Kentucky - Caves, Trails, and Tears

Mammoth Cave National Park offers visitors the longest cave in the world, more than 450 miles long, as mapped to date.  There's a great visitors center with exhibits on the history of the cave and the area, some of the more interesting uses of the cave (for a mushroom farm, in the 1840's as a possible cure for tuberculosis, and for a sleep study), and the brave explorers who have crawled through passageways barely 11 inches high.  I opted for one of the more sedate tours, Domes & Dripstones.

 The old Mammoth Cave Railroad, which brought visitors up in the 1800's, has been turned into a bike path.

 No,  it's not the Washington Monument....but every 5 miles a sign on the highway directs fans of the Confederacy to....

And finally, though not even advertised on the highway, I found this wonderful place, The Trail of Tears Commemorative Park in Hopkinsville, KY, which honors the thousands of Cherokees who passed through on their forced relocation from their farms in the southeast to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma in the 1830's & 40's.  I spoke for quite awhile with a woman there, who told me about their difficult journey, the deaths of two of their chiefs at this spot, and how the small park is fighting to keep its space.  I even signed a petition to keep it from being turned into, of all things, a "frisball" park!

Cherokee Nation flag flying