San Antonio, Tuesday 9-April
/For our last full day in Texas, we went to Natural Bridge Caverns and had a quiet rest of the day. Even so, we made the most of the day.
Natural Bridge Caverns
When planning this trip, I thought it would be fun to visit a cavern. I did go to one in Tucson a couple of years ago, but that one was pretty small. I have fond memories of visiting a few of them with my parents when I was young and recalled them being larger. Others in the group seemed game, so that became our main activity for the day.
All of the other caverns I’ve visited in the past have been pretty small affairs, where you get tickets either at a kiosk or in the back of the gift shop. Natural Caverns was a different experience with a huge parking lot and several ticket registers. I had pre-purchased tickets which let me go in the line which had no one in it. After picking up the tour tickets, we headed to the waiting area for our tour to start.
Our tour guide said that we had extra time before the tour after ours, so he would be able to take more time than usual without being rushed to the next room and warned us that he could talk for a long time about caves. He then pointed out that the natural bridge above the entrance is the namesake of the park. He then explained that the caverns are always 70 degrees and 99% humidity. He also made it very clear that we would be going down quite a ways and would need to walk back up. With that, we entered the cavern.
Once we got to the first room, it was obvious that a lot of money went into supporting tours in the cavern. In addition to all the infrastructure before we entered the cave, Inside it was noticeable how good the lighting and paths were. The early rooms were spacious and even the passages had a lot to look at.
As we descended, we went into rooms that were even larger and had features that were somehow even more interesting than we had already seen. One room had pools of water and features that looked like chandeliers and curtains to go with the cylindrical stalagmites.
We then started working our way up, with one longer section which the guide warned us would be the most strenuous segment and would have benches along the way. None in our group seemed to have problems.
On the way out, we chatted with the guide for a while. He said that he's been a guide for three years, but has been an avid caver for almost as long as he could remember. He did seem very knowledgeable and was good at answering any questions people had.
Rest of the day
Since our tour was during lunchtime, we went to a BBQ restaurant to eat before heading back, then to an ice cream store for dessert. We then went back to relax for the rest of the afternoon.
In the late afternoon, Melody and I went out to grab a quick take-out dinner. We had a bottle of wine provided by the Houston home, so that was opened, and it did a good job of classing up our burgers. For dessert, we finished up the cake from the night before.
As we were hanging out after dinner, rain started to pick up. We knew that there were supposed to be thunderstorms in the evening, with the possibility of hail. We didn't get the hail, but we did get lightning, to the tune of about 25 strikes per minute. They continued to get brighter and we started hearing more thunder. Things eventually died down enough for us to get to sleep for our early exit in the morning.