Loretta's Little Life: Catching Up -- Lights Under Louisville...

Our Christmas began with picking up young Tim and Lisa from the airport on Thursday. The plan was to pick them up, drive home and have a late dinner. But, because of their tight schedule as they flew from Arizona to Denver to Kentucky, they hadn't had lunch and were feeling very hungry. Since it was an hour and a half trip home we had to change the plan. That change of plans took us to Wendy's where they were offering a coupon for $5 off something called "Lights Under Louisville". The name was intriguing because each 4th of July they have what is called "Thunder Over Louisville" where they have a fantastic fireworks show in the skies over the city of Louisville.

We had planned to do Southern Lights in Lexington (a ride through the horse park with lights galore to ooo and ahhh about) while Tim and Lisa were here so we decided that we would do Lights Under Louisville in place of that. We didn't know what Lights Under Louisville was but we decided to find out! Our timing was perfect as was our location -- it opened at 6:00 pm and it was about 5:50 pm when we drove out of Wendy's parking lot, turned right and we were practically in line for the the place! WOO HOO!

Our wait wasn't long -- only about 15 or 20 minutes in line before we could see the mouth of the cavern bidding us to drive in. While waiting for the line to move there was a sign that, had I been ready with my camera, would have been an AWESOME addition to this blog post. I am disappointed to say that I have no picture. But it was rather humorous.....

As we were nearing the mouth of the cavern there was a sign sporting a mushroom cloud advertising that for a mere $10,000 per person you could reserve your spot in the cavern in case of a nuclear attack! A bomb-shelter? Really? Suddenly I had a change in what I wanted for Christmas. Charming thoughts for the New Year filled my head. :P

After doing a little research, I now know that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, (back when I was a babe in arms in 1962) the caverns served as bomb shelter - at least for those lucky enough to have a reservation- just in case the need arose. Obviously it wasn't needed but over the past 20 years, recycled concrete, brick, block, car parts, non-organic waste, rock and dirt have been dropped off and been used to fill in holes and create floors and internal roads in the 17 mile cavern. Apparently that is where a lot of Louisville's non-biodegradable waste has gone...to make floors and roads in the bomb-shelter. Who knew? We've lived in Kentucky for 15 years now and we never knew!

So we drove through the awesome Mega Cavern to see the Christmas lights...

Today the cavern is used as a weather-proof, earthquake-proof storage center for things like cars, boat, (they've got to be some special cars and boats!), road salt, documents, and even items like original Hollywood movie prints like The Wizard of Oz and many original Disney films are stored there. There is even a worm farm in the cavern and rumor has it that the tour guide actually EATS A WORM on the tour. I am not sure if seeing a tour guide eat a worm is worth the $13 price per person for admission on the regular tours! The Mega Cavern even boasts that it is so safe that it would withstand a tornado or direct hit from a 747 off-course from nearby Louisville International Airport. I just wonder, HOW do they know that?

Wow...if I just had $10,000!