only one tour left after this one anyway, so I thought whattheheck and whipped out a ten for the tour and was shuttled into a waiting room, last body for the show. There was a little film and we were told to use the facilities now or forever hold our...bladders...since it was about an hour's walk and no plumbing and they didn't take kindly to people being innovative about that sort of thing down there. A couple of men ran out and came back before I could even weigh the matter, and the guide came in and hustled us off to the cave. I forgot (dumb for someone who has been in as many caves as I have) that sweaters are a wise fashion choice when going into a cave. I mean, it was soooo hot outside, the asphalt was sizzling, so it was understandable to forget such a thing. So it got rather cool, but then, the exercise of a long, zippy walk kept me from getting cold enough to notice. Humid, yes, since it was a living cave (wet).

G ood opportunity to attempt more Pictures in the Dark/low-light shots. Never really could get anything with the Minolta, at least not much. Since we had to walk fast and it is hard to aim and walk in the dark where you've never trodden before, I didn't have a lot of luck with the digital, either. At least until I figured out the right buttons. However, art programs can provide a lot of light where there was none in the original shot, so I did get some results.

S ome better than others.

Very fuzzy stalagmite. (You didn't know they were fuzzy?)

Better shot. Looks like a rocket!

All the same, not quite getting the walking, climbing, listening, focusing and shooting thing coordinated too well...

However, I'm nothing if not persistent when learning something.

I started getting somewhere when I started fiddling with the settings. Duh. Got a decent shot of this pair of cones...(or were they Shmoos?).

Still, you can't move in low-light without getting the shaky blurs, mutter. This one I call Cousin It.

Now this one is structures of a cave wall, entirely black (no flash and too little light)...but gamma'd up to the hilt. Just to prove the lens was aiming at Something, lol.

This kind of flowstone stalactite structure always reminds me of mammoth teeth or something.

More flowing rock...

Sometimes I could stand still a moment, and accidentally got on a useful setting! Didn't disturb any bats with flash, but there were a few pipistrelles or little browns around, trying to nap over the entry door. Most of the ones down here are the Mexican freetails, but as little tiny blobs in the dark at a distance, it's a moot point anyway. Unless you're one of the bats, of course.

Putting it through the floor on IH-44

I didn't want to waste all my shots on dead critters before I even got to where I was going, not knowing how many shots really fit on a card or how long the battery would last, etc. Seemed like the camera might be nearing a need for a feed, soon. But I did want to play with it as much as possible to get a feel for what it could do, so I took a few more potshots at the permanently posed. Here's a lazy mountain lion, icon of my town.

Helped an elk get a drink. I'm always pretty thirsty myself. Saw some live ones along HI-7 last trip, but nothing so large on this year's drive.

The deer against the computer station just struck me as...weird. So naturally I had to take a picture of it.

And finally I played around with the juxtaposition of Nature and Technology. I'm all about visual humor and the oblique. Forgive me.

Eventually I decided I'd had enough and needed to get moving. Probably got an icy drink or something somewhere; definitely got back on the highway and headed east across Missouri.

Always liked the idea of living in Missouri; then I could tell people I lived in a State of Misery. Of course real Missourians say "Mizzura," which spoils the pun right there.

My great-grandmother, a teacher and school principal among other things (so she should know better, right?) hailed from there and always said it that way. Drove me nuts. LOL

My next quest, besides keeping awake and not going blind in the morning sun, was figuring out what I could do that would be different on this trip (having a habit of making regular stops at certain places much of the time, and wanting to see new things). Usually stopped around Merimec Caverns (if only to give a passing nod to my naughty kin, the James boys) and St. Louis, but I've done Merimec the last several times and it would be too late to enjoy St. Louis by the time I got there, if I made any other stops, anyway. And I needed to keep in mind the fact that I really ought to find a motel this evening, something I'd really never done myself before. I think the only places I'd ever personally procured were a hotel in Vegas and a hostel in San Francisco, and only because I was with a friend and both situations were unusually affordable. My parents always car-camped so I learned to do the same thing in my travelling. Nothing unusual about it at all. But I suppose there comes an age when the allure of showers and beds are hard to ignore versus the creaks and cricks of a body subjected to cramped upholstery. I'm getting there.