Of the Wilds in Wind Cave, South Dakota

Making a brief stop in Wind Cave we gave hell to the tour guide. By ‘we’ I mean that Micah made several brilliant moves and comments which made Nick and I melt with laughter each time any of us made eye contact while Quarles cried inside, smothering his face with his hands. The guide gathered the group in the first large room and began to discuss the history of the cave pointing out that people lacked the technology that we have today. Rather than just saying that spelunkers used oil lanterns and candle boxes in the 1800’s she asked the group what technologies we have today that we didn’t have during that period. Micah, being a clever and slightly too loud smart ass, answered “LASER GUNS!” Choicely ignoring his comment (while we tried desperately to contain our hysterical giggles…though not with much success) she continued her speech in her irritatingly perky tour guide voice explaining that when people explored this cave in the 1800’s they wore much nicer clothes—women even wore skirts and high heel boots. I communicated my horror at the thought of wearing dress clothes instead of cotton jeans and Chacos, and Micah (in another too loud, shining moment) said “Well you know what else was different… they also shaved their armpits, Frances.” The snickers from the random people behind us only provoked him further.


Boxwork
In the final room of the tour a 9 year-old boy clad proudly in a Pokémon jacket went and stood shyly on the step next to the guide, Noelle. She paused, smiling at the child who suddenly became aware of his conspicuous location in front of the entire group as if he hadn’t realized where his adventurous feet had carried him. Abashed but grinning, he darted behind his mother’s khaki pants to avoid the bemused gaze of the tour group. Moments later, Nick nudged Micah’s elbow, indicating that he stand next to the guide as the young boy had done. Shuffling his feet in a slow yet purposeful manner, Micah sidled behind the guide, a wily grin just cracking at the corners of his eyes and mouth. Noelle’s face twitched as she fought the inevitable temptation to allow this to distract her while on the job. Matt, Nick, and I could hardly breathe as we tried to keep from laughing out loud at the sight of 6 foot Micah dwarfing the 5 foot guide as if to put forth the idea that Micah could be as innocent as the 9 year old who stood there only moments ago. The best part of all…Micah recorded the entire tour, laser gun comment and all, on his video camera.



Oh yeah…so the cave formations were great. They had ‘cave bacon’ and boxwork. I’ll just let the photographs (sorry…I don’t use a flash so they’re a little out of focus since caves don’t usually have much light) do justice to the actual cave sights. IT MIGHT BE GOOD TO KNOW…that you can click/double click on the photos to enlarge them.