Lost River Cave

This is the one thing that everyone agreed on in advance. A pontoon boat into a cave! Sounded great. Great is probably an overstatement. It was okay. A hike out to the boat - not bad except for the uphill bits - mostly on the way back.

On the walk to the boat the tour guide talked about some Civil War soldiers who went swimming in a "blue hole" and were never seen again. Their uniforms were found on the bank. Assumed drowned or eaten by cave monsters. I don't remember whether they were Union soldiers or Confederate soldiers, but I don't believe they drowned or fell through to China. I think they deserted. Well, why not take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves? The blue hole was rumored to be 400 feet deep, if not bottomless. It's possible they discovered that it connected to an underground river and hid some spare clothes in the cave and just went on to live a life where they weren't being shot at all the time. Speculation on my part but far more interesting than drowning.

Then we arrived at the entrance to the cave. Apparently someone had built a night club at the entrance to the cave. In the days before air conditioning it drew a crowd - particularly in summer. The night club is gone but I think you can rent it for special events.

Our guide led us on to the boat boarding area. I'm not sure why they were calling it a pontoon boat. I didn't see any pontoons. Then again, maybe we just assumed it was a pontoon boat. I had visions of standing on a pontoon boat floating into a cave and getting lots of great photos. We were sitting in a boat - I don't think it was a pontoon boat - way too easy to rock it. Emphasis on sitting. If anyone had stood up that boat would have tipped over and everyone would have gone into the water. I don't think pontoon boats do that. It was difficult to do anything much other than look straight ahead. We were packed in pretty tight and slight movement seemed to rock the boat.

There weren't many lights in the cave. It's possible there weren't any.  Mostly the guide used a flashlight to point out interesting features. Consequently, most of the photos were not particularly stellar. Poor lighting coupled with the inability to move freely limited the "Kodak" moments. But all in all, it was a good visit.

Here's the best photo I got inside the cave.

A Late Start

We'd planned to leave on Saturday and have a leisurely drive, maybe stop in Tennessee and then arrive in Cave City, Kentucky on the 13th of September relaxed and ready to go.

Instead, I got a call from the orthopedic oncologist who could see me on the 13th at noon. My initial reaction to that phone call was that I'd see him when I got back from vacation. But the thoughts "What if it's cancer? You should get the treatments started as quickly as possible." kicked in and Mark and I agreed that it wouldn't hurt to delay the trip by a few days. (Which ended up being okay since I'd had to go back to the dentist on Monday, anyway.)

My appointment was at noon. I'd be back home by 1:30. If we had everything loaded except the perishables we could be on the road by 3 pm. We could drive halfway there and then finish the drive the next day.

Great plan. Except that we didn't leave the doctor's office until well past three. (No cancer! Yay!) And we were starving since we hadn't had lunch. By the time we got back home it was almost 5 pm. By the time we got on the road it was 6 pm. By the time we reached that halfway point it was 1 am.

We slept for a few hours and managed to arrive at Cave City around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Not what we'd planned, but not bad at all.

Teeth on Edge

While we were in England a filling fell out of my tooth. Thankfully it didn't hurt. Nothing worse than going to a dentist in a foreign country. (I'd already had one experience with a British dentist - his "fix" cost me thousands when I got back home, but that's another story.)

We were planning to leave for Kentucky not long after getting back from England. My tooth didn't hurt and I was happy to delay getting it seen to until we got home from the Kentucky trip. Mark didn't think so. He was concerned that I would have a problem while we were gone and encouraged me to get it fixed before we left.

We were supposed to leave on Saturday so I got it "fixed" on Thursday.

"I lost a filling."

He looked at it and said, "You need a crown." Typical US dentist.

"No, I don't. Just fill it."

"You need a crown. Maybe a root canal."

A crown is 10 times the cost of a filling and that doesn't even account for the cost of the root canal. TEN TIMES! Does he think I'm made out of money or does he just think I'm stupid?

I insisted on the filling. He told me he'd have to drill out all of the old filling. It seemed like he was drilling out my entire tooth. And then when he got ready to fill it, wouldn't you know it - it broke. Now filling was no longer an option. It would have to be a crown. I know this stuff happens, but it just seemed too convenient to me.

Let me say that this dentist bought the practice from the dentist I went to for over 10 years. I have no real experience with him other than he put in a filling after the endodontist did a root canal several months ago. A relatively easy thing to do - didn't require drilling or even numbing.

But on this occasion, several things were wrong. It's been my experience that the assistant assists. Assisting consists of keeping the tools organized on the tray, keeping the patient's tender, but numb parts out of harm's way, handing the dentist whatever he needs, and balancing the need for water and the need for suction.

None of those things were going on. There were two sets of hands poking around in my mouth. Two times the "assistant" shoved something so far into my mouth that she engaged my gag reflex. She was not putting water into my mouth until it became so dry that I was choking. Remember that they were drilling away my entire tooth. Lots of dust. No water. My throat was sore for over a week. He also left her in charge of making and fitting the temporary crown. I've got to say she was fast. I've had these fitted before, usually by the dentist rather than the assistant and it usually took longer than two minutes.

Of course, before I left the office she asked "How does that feel?"

"How would I know? I''m numb from my chin to my ear."

Once I did know I could tell it wasn't good. The inside of my cheek was shredded from biting it. Not sure whether this happened after I got out of the chair or while I was still in it. Like I said, she didn't put much effort in to making sure I didn't injure myself while I was numb. But the temporary crown was so ill-fitted that I could neither eat nor talk without biting myself.

I called, but it took over an hour for someone to call me back. I wasn't even certain that I'd called the right number. The message was going on about "the Google customer I had called" and I had called for a dental emergency - not a Google customer. And all that happened was he called in a prescription mouthwash so I wouldn't get an infection. I declined the pain pills - I already had some. When this proved to be of very little use, I called back again. This time I was given a prescription for something with lidocaine in it. Swish it around. Yes. Fine. It made my mouth numb. Now I could continue biting it without even knowing it. Still, no one at the dentist's office offered to disrupt their weekend. Just leave me to die until Monday morning.

On Monday morning I went in. "How are you?" he said.

"I'm angry. I'm in pain. I've been in pain all freaking weekend. And it should not have been this way. This was not necessary." Calm. Collected. No shouting. But no doubt about how I felt, either.

He took the temporary crown off. He made and fitted a new one. It didn't surprise me that it took an hour and a half as opposed to two minutes.  I know his assistant thinks that she has a magic touch - she said as much - but I disagree. Fortunately, she wasn't there that day. It might have been uglier than it was.

I'm not sure how it will go in the future. While we were in Kentucky, the tooth ended up getting infected somehow - of course on the weekend so that I couldn't get antibiotics until Monday and just had to do my best with the throbbing pain from Friday until Monday.  As I'm writing this, it's Wednesday and I've been on the antibiotics for a couple of days. It's much improved. So is the dentist. He has actually called me twice to make sure that I'm okay and that it's improving.

As I revise this the following Tuesday, I can report that although he prescribed the antibiotic to be taken every 12 hours, I found that it was far more effective taking it every six hours. Of course I had to call for a refill a bit sooner. The dentist wasn't exactly delighted that I'd changed the dosage, but he didn't argue much - just told me to wait as long as I could. I'm now up to eight or nine hours. (Seriously my only other option involved alcohol - and while I don't mind a drink in the evening - I will not have vodka at breakfast! No matter how bad it hurts.)

He and I may be able to salvage the doctor-patient relationship. But he may have to ditch that assistant.

Flying Over Greenland

I'm not sure why we've never seen this before. It could be that the timing was wrong and it was still dark. It could be that we were stuck in the center seats and couldn't see out the window. Maybe we just didn't open the window and look. But we saw it this time and it was stunning.

So wonderful to see the details of the lakes and glaciers. Take a look.

Accidental Tourists

There are people out there who think that looking like a tourist is about the most gauche thing you can do. It is to be avoided at all costs. Cool people look like locals. I disagree. Everywhere you go there are "cool" people and "uncool" people. Why on earth would looking like a tourist make you "uncool"? (Unless you have multiple cameras dangling from your neck and you're wearing a sombrero. - That would make you look like a very uncool tourist.)

After realizing that my knee was being a bit of a bother and realizing that Mark had hurt his Achille's tendon dancing, Mark decided that we should become tourists. Although we logged upward of 15K steps our first day out in London, we decided that buying tour bus tickets was probably a better way to go. City buses are for people who have a particular destination in mind. We were rambling. We needed a tour bus.

I hadn't been on a London tour bus in over a decade. Having grown up there, I'm not sure Mark was ever on a tour bus in London. But it was the right thing to do. The weather was pleasant and sunny. We sat on the upper deck, took pictures and got off the bus from time to time. (Especially when those rude Russians started smoking on the bus.)

Although if we had it to do over, we would not take the "City Bus" tour. We'd take the red double decker or the burgundy bus. I've been on those before and they are better than the one we took. The one we took also included a boat tour on the Thames but it wasn't an "open air" boat - it was a commuter boat, so we were a bit disappointed with that. The other two tours offer a trip on a "tour" boat with commentary rather than a commuter boat. (I know because I've been a tourist on those buses before!)

We enjoyed the two days without further aggravating our injuries and truly enjoyed our time as tourists. Cool tourists.

We also got some pretty good photos.

Ups and Downs

I like Doggett's Pub. It's on the South Bank of the Thames, fairly near Blackfriar's Bridge. The reason I like it is because it has a restroom on every floor. And that's unusual in that part of the world. We went to The Anchor for Sunday Brunch. Finding the ladies room was like being on a scavenger hunt. Down these stairs - over to the other side of the pub - then back up those stairs. Bottom line, it was on the same floor I was on, I just couldn't get to it from where I was without going down and then back up again.

It's clear to me that no one in the British Isles has a problem with their knees. There is no equivalent to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Can't imagine why not. But I can tell you this - I've got a knee that hurts and constantly going up and down stairs does not help it one bit. No sir!

Some of the stairs are so steep that you just look at them and say "No - I'm not doing that." Thank God I have excellent bladder control.

Macbeth at the Globe

An experience to remember! I had been to Shakespeare's Globe before to take the tour but I'd never seen a play there. We went to see Two Gentlemen of Verona a number of years ago at the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. The seating is similar to the seating in the Globe but it just isn't the same.

It was a fantastic experience! Of course, I "studied" Macbeth as a high school senior. (We won't really talk about how many years ago that was.) You can read it, and study it, and study it again in college, but nothing brings it to life like a live performance.

The actors at the Globe are superb. I don't recommend the Swan (pub/restaurant attached to the theatre) but the theatre experience is not to be missed.

No photography during the performance - so here are some shots taken before the performance started.

A Day at Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace - Home to the court of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. I learned one thing I didn't know - the palace was built by Cardinal Wolsey and then taken off him by Henry when things didn't go his way.

Lovely place. One problem. The audio tapes that you get when you buy your tickets are just too long-winded. After spending nearly two hours with "young Henry VIII" we no longer wanted to listen and learn. We only had one day, not a week.

We did have a wander around the grounds and through the rest of the palace. I think we missed most of the King William stuff, but I blame it on the long-winded talkers on the audio. I don't mind them so much when I'm learning something, but throughout that "young Henry" section, I didn't hear anything I didn't already know except the part about the palace having been built by Wolsey instead of Henry.

It was a nice visit, although I wish the commentary would have been more condensed so we could get through it a bit quicker.

Here are some photos.

A Day in Brighton

We were staying in Worthing, but Brighton was a short bus trip away. The problem was that the bus wasn't air conditioned and we had to get off at the little town in between Worthing and Brighton. I can't even remember it's name! But we stopped and had a water and a coffee and a brisk walk just to keep from dying on the bus.

I was a bit surprised by Brighton. The beach is pebbles, or rock. This would not be a popular beach destination in the United States. We're babies - we demand sand - the softer the better. Quite frankly, the beaches are far better at Clacton but for some reason that doesn't have as good a reputation as Brighton. Go figure.

But Brighton has some other unique features. The Royal Pavilion, for example. A bit over the top? Absolutely. Plenty of Asian architectural influences. The grounds aren't particularly well kept for anything with "royal" attached to it, but it's worth a look.

Another great place in Brighton is "The Lanes" - a group of narrow, pedestrian-only streets full of shops and pubs and lots of people.

All in all, a great visit. Here are some photos.