Lost Sea Cave

For my annual reunion with two of my friends from college, we decided to go to the Lost Sea Cave in Sweetwater, TN.  It was a bit of a drive, but I was excited to hang out with my friends, so it was wasn't bad at all.  Also, as a joke, I had matching T-shirts printed up for us that said "Three Amigos Reunion 2011" on them.  I, of course, wore mine the entire time.  My friends were awesome enough to put theirs on, too.  We looked like three nerds with our matching shirts, but it was fun.

We waited in line and then made our way down the tunnel when our group was called.  We toured the cave and had fun doing it.  It was fun to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a year.  The cave was pretty nice and easy to navigate.  The walkways were easy.  We made our way down to the "sea".  The group loaded a boat (for about 30 people) and we went out on the water.  You were close enough to the water to feel it, and I did.  It was freezing!  There were lights under the water so we could see the big fish that were in the water.  I figured the fish would be mostly blind - it makes sense.  What I didn't know is that fish are bred to live in the sea.  They can't actually reproduce in that water.  I was a little disappointed that the fish were only there because of man and wouldn't be able to survive there without them.

Once we were done with the tour, we headed out and checked out the little village next door.  There was a general store, crazy hat store, ice cream shop, glassblowing shop, and maybe a couple other things.  It was pretty cute.  After we were done at that location, we went out for lunch.  Overall, it was a pretty awesome day.

Simpson County Fair

While I was out of town for training, Lee told me that the weekend I was coming back there was a fair with a demolition derby not too far from us.  He said it was in Franklin, KY not too far from where we go to the drive-in.  I told him it sounded fun.

We decided to go and invited my brother and sister-in-law to join us.  It was definitely an adventure.  The fair was $10, which is pretty expensive, so we thought it would be decent.  We got there around 4:30 on Saturday figuring it would be pretty busy by then.  We were wrong.  Only a couple hours before the derby started, there were only a few other cars in the parking lot.

We thought we might be in the wrong place, but no, everything was set up and running.  There just wasn't anyone there.  The games were sketchy and most had live animals as pets - lizards, bunnies, fish, turtles - all kinds of stuff.  The games weren't cheap either.  We didn't really play any games.  I'm pretty sure one of the carnies verbally assaulted us because we wouldn't come play.  Also, almost all of the booths had help wanted signs.

We spent a lot of time at the playground next to the fairgrounds because we didn't have anything better to do.  After a while on the swings, people started showing up.  It never really got packed, but people were super excited about the demolition derby.  We got our seats and waited for it to begin.  I had never been to a demolition derby, so it was pretty cool to see it.  The only terrible part was the lawn mower derby.  Who came up with that?  The car heats lasted around 8-10 minutes each, and there were only a few.

The lawn mower derby lasted about an hour.  We would have left, but we wanted to see the finals for the cars.  The finals finally happened and it was pretty cool.  Some people had good strategies, some were just bad and ran themselves onto the concrete blocks.  After the derby was over, we headed home.  The derby was fun, but I don't think I'll be visiting the Simpson County Fair again anytime soon.