Mammoth Cave camping

Hannah, Grace and I had planned for this trip months ago after mom and Grace visited Mammoth Cave. Their stories just tempted Hannah and I to make the trip there, and we would have done so if not for my surprise to the ER :(

Anyway, there was no better time to go camping at Mammoth Cave than on my birthday! Grace picked Hannah up from her work on Friday evening. When I got home, we packed all the stuffs in the car, and we were ready to set off. The plan was to spend a night in a motel, so that we can beat the traffic in Chicago, and then start driving slowly down to Mammoth Cave on Saturday. It was an uneventful evening in the motel, and we were ready for bed after a 4-hour drive.

On Saturday morning, after a horrible cup of local-motel coffee, we decided that we needed to get another "breakfast" from McDonald's. I was waiting in the car when Hannah and Grace came back with what they described as "a crap ton of McDonald's breakfast burritos" because they were patient with the server when the credit card machine broke :) We were on our way after a quick breakfast. 

We stopped at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Indiana. It has the largest, naturally exposed fossil beds, and the "falls" were originally a series of rapids allowing the Ohio River to drop 26 feet over a distance of 2.5 miles. However, today, much of the original falls are behind the McAlpine Dam. We took the dogs for a quick dip in the river, and were back on the road to Mammoth Cave.

We arrived at Mammoth Cave, and it was around 4pm when we finished setting up our tents. Hannah did ALL the cooking on this trip, and her culinary skills kept us well-fed. Hannah and I are still in a ongoing process of setting up the ultimate "camping kit", so there are always things that we need but are not in the kit - and this time, we did not have a spatula to cook the burger patties. Luckily, Grace exhibited great VanLaanen "MacGyver" skills, and made Hannah a spatula from a fork and a cut-out from a beer can! We had dinner, went to bed at 9pm, and planned to go running tomorrow!

I woke up at 7am (Saturday), but Hannah was already gone! She had woken up even earlier than me, and went for a short run (~3miles). I was making coffee when she came back all happy with her run, gleaming with joy from the great run in the early hours of the morning. 

We had breakfast, rested for a bit, and off we went for our 10-mile run. We had to drive to the back-country of the park, and we had to cross a river to get there - we drove onto a small platform boat, and  just motored across the river slowly :) It was a really nice day for a long run, with sun peeking through the clouds, and the temperature wasn't too warm. The run was good, finished the day with more beer and burgers, and ready for Mammoth Cave adventure tomorrow!

We put the dogs in a special kennel at Mammoth Cave Hotel when we went on the cave tour. It is the cheapest kennel we ever been to! It was about $7.50 for about 5 hours for both the dogs. The tour was about 4 hours, and the tour guide warned everyone that it is going to be quite a long walk with lots of stairs, and people should seriously think about whether they are fit enough. No one dropped out before or during the tour, but along the way, we noticed that there were definitely some people who clearly should not be on this tour! The cave is huge, and is the longest cave system in the world, currently measuring 405 miles. There were some great features such as the gypsum flowers, stone formations etc. The experience was great, and definitely worth a visit - made Hannah and I wanting to go to Florida and Mexico for cave diving again! :P By the time we finished the tour, picked up the dogs, went to visit the other cave entrance etc, it was nearly 4pm, and we started our drive back to Chicago... until next time, caves...

Chasing the totality of the Great American Eclipse

3 days of driving, 2 cigarette smelling hotel rooms, Hopkinsville, 11 hours in traffic, and one great eclipse!

Nori visit to Chicago, and I am in the ER

I was out playing with Jet and Lilith on Saturday (07/29), and Jet accidentally bit me in the fingers. I was foolish and shouldn't have played with both of them at the same time, as I couldn't keep my eyes on both of them simultaneously - I didn't notice Lilith caught the ball (on string) while she was behind me, and I prompted Jet to get the ball. As I couldn't pull away from his flinging launch towards my hand fast enough, my index finger was caught in his mouth! :O

Two days passed, and there was a bit of swelling but I wasn't too worried. I went to Krav Maga training on Tuesday evening, and when I woke up on Wednesday morning, the swelling had gotten significantly worse. Hannah drew a circle around the swell, and we agreed that if it looked bad on Thursday, I would go and see a doctor.

On Thursday morning, I went to Walgreens clinic to ask for antibiotics, but they refused because the swell had migrated away from the wound, and they advised me to go to the University of Chicago ER. I went to the ER, and was almost immediately checked by a nurse provider, followed by three junior residents, and took an x-ray. Three hours later, I was informed that the senior resident wanted to admit me to the hospital until the infection got better! I stayed in the ER, dripping antibiotics IV for three hours before they transferred me to the hospital room! I had to call Hannah to bring some toiletries and clothes to the hospital - she was worried but knew that I was in good hands (poor Hannah). When Hannah visited me that evening, I was still in a cheerful mood, but that turned very quickly - I was kept awaked throughout the night with the nurse constantly checking my blood pressure and dripping antibiotics IV every few hours. By the next day, I was so tired! I ended up staying three days in the hospital before there was any significant signs of the infection reducing. On Saturday evening (08/05), I was given oral antibiotics and released to go home... I was so happy!

And while I was in the hospital, Nori visited us in Chicago. I am glad that I was well enough to at least spend a day with her and Hannah wandering about in the city. And not to forget Grace for coming over to keep Hannah company, giving her support when I was just lying about in the hospital :)