Gap Cave

Gap Cave is located within the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. The Park is located on a map where KY, TN, and VA meet. Middlesboro KY is on the north, and Cumberland Gap TN is on the south. The cave has been used by mankind since the first settlers passed through the gap of the Cumberland's. Early pioneers used it as a place for shelter as they passed through the area, A slave named Cudjo, used it as a hide out, both union and confederate soldiers used it during the civil war, Lincoln Memorial University used it as a money making tourist trap, and now the CGNHP has it, and they are committed to preserving it, although they do offer tours through it for a small fee.

The tour offered by the CGNHP starts at the visitors center in Cumberland Gap. Here you park your car, and pay the $8 fee, ($4 with the golden access) and $4 for children.

Once you have paid the fees you meet up with the tour guide under the covered gateway. The gateway offers sounds of the pioneers passing through the gap, and you will see silhouettes of people, Indians, and animals as you might have seen in the 1800's.  

The guide will give a brief spill about the cave and history before he leads you on a 6/10 of a mile hike up the mountain to the cave entrance.

 

There will be a stop or two on the way up to give us old folks a breather, and that gives the tour guide a chance to tell a little history about the area.

Once you reach the cave entrance the guide will unlock the gates, and give a short safety briefing. Both the entrance and exit have locked gates to keep the cave safe from all kinds of creatures.                             (man being the main one)

Once in the cave if you happen to shine your light in the right spot you will see a bat clinging to the ceiling, or a wall.

The guide will ask you what formations are in the cave, and if nobody knows he/she will tell you. The guide will also tell you about the history of the cave.

You will find out about the water in the cave, and what the water does to and for the cave.

The guide will explain how long it takes to make some of these formations.

You will also hear some of the tales that have been passed down from generation to generation.

You will learn about some of the cities found inside the cave, such as the one below.

If your in the tri state area (ky,tn,&va) you will be glad you forked over the $8 to see this awesome piece of history. Here is a picture of us as we exited the cave a couple weeks ago.

                                Marcia, Jenelle,Joe,Corey,Joshua,and Justin after a GAP CAVE TOUR.

Paul Blaine Jones 09/09/1936 06/04/2011

Dad lived a full life, he passed away at home with family surrounding him.

Once things get setteled back to some kind of normal I will do a blog about the greatest dad anyone could ever have.......

The Greatest Dad

 I'm sure almost everyone thinks they have the greatest dad ever, and I feel really sorry for those that don't. I know I have the greatest dad, but his time here on earth is short. He has been in the hospital or rehab since March the 20th, with the exception of one week he was able to go home.

 Today the decision was made to get him back home with hospice care. He said he was just too tired and it hurt too much to continue with the rehab. When the social worker explained the hospice care and told dad they would make him comfortable he decided that was the way to go.

 Tomorrow we will head back to the old home place, if hospice can get everything lined out that dad will need. He requires so much oxygen that most of the rehab centers couldn't help dad even if he wanted to continue with the rehab. Tomorrow night I will make us a large pan of biscuits, and Marcia will make plenty gravy. Dad will be home and most of his family will be there to welcome him back home, and maybe some day I will tell you a few reasons of why I KNOW I have the greatest dad.........

The Cumberland Gap Tunnel

I don't think anyone really knows when the thoughts of a tunnel through the Cumberland's was first thought of, but it was opened in 1996. In the 1700's Daniel Boone made the Gap through the Cumberland's known. He and others led many people through the gap into Kaintuck, or Kentucky as we know it today. In the 1920's a road was built for automobiles to cross the Cumberland mountains, one of its names was Wilderness Trail, taken from what settlers called the trail that the road followed.

The road was a winding road connecting Cumberland Gap TN to Middlesboro Ky, but you had to pass through a short section of VA to get from one place to the other. This 3 mile section of road was named Massacre Mountain by the locals because there was so many crashes on it. As in most mountain roads a crash often resulted in fatalities.

Here is a pic of TN side opening of the tunnel.

It took 17 years from start to opening, I'm not sure if the 17 years included the many years of planning before they actually started the digging. The Tunnel is located in the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, and park Rangers do the patrolling. There are two tunnels, one for the north bound traffic and one for the south bound traffic, each tunnel has two lanes of traffic. The tunnel is 4600 feet long, and connects Ky to TN. The state line is not marked inside the tunnel to avoid state rivalries.

We were fortunate enough to get a tour of the tunnel thanks to the Great Staff at the CGNHP. About 22 volunteers were taken on a tour of the tunnel a few weeks ago. This is a picture of the control room where many cameras, temps, carbon monoxide, and a lot of other stuff is monitored.

This picture was taken inside the the control room looking towards Middlesboro.



This picture is on top of the tunnel looking towards Middlesboro, with several of the volunteers walking to the edge. We were told two deer have jumped to their death from up there, one landing in the north bound lane, and the other in the spillway of the north bound lane.

 US 25 E coming out of the tunnel, taken from the top of the tunnel.

The Tunnel employees 37 people, all EMT trained, it has ambulances, wreckers, and fire trucks on both ends. An average of 35,000 vehicles pass through it daily, and that doubles when NASCAR races are held in Bristol. The tunnel has made it easy to get from KY to TN and eliminated many crashes. The Middlesboro rescue squad had a 50% reduction in the number of crashes it responded to the first year the tunnel was open.

In 2002 the old US 25 E was restored ( as best as they could) to the way it was when Daniel Boone led settlers through the Gap into Kaintuck. You can walk the same trail that Daniel Boone walked.

Where have I been????

It is safe to say I haven't been on the PC doing my blog.

Things are a little on the busy side here in SE KY. Dad has been in and out of the hospital too many times, and the worst part is he is in the hospital now. He is doing better, but all the therapy he had has been lost with this last set back. On top of his bad lungs, and failing heart, he has an ulcer in his stomach that acts up way too often, but we aren't ready to give up, and neither is he.

 We found out today that Wal-Mart didn't mount my wheels right on the jeep. The wheels are uni-lug which requires a washer to be placed "correctly" between the wheels and the lug nut which they didn't do on half of them. After Wal-Mart in Fountain City decided they couldn't fix them they sent me to one of the shops that covers their mistakes. That shop didn't have the washers or lug nuts that we needed replaced, so I wound up taking it to a wheel and tire shop to get the lug nuts replaced. Now I have to take it back to Corbin to get the wheels replaced that they scared up removing the messed up lug nuts.

 We did make it to Raccoon Valley SKP Park for their dine in tonight. It was really good to see some of our RV friends. Sue and Niel are back at Raccoon Valley, Carl is there, and several others we have met in the past four years. We left some pamplets about the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park at the office, and I was shocked to find out some people don't know about the park or all it has to offer.

 So that has inspired me to do a blog about the park. In the next couple blogs I'll be telling a little about the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and some of the things you can enjoy if you happen to be lucky enough to visit this little part of the world. And now that "Blackberry winter" has passed the weather should be just about perfect. Blackberry winter is the last cold spell in this area, so I will be a happy camper......

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

 We were raised a few miles from CGNHP and took it for granted most of our lives. Now that we have seen other National Parks and stay in State and National parks a lot we have grown to appreciate them a whole lot more. We have also decided to give some of our time to the park.

 Marcia will be helping out in the visitor center a few days a week, (or where ever they need help) and I will help out where ever they need me or can use me. They gave us nice shirts and hats to wear so everyone knows that we are officially helping out. They also are providing a very nice place for us to park the rig, right between a favorite picnic area and the rangers station.

 We will be here for the month of May, and if things work out for us and the park we will hang around for the month of June too. This really works well for us since we will be in the area any way because of dad's health issues. The etch-a-sketch shows us hanging around here until dad is better, so we won't be spending much $$ on diesel fuel for the next few months.

 Dad was put back into ICU tonight, he had started retaining fluids so they moved him back to the hospital room to treat his lungs. Once he was moved to a hospital room they did an EKG and found his heart rate was too high so they had to give him a cardiac drip, and with the drip he has to be under a close watch so ICU is where he wound up.

 The move was mainly because of insurance, they only pay for so many days of rehab, and the doctor didn't want to waste those days while he was treating his lungs. Which turned out to be a good thing because the found the elevated heart rate with the EKG and he will get that taken care of before it causes additional problems.

 With all the new changes tonight dad is doing a lot better. He walked to the bathroom and back by himself tonight. He was out of breath when he got back to the bed, but that is a big improvement from him not being able to lift his legs. One of his goals is to take off with us this summer to Montana, so if he gets well enough we will be headed to Lima Montana.

 Its late and I have a doctor appointment tomorrow in Lexington so this is it for this blog post, I'll be back for another soon.......................... I hope..........................

Th excitement Continues

Yes the excitement continues here in Southeastern Kentucky, it just isn't the excitement we want.

 We returned to Cumberland Gap National Park because dad was having major health issues. March the 20th he was admitted to ARH hospital with congestive heart failure and phenomena. He spent the next 12 days in ICU. He was then released from ICU and the hospital and sent to Tri State Health Care for rehab. The problem accrued because the doctor didn't send the script for his meds, which resulted in dad being rushed back to ARH with a 160 heart rate, on the 4th of April.
 Dad spent the next two days back in ICU where everything started improving because he was getting his meds. Another problem accrued when his regular doctor increased his meds causing his PB to bottom out the day after he was returned to Tri State. That triggered another trip to the ER where he was treated and released back to Tri State, but the ER doctor took him off his meds, and the doctors at Tri State wouldn't start them back.
 Monday the 11th one of the nurses at Tri State attempted to give day a sleeping pill at 7:30 AM. Thankfully dad and Scott caught the mistake. Some other things happened causing Tri State to limit all of dads visits, and when they told us to say our good-byes and tell dad we would be back at 4 PM I told them to get dads discharge papers because we were leaving.
 Tri State contacted Pineville hospital and rehab center for us and it was set up for us to take dad to Pineville. He has spent the past week in Pineville hospital where he has been getting better treatment resulting in him getting better physically. Today he was moved to the rehab center at the Pineville Community Hospital and doing A LOT better. So we have had plenty excitement, it just isn't the excitement we like.

 As for what we have been doing, we got to visit with three of my cousins from the Lima Ohio Area that I haven't seen in years. Beverly, Linda and Jamie came down to see dad and we got to spend a few hours together at the RV. I really think they liked the idea of us living in our RV full time.

 We have been getting our bingo fix too. Marcia goes several times a week, and I join her a couple times a week. It really helps when we are able to yell B I N G O, and they bring us the $$$. The jeep got a new set of shoes today. I had ordered a set of Cragar Mags, ( the hottest wheels made back in the 70's) and today we had them put on with a new set of Wrangler tires. We also have a new soft top to put on it next week, and a set of driving lights. The lights have smiley face covers to match the spare tire cover they put on it when the repaired it after the lady rear-ended Marcia in FL a few months ago.

 The "etch-a-sketch" is kind of broken until dad gets his health issues under control, but the Cumberland Gap National Park is a pretty good place for us to stay while we wait, and maybe we will be able to get some sightseeing in over the next couple of weeks.

 If you happen to be in the area let us know, we would love to show you around some......................