Day 2: Sunday, March 20, 2016
Our day began in a wigwam. Any day that starts in a wigwam has to be a great day, right? We were actually pretty surprised that there were as many cars there as there were. Wigwam Village #2 was an interesting place to stay for the night, but I wouldn't be surprised if the owner told me everything there was original from 1937, if you know what I mean. It was fun, though, and even Tucker had come around to its charms (read: playground) by morning. 
Our first stop was Mammoth Cave National Park. The kids turned in their Junior Ranger workbooks, which we had scored the night before, and then we went on the Frozen Niagara tour. It was a quarter of a mile in and 130 feet down, but it had 80% of the best stuff in the cave. It was actually really awesome. I would totally recommend it, especially if you have little kids. Thinking about how long the cave has been forming and how long the things in the cave have been forming, like how the little soda straws there can take 100 years to grow an inch, can really blow your mind. The little boys really enjoyed the tour. They were totally blown away by all the cool cave formations. Jack, on the other hand, apparently suffers from claustrophobia. Who knew? (Answer: Not us!) He made it, though. His dad did a really amazing job getting him to just focus on his breath and staying calm. By the time we were on our way out, he was finally able to actually look at the formations around him and even enjoy the experience. He even says he wants to go in other caves, though just surface caves where you don't actually go down into the earth. We'll have to see what we can do about that.
After our morning's adventure, we bought a few rocks at Big Mike's Rock Shop and then headed on down the road. Our next stop was Jackson, TN. If you don't know, we are geocachers, and our mission is to find a cache in each new state we visit. Since we were just driving through Tennessee, we had to stop somewhere to find a cache. Jackson and the Casey Jones Village seemed like as good a place as any. In fact, it was pretty neat. We didn't go into the actual museum (Did you know Casey Jones was a real person?), but there was plenty for us to see outside. We climbed on some really nifty old train cars and then got ourselves some rock candy from the old-fashioned confectioner's shop there. Perhaps one day my children will learn that they don't like watermelon flavoring. 
Our next adventure was to see just a smidge of Memphis. Memphis is a really interesting city. If you've never been, you should put it on your list. We had been there ages ago, on an impromptu trip to Texas in the days of our youth, and so we had already seen the good parts. Graceland and the Gibson Guitar Factory are two of our favorites. But for this little side adventure, we just decided to take the kids to the Mississippi River and Beale St. Because what's a trip to Memphis without BBQ ribs and the blues on Beale St? (Admittedly, that last part was not for the benefit of the kids. They were actually pretty unamused with our dinner choice.) The generally agreed upon Best Ribs on Beale St Award goes to Blues City Cafe, so that's where we went. While they were delicious, we both found ourselves saying "Mmm, but not quite Dinosaur BBQ." You can take us out of central NY, but you can't take central NY out of us! After dinner, we strolled down Beale St, listening to the blues music that drifted out of bars and watching bands play through the windows of the blues joints that line the street. Except for the ridiculously long drive to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, I couldn't have asked for a better ending to the day.
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