On
4th November, Friday morning mommy casually saw the weather channel
and noticed that the weekend would be sunny and pleasant.
Close
to noon, Daddy called us up from office saying he will come home early and that
coz the weather is good this weekend, we could go somewhere, probably mammoth
caves and some place in Nashville, Tennessee (We had been thinking of visiting
the mammoth caves for long). So he asked me us to get ready and also asked me
to look for some good hotel room and places to visit in Nashville.
He
came in the afternoon, had a little more work to do. Side by side we also
searched for a hotel near mammoth caves. (It was a complete last minute plan
this time.) Then close to 4pm we booked a hotel room at the Mammoth Cave Hotel.
It’s inside the cave region. Then we quickly got ready, packed up and by 5pm
left the house (quite late!). We started
our journey to Mammoth caves. It was a 3hr drive. We were close to mammoth
caves around 8pm. Dad drove a long way into the caves. It was getting dark and
mommy was getting scared, asking me “Did you write the correct address?”, “Are
we heading in the right path?”… “No one seems to be around!!” woof... The
address I had loaded in the GPS was the visitor center. But there was no other
address in the website! We reached the address… the visitor center… Obviously
closed at that late time! Then daddy drove around, we noticed some lights
behind, the hotel was there. Thank God!
The
next day morning, we went to the Mammoth caves visitor center, found out the
various tours there. We chose the New Entrance tour which included the complete
Frozen Niagara tour and a portion of the Grand Avenue tour. A bus came outside the visitor’s center, it
took us into the forest and we got down at the end of a road and at the base of
a mountain. There was an entrance door at the base of the mountain. This ran
down for 1000’s of feet with so many steps and stairs running down through
narrow paths in the caves. There was a guide with us inside the caves. She said
the caves and rocks were all made of limestone. In some place in the cave there
were sandstone rocks on the ceiling. There were a lot of mites and tithes
formed all over the frozen Niagara tour. It was really dark inside. It was an
exciting trip!
After
this we went for a small tour near a river called the Green River. It was the
lowest part of the forest and mountainous region. The guide with us said we
were standing at a place even lower than the caves. It was hard to understand,
but of course the truth! There was a sinkhole- is a natural
depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by the chemical dissolution of
carbonate rocks for example in sandstone.
There was a lake and a stream connecting to it which led to the green river.
Some of these streams and rivers passed through the soil.
Then
close to 2pm we started to Tennessee, the neighboring state. One of daddy’s
colleagues told him long back that there was a big nice Ganesh temple in
Nashville, a city in Tennessee.
Remembering that he planned to take us there, also we planned to look
around some famous and popular places there. On the way to Nashville, we
stopped at McDonalds, there’s a free Wi-Fi there. We hadn’t yet booked a hotel
at Nashville to stay that night. So there at McDonalds, as Daddy got himself a
cup of coffee and mommy and I an ice cream each, we took out the laptop, looked
for a low priced and good hotel located close to the temple. I located a hotel
which was also on the same road as the temple. And so we booked it. Then we
continued our journey to Nashville. We reached the hotel at 4pm. Then I
searched for some good places in that city, from the net as well as pamphlets
found at the hotel. Nashville is also known as “Music City”. There were a lot
of music concerts held at various places. But we dint find much of them
interesting to us. Then that night we went to the Ganesh Temple. It took us 30
minutes to reach. Realizing that it
wasn’t as close as we thought! The Ganesh Temple was big and beautiful. The
idle, Ganesha was huge and the garland decoration was very beautiful. There was a big puja and a lot of prayers
when we went. At the temple, a lady told us that there were four Old Hickory
Road (Street names) and that many people get this confusion. She gave us a
pamphlet with hotel/ restaurants in that locality. For dinner, we went to
Woodlands Hotel. I had rava dosa! J
The
next day, Sunday, we planned to just spend a few hours in Nashville and start
back by afternoon. Coz we had to travel a long way back. In Nashville, we
actually dint have any idea where to go or what to visit. A lady at the hotel
reception told us about a place called Opryland. And that there was a big
luxury hotel there and that it would be worth looking around. So we went to
that luxury hotel. There were acres of indoor gardens with all tropical plants,
cascading waterfalls and indoor river with their Delta flatboat. It was really
magnificent.
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