Penn's Caves in state of Pennslyvania is America's only all water cavern. Its a natural limestone cavern having many formations of stalactites and stalagmites.
It was saturday 28th July 2007 when three of us set out for visiting this caves. Myself, Raviraj and Nitin Patil. As usual we had rented a car from AVIS to do this long drive. We had craze for Pontiac in those days and mind you it is one of the best cars especially if you're driving Grand Prix version. This time it was regular Pontiac G6 though. Journey was 150 miles away from our home in Baltimore (MD) so roughly 3 hours drive.
We didn't had actual Garmin GPS in those days so we were using Microsoft GPS which hooks on to your laptop through USB and you can stick the GPS antenna onto the windshield of car. Map obviously is seen on laptop. It still very much does what GPS would do but the whole setup and co-driver needing to sit with laptop on his lap is irksome. Nevertheless objective accomplished. While driver and co-driver and kept themselves busy I din't mind comfortable back seat with option for legs stretched ;o)
As we crossed York in Pennslyvannia we came across quite unsual rest area and arrangements were quite vintage types. This gave us a hint we were nearing Lancaster. Didn't waste time to pose here.
Weather changed drasctically as we drove and at one point we were driving through dry/gloomy conditions and next moment it was pouring down. As we moved further away from Harribsurg, we did stop for a while with a nice sun light through sunroof.
As we kept driving up north, we did come across few signs of Amish culture. I have always been fascintated knowing about these people and watching few things closely was even more exciting. You can make out different types of houses they keep, work areas, horse buggey they use to transport in their own proximity. You could also see animals they graze and Milking farmhouse. Although it is also true that they don't like cameras pointed at them. So it might be difficult to picture actual Amish people. These particular drive to Penn's Caves remained in memory for this very reason, coming across Amish culture.
Finally we reached the destination and entry to caves was through a Cave house where you first need to register for cave tour. The cave house was unsurprisingly Amish themed and it gave nice feeling of being totally isolated from modern world. Being summer it was nice green lushy all around as well. Next to this cave house, there was also a Gemstone Panning. You can buy a bag of sand for 5$ and then work as a miner to find gemstones, gold, emrald etc.
The cave is actually situated on the small river and it has opening on two ends of it. So to view the cave you actually have to take a hour boat ride. Boat goes quite deep inside caves and then comes out through small opening on the side of caves. Cave is rich in geology and mainly made of limestone. It consisted of gigantic columns and pillars inside alongwith glittering stalactites and stalagmites. These formed various natural shape formations.
Overall it was nice experience and good one day trip. We got opportunity to see and learn quite a few new things.
