spelunk-ish

maquoketa caves state park has a network of 16 caves connected by trails and a lot of folks come prepared--with grubby clothes, kneepads and headlamps--to wriggle through the smaller ones with one or two foot ceilings. we were up for a less messy and claustrophobia-inducing experience, so we hauled along the giant mag-lite to get a better look from a distance. of course, you can walk through a few of the caves and one of them (aptly called dancehall) actually used to be a venue for dances with live music. the caves also used to have stalactites and stalagmites...until people stole them! me and rob under the natural bridge.
the natural bridge in all its natural glory.

check out the face on that tree!

here are rob and betsy with their cousins mark and sarah (who used to live near maquoketa) at the state park back in the day. i didn't shrink this one for the upload, so you can click on it for more detail. rob has a good, serious explorer pose going on, but betsy is clearly none too impressed.