YOB: #15. Go To A Cave

By Beth

The weekend of August 7-8, 2009 was a busy one for the Robto Posse. Tea with scones, massage, fancy fast food and now, for your reading pleasure, the final chapter of that weekend...cave.

Really, on our list at number 15, it just said "cave." No details, locations or instructions. Just "cave." One could take this to mean we give in on an important issue, say, Equal Opportunity Public Toplessness (seriously, there's a group of women in Maine fighting for just that). Or it could mean building pillow/blanket caves all over Lara's house, not seeing the sunlight for days. Since we wrote the list long before the Year of the Birthday officially started, it would be entirely possible that we had forgotten by August what we meant by "cave." Luckily, we were only turning 30 and, for the most part, we still have all our faculties. We could remember that "cave" meant going on a guided tour of a cave. When we turn 40, however, it may be another story.

I was all for finding our own random cave and exploring on our own but Lara wasn't going for it. Having never been to a cave before, Lara was all about safety first. Sigh. I've been to caves, tons of times. My hair always comes out rather poofy because of the dampness but I love going. I've always had a thing for rocks. I had this purple rock throughout my childhood that was my prized possession. My brother used to try and steal it from me or trade me something for it until one day it mysteriously disappeared. I gave my mom rocks as gifts; not the run-of-the-mill dull kind, the sparkly, purpley, bluish kind. I love rocks and caves are full of them.
So I was excited for our trip to the cave (even thought it would be a guided tour) not just because of the rock thing but because it was another thing that I had done that Lara hadn't. That list grows shorter with each passing day. It may be down to one or two things at this point.

We made our way to Crystal Grotto, the cave Lara had chosen. It looked dinky. The caves I've been to are huge. 45 minute walking tour huge. Wear comfortable sneakers, you're going to be down here a while huge. Gift shops I could park my house in huge. Petting zoo huge. Mining area huge. Crystal Grotto had a "gift shop" that would fit in my car. I do not drive a mini-van or an SUV. The tour went in circles. I was slightly disappointed.

Still it was a cave and it counted on our list. And it was beautiful. I still can't get over how those men found their way through without electricity. It would be almost impossible! And scary. Hmmm...I'm starting to re-think that whole "find our own cave" idea.

Most of the pictures I took didn't come out, which is the nature of cave pictures with a point and shoot camera. I also did not get a shot of the guide, who was very cute and gave us illegal cave dirt. See, in most caves, you're not allowed to touch, let alone break off pieces of the cave. This guy did though and let us feel the piece. When he was about to throw it down on the ground, I asked if I could keep it. He looked rather taken aback. Guess he doesn't get too many scrapbookers on his tours. Lara and I split the illegal cave dirt; mine has yet to make it into a scrapbook. Once the Year of the Birthday is done, it'll be the year of the scrapbook of the year of the birthday.

I suppose it was a good first cave for Lara, but I still want her to see some of the bigger ones. Just not anytime soon. We still have a few things left on the YOB list to do before we can plan new adventures. Maybe some of the shots we take in the bigger cave will come out better, the bigger the cave, the more pictures you can take, the more pictures you take, the better the chances of one or two coming out. We'll put that on our Year of the 40th Birthday list: get better pictures of caves.

Comments

[Lara]

Two clumsy girls trying to find their way in the dark through strange caves? Really? I think that we should stick to guided tours. I have no desire to ride in a medivac helicopter.

[Beth]

HEY! Who are you calling clumsy???