national_parks_2_mammoth_cave

April 21, 2021

WHEN: 04/20/2021

QIC: WeedNFeed

PAX: Scapula, Pallino, Bellhop, Geppetto, Cosmo, Mash, Castaway, Swamp, Knope, Boucher, Kia, Count Chocula, Jellystone, Awesome Baby

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Mammoth Cave National Park in KY is one of the four national parks in neighboring states to NC (the others are Shenandoah NP in VA, Great Smoky Mountains in NC/TN, and Congaree NP in SC). The PAX have the fortune (?) of visiting these national treasures on a regular basis with YHC. Mammoth Cave is about 8 hours away from Churham, and any long trip requires some preparation or, you might call it…

Warm up

30 SSH IC
15 Imperial Walkers IC
10 slow merkins IC
10 slow squats IC
5 burpees for Mash!
10 WMH IC

The Road Trip

While Pallino continued his 100 mile bike ride with Scapula, the rest of us trotted off on a Ricky Bobby through Parkwood. With a little extra social distancing, the sprint was considerable and generated a very satisfying (to the Q) amount of mumble chatter. Lots of “how far are we going?” “are we there yet?” and “we’re tired of these car snacks!”

We ended up getting through two cycles of sprints before returning to the flag (now, the Cave).

Touring the Cave

Having arrived at Mammoth Cave, we undertook to tour the entire thing in one go (overly ambitious, as we came to find out).

To go up, you need an escalator. To go down into a cave, a reverse escalator.

30 Australian Snow Angels
30 SSH IC
15 Burpees
10 bobby hurleys
20 squats
10 plank jacks IC
10 shoulder taps
10 merkins
10 wide grip merkins
10 diamond merkins

We muscled through, but as we descending levels, the Q called 10 count rests more and more often. Probably the poor air quality down in the cave, but we were creating new stalagmites with our perspiration. We stopped with three levels left to go (merkins x 3, merkins x 2, then diamond merkins)

Mary

20 SSH IC
30 Heals to Heaven IC

CoT

There were several prayer requests including grandparents struggling with the effects of covid, isolation and unkindness; high hopes for a job interview; loss of family members among our friends; and miraculous recoveries from serious injuries.

As always, a reminder to support The King’s Dominion on Wednesday Mornings!

Thanks for showing up! It’s an honor to lead.