Mammoth Caves National Park

The next two travel days were long, eight and nine hours driving each day, hard on Michael and me so I can only imagine how my mom could take it. It took a full day to drive from New York state to Reston, Virginia (a quick visit and free lodging with my kids), and another day to get us to Kentucky. But Mom had always wanted to visit Mammoth Caves, which she'd heard about since she was a kid. So this was our chance.

We took the shortest cave tour available. I couldn't take photos—this trip was made prior to digital cameras, and a handheld film camera couldn't capture images in the low light. Still, Mom wanted to see the caves and finally, she did.

Even more exciting to Mom than the cave, however, was the fact that there was a cruise on the Green River. Mom always loved riding on boats, so of course we added a ride on the cruise as an extra bonus.

Of course, we had to wait for the boat to arrive.

Mom wearing her butterfly pin—with a live butterfly on it!

Mom's butterfly then landed on Michael's hand. It didn't land on me, presumably to allow me to take the photos.

After two days of frantic driving, it was nice to be able to drift slowly along, with someone else doing the driving, and have nothing to do but enjoy the scenery.