What do you think I chose—a boat ride through a cave or a museum full of hot cars? A boat ride and a cave tour sounded like double prizes to me, so we stopped at The Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, KY, which was about the halfway point to Barkley Lake State Park. The Corvette museum looked pretty cool as we drove by, so put that on a future excursion. Corvettes are produced in Bowling Green, hence the museum is here.

The Lost River Cave has been used in the past as a mill, a cool place for union soldiers to rest, a naturally air-conditioned nightclub, a dump, and now a tourist attraction that hires Western Kentucky University students to serve as guides. Like most caves in the area, this one has a Jesse James story. He supposedly hid out here after robbing the Southern Deposit Bank in Russellville. The river was briefly in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the deepest river at 437 feet. The measuring method was faulty and it is really only 16 feet deep—oops!

The cave gets flooded frequently which prevents growth of large stalactites and stalagmites. The ceiling had small stalactites and popcorn formations and there was one section of flowstone that was pretty big. To keep the water at a mostly constant level for the use of the boats, a dam has been built inside the cave. Even so, large rain events will flood it. Two weeks ago the water was waist-deep in the nightclub area, and our tour was darker than usual with some missing lights.

We had a nice anniversary dinner at the restaurant at the lodge and toasted 37 years of marriage. The riding stables, beach and picnic area are all closed due to storm damage. The AC must have been damaged at the lodge as well as they are still running a portable air-conditioner out on a large trailer. We had to be moved to a different campsite than the one I booked as it had a collapsed deck and picnic table. It looked like a tree fell on it.