Field trip 2019

One of the many fun things about the fact that my daughter home schools her three boys is that I can go on their field trips!  Families welcome! Such was the case last Monday when Kelly and the boys came up to stay with me as their destination was closer to my house than to theirs.  So early Tuesday morning we set off in the damp, chilly weather of a Western Pennsylvania May day.  It only took slightly under an hour to arrive at Ft. Necessity where the school co-op group was waiting.  The staff was ready for us and very accommodating.  The first thing we did was to watch the movie about what had happened there, and at nearby Jumonville.  George Washington established himself there as a valuable asset to whichever army he would be attached to – which at that time was the British.  We walked around the museum part of the visitor center until it was time to split into groups.  The older group went with one guide and the younger ones with another.  As Logan and Peyton would be together in the older group, we asked Chase who he would like to have with him in his group.  I was pleased and surprised that he chose me over his mom!  Our group started with the inside activities, learning about who was settled in which areas of North America (French or British) and how the Native Americans played a part.  We learned about planting gardens, identifying animal tracks, prepping a musket, and trading with local Indian tribes.  I’m sure I learned more from being with this group than I did two years ago on the adult tours.  It was a whole new perspective.  Once we were done with the inside activities, the groups switched places and we went outside to the fort.  It was cold and damp and windy and not everyone was dressed comfortably, so we huddled into the small log cabin at the fort and learned about supplies, why the Great Meadow was the best place for the fort, how the tree line came into play, and actually practiced loading and ‘unloading’ muskets . Our guide was very knowledgeable and informative and great with the younger ones.  My favorite parts were how to trade with the Indians (Beaver pelts were the most valuable commodityd- more so than deer!) and how they planted a garden:  corn in the middle, beans around the corn, then squash on the outside.  It was planted in a circle. We met back at the visitors center lobby to eat our picnic lunch before heading to Laurel Caverns.

The view from the parking lot of the cavern’s visitor center was amazing, and even Chase liked it.  We took Logan and Chase’s picture standing by the railing.  On a clear day you can see Pittsburgh, but it definitely wasn’t a clear day! Again we were in two groups, which had been decided ahead of time.  Anyone eleven and up could elect to go on the ‘uncharted’ tour if they wanted to be more adventuresome.  The rest of us took the traditional tour, which was a little over an hour.  As we descended into the ‘bowels of the earth’ I wondered if I would feel too closed in but that was not the case.  A few passageways were very narrow but none were scary.  We walked a half a mile down through well-lit passage ways, often with colored lights shining on interesting formations or smaller cave openings.   By the time we reached the lowest part, we were seventeen stories down. (I’m hard to see, but I’m standing by a purple rock!) There were places we could hear water running, where the walls and even the floors were wet, and even a section of writing on the walls (which is illegal now).  The most fascinating place was where we stopped to study our perspective.  It was what appeared to be a sloped raining going upwards from left to right. 

However, when you places a golf ball on the railing, it rolled uphill to the right!  The guide explained that we had nothing to base the angle on as we didn’t have the horizon to anchor us.  The railing was actually going DOWNHILL from left to right.  Near the end of the tour we saw a light show set to music, ‘Appalachian Spring’ – it sounded to me very much like ‘Lord of the Dance.’  The multi-colored lights flashed in tune to the music as it highlighted different sections of the caves.  At the very end they turned all the lights out and you could literally not see the hand in front of your face.  What a scary place to be lost in, but thankfully that was not an issue.

While we were having fun tramping around the sand and limestone well-lit pathways, the older more adventurous group was crawling and climbing over rock formations and through tight openings in a very unlit section of the caves.   The entire depth of the caverns are over forty stories down.  The explorers were instructed to wear long pants, long sleeve shirts, a hard had, solid hiking boots, and to bring two sources of light.  Peyton (second from the right) had several flashlights and a head lamp fastened to his hard hat.  Their tour was well over two hours long, and I totally admire the adults that braved that tour!  Several moms txted Kelly that evening saying that if Peyton wouldn’t have helped pull them out of holes and through openings they would still be stuck there!  He loved the whole thing and wants to go again and do the three hour tour.  Sounds a little like the S S Minnow to me….

We all had a good time (even Chase, who is hard pressed to get too far from his X-Box and Switch) and worked up an appetite.  We ordered Abie and Bimbo’s pizza on the way home and ate most of it in record time.  Thanks for including me in another Hancher family adventure.  I loved being the ‘Grammy’ on the school field trip!