Day: March 28, 2001

Ashley’s Big Spill
March 27-28, 2001
by Ashley Turner

McCoy Mill: I don’t recommend this cave it was a waste of gas. It was very small and dusty with little room to maneuver. There were very few formations, not much to explore, and there were rats with awesomely fragranced droppings. We also saw a dead rat, oh what fun. However, there were a few cute little brown bats sleeping that were the highlight of the cave and Rich told us a story about some cool raccoon prints that were found in a cave.

Fore those who choose not to take my advice, I recommend kneepads and a nose clip.

Mean Genes Convenience Store & Texaco: Well, since McCoy Mill sucked we decided to go to Key. Since the cave doesn’t have any parking around it we decided to only take one vehicle and park the other and Mean Genes. So we parked, but instead of just leaving the vehicle, Susan, being the well mannered young lady that she is decided to ask permission to park. Since we were in the small town of Pendleton around twelve something at night, we assumed that it wouldn’t matter where we parked. Well, we were wrong and “One should never assume”, because a few seconds after making that assumption, poor Susan came out of Mean Genes with the direction to move the car to the far end of parking lot. I guess Mean Gene was practicing his faith in receiving more business in the wee hours of the night.

Key: I liked Key, though Key did not like me. It was spacious, we saw some cool glue-like and string-like fungi, and to top it all off there were these beautiful diamond-like formations throughout the cave. Key also had the cute little brown sleeping bats, but not only brown-there was a gorgeous white one as well.

I could breathe better in Key, but the wetness made it a bid hazardous. Speaking of hazardous, there was this certain cliff we had to climb after crawling under this flat area, which followed “The Chute” (I thought Ghetto Booty wouldn’t be able to squeeze though this fairly famous area, but we had a little talk and she said she could do it–And she did!). However, being the outgoing person that I am, I tried to climb the cliff. I had almost beaten its complexity, when I gave into the weak feeling that had been badgering me all night. I let go of the upper part of the cliff and was about to climb down when I slipped and fell backwards off the cliff, landing on my back, head, and butt. I shook it off and silently thanked my guardian angel, the hardhat, and Ghetto Booty. So, there was no rescue squad needed to pull Ghetto Booty out of “The Chute” or me from the bottom of the cliff. Thank You God!!