Dean, Spelunking, Pigging Out and Luck - Day 131

To Dean, or not to Dean--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take wheels against a sea of troubles
And by avoiding, end them. - BS and me

It's an interesting question, and one that I am not sure which path I should choose. As Dean strengthens and approaches the Caribbean, should I drive toward it, track it to the north, and aim for landfall. Or should I just be aware of it's area of arrival, and make sure I keep the sun above me by heading more toward the north and inland. Both are options right now, and I don't know whether to try to get a peak at some serious global warming, or just keep having the kind of wonderful adventures like today provided...once you check out the weather channel for a few minutes, any comments or updates would be welcome. But right now I am itching for a glimpse...I'll be keeping up with the weather reports as I can. If I had to guess, Corpus Christie, TX could be a soft spot for the storm to land, and since Al Gore is not yet president, it is almost likely. Gonna have to check out if there are any scenic drives still above water in that area.

Today, with no National Parks in sight, and no drives being suggested by the Scenic Byways book, I had to go to option 3 and use the Road Food book as my traffic director. Within striking distance and appropriately spaced, I selected Jackson's Family Restaurant in Madison, AL for lunch and the Pickwick Catfish Farm Restaurant in Counce, TN as my destinations for the day, and anything else that seemed interesting along the way.

Instructing Sake to: Take me to my lunch, but without using a highway, I was guided the way I hoped she would. I had seen some green dotted lines on the map (indicating scenic) and her path led me directly along it. Unbeknownst to me, her path would take me spelunking twice before lunch (she also took me from TN to GA to TN, to AL to MS to TN before the day was out - 6 states with one repeated 3 times).


While driving the route, I saw a brown sign (meaning something neat to see) that said "Russell Cave Nat'l Monument". So I turned. It still surprises me when I see something that says Russell Cave turns out to be an actual cave. The only other cave I've seen is the ice cave in Idaho, and this was completely different. The huge cave openings had been home to many generations of beings dating back to the prehistoric. Many artifacts have been excavated and it has greatly contributed to the sciences that look into these things. I could say more, but I am already boring myself. Let's just say, it was cool.

But my next accidental (or lucky) cave find was completely awesome. Again, driving along and having passed another dozen brown signs, the one that read "Cathedral Cavern's State Park" caught my eye. Cavern...perhaps a cave? So I turned. I never research state parks...just too low a level for the trip I am doing. But I have occasionally taken in a few of them and they are usually either fishing or hiking things, and sometimes single item things. This was a single item thing and it was another cave. Only this cave was a big deal. Cathedral Cavern holds 4 world records including highest cave opening and widest span for a cave opening.

As always, I arrived just 5 minutes before the next tour was beginning. So I had to do it. 5 minutes later and I would have had to wait an hour, and I wouldn't have done it. But it was going to push lunch back to 2 PM (little did I know that I'd already passed a time zone and had gained an hour.) The tour was a 1.3 mile trek into the cave and the same back out. It was incredible, and I can't put into words the bizarre structures and features that I saw, but it elicited many "Wow's" from me and the others on the tour. Stunning. I took a ton of pictures, but not many came out well. I don't know the proper camera settings for caves.

We were a group of 16 on the tour, and I hung out with a family of three and their niece. During the opening talk by the ranger, he asked us where we all were from. When it was my turn, I didn't answer my standard, "NJ". Instead I said, "I used to be from NJ, but now-a-days I am from nowhere, just driving around the country for a while." After we started the spelunking, the 23 year old daughter said over her shoulder to me, "So, you're just driving around...that's cool". I was immediately smitten. I spent the next hour tagging along with her and her family. Just lucky to meet nice people.

For lunch, I did eat at the Jackson Family restaurant and for 7 bucks, I had the "Meat and 3" meal. The meat was country fried steak with white gravy, and the 3 were corn, cole slaw and deviled eggs. For dinner, I went to the Catfish Farm, and found it was only open on Fri, Sat and Sun...what a disappointment. I used Sake to direct me to a hotel, and the nearest medium sized city was Savannah, TN where I am sleeping tonight.

As I completed my room transaction for the night, I (as always) asked for a dinner recommendation. Again, drool formed. Again, there was only one place to eat, and it was the Fish Hut. "Just a shack a couple miles away, but it is the only place to eat." I passed about 40 other dining establishments before arriving at the Fish Hut, but the slobbering concierge was right, it was the Only place to eat.

Everybody was there. I joined a grandmother and her son at a small vinyl table and chairs, and was lucky I was a single or I'd have had to wait. This place was only open Thurs thru Sun, so I got lucky (on this trip, isn't it always the case). The far too religious granny told me that she had visited all the places in the area that were said to have great catfish, and she swears this is the best of the lot. I have nothing to compare it against, but I agree I would be hard pressed to get a better catfish. Just lucky...or is it?

While I was driving and contemplating just how odd it was that everything works out so well, time and again, I started thinking of bro. Bro's best friends (bewick I know you're out there) would agree that everything Mark does works out great. "He's just lucky.", we all say.

I've had a bunch of talks with bro about this and he still says, "Yeah, I'm lucky I guess, but it's more than that. I work hard to put myself in a position to be lucky." Or something of that nature. But what I'm getting at is this: I think I get it now...it might be less about luck, and more about putting yourself in places where serendipity is allowed to take you along for the ride. You just need to be ready to take an off ramp and enjoy that ride. Then again, Mark is just plain lucky.