My day started early. I was so excited to find out that our neighbor here loves to run. Her name is Valerie and they are from Arizona. She got up early with me to run!!!! We met at 5:30 and it was glorious!!!! We watched the sun rise as we ran and she let me ramble on about our trip and the exhausting preparations for it. Thank you Valerie for the run!!!! 
"Road Schooling" was wonderful today. Graham decided to research Mammoth Cave and Pepper chose to research polar bears. Taj worked on his site words for the week and Asher completely finished his History class for the quarter. Then he worked on his other classes. 
I got us tickets to go explore Mammoth at 12 PM today. The whole family took a break from work and school to walk in the largest cave system in the world. There are 412 miles of cave that has been established. The ranger said that they are still finding more cave as we speak. One thing that Graham learned when he was researching Mammoth Cave, was that it had a very critical roll during the War of 1812. The majority of the American ammunition used in the war came straight from the cave. Slaves worked around the clock mining for a mineral called saltpeter. The saltpeter was then shipped to DuPont Company. There they were able to take the saltpeter and make gun powder. Cool right?? Stephen bishop was a Kentucky slave who knew the mine better then anyone else. He mapped out 10 miles just from memory. He helped save a young lost boy in the cave. His legacy is still celebrated in the cave. Mammoth Cave didn't have many stalagmites or stalactites because of the years of mining. It was very spacious and large to walk through. We walked through the cave in the dark with only dull lighting to show us the way. At the mid-point of our tour, there was a tuberculosis camp. Apparently, the cave owner thought that the cold, damp air of the cave could cure tuberculosis. He made small shelters deep in the cave that people lived in for days and sometimes months. Unfortunately, it didn't work. But cool history!!! 
The cave was everything I thought it would be and more. When we had spent all the time we wanted there, we headed home to finish work and school. Then the kids couldn't help themselves, they went fishing again:))) This time Asher caught 5 fish, Graham caught 6, Taj caught 3 and Pepper caught 3. 
We ended the night watching RV. It's such a funny movie. We caught so many more of the small jokes in the movie after traveling in our RV. So funny!!!! 
What a fun day full of adventure and learning. We had a Girls camp at Mammoth Lakes. I don’t remember seeing anything about those caves. Totally missed that.
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