Mammoth Cave

More than 367 miles of mapped Mammoth cave hide unseen under Kentucky. No one knows how much the Cave really cover because the full extent of the caves have not been explored. The second longest cave is only 143 miles, and is located in Ukrainskaya. Because Mammoth Cave has not been completely mapped some believe it could reach to 560 miles! If the Cave are 560 miles long you could go from Louisville, Ky, to Washington D.C. without seeing the sky!

There are many caves in Kentucky, like Fisher Ridge, cave which is the 7th longest cave in the world. Also the Roppel Cave, which in 1983 was found to connect to the Mammoth Cave. Some of the other caves in and around Kentucky could be part of the great Mammoth Cave. In fact, Kentucky has 14 caves that are on the longest cave of the world list.

On vacation, our family got to see some of the Mammoth Cave, and it's an amazing thing to see. Here are some images from our trip to the cave.

Our Vacation and trip to Lake Cumberland

Our vacation had two parts. One was to Gatlinburg, which is by the Smoky Mountains. The other part was a trip to Lake Cumberland. We spent several days at each place and we had fun and enjoyable activities at each.My favorite activity at Gatlinburg was the world's largest mirror maze which was a lot of fun. In a mirror maze every wall looks identical, and theire are mirrors everywhere which are clean enough that you can not see them. We also did an activity called "The Vault", in which dozens of lasers stand between you and a button. Your goal is to get to the button as fast as possible and press it, deactivating a timer. How ever each laser you trip adds thirty seconds to the timer.

When we went to Lake Cumberland my favorite activity was actually going down to the lake, where we rented a ski-boat and we pulled a tube behind us. Josiah went on the tube first , and we slowly picked up speed. Occasionally we hit bumps caused by our own boat's wake or other boats. These would send Josiah into the air. At one point during a turn Josiah and the tube flipped over we stopped the boat and Josiah got back the tube. After a little while Josiah flew off the tube during a turn and we drove the boat over to him and picked him up. Then I got on the tube and during that time I got close to flipping over several times. However I stayed on but eventually my dad managed to throw me off by doing tight circles. Then my dad went on, and we was on for a much shorter time and did not get thrown off. We all took second turns but none of them were very eventful. Except my dad's second turn on the tube, when he flew off and we got a picture of it.

Here is a picture of the splash

Tornadoes and the TIV

Tornadoes are one of the most feared natural disasters on the planet. When a tornado is coming there is little or no warning before it crashes into a house or a town. Because of this, most try to avoid tornadoes. However, not for Sean Casey and his friends. Sean is an IMAX film maker who wants to do what no other filmmaker has ever dreamed of doing.... getting in a tornado and filming it. However, Sean also has no desire to end up in Oz. To make sure he does not end up in Oz, Sean has built two "tanks" to get him and his camera in and out of a tornado without getting ripped apart.

Sean made the TIV in 2003-04 and made the TIV 2 in 2007-08. The TIV was made from a 1997 Ford F-450 truck. It boasted 7.5 tons of steel plating, along with bullet proof glass with a 360 degree view turret, where the IMAX camera is. It can travel at speeds of 100 MPH, and can withstand 200 hundred MPH winds. The TIV 2 was a step up, It has four wheel drive, included much better armor, with stronger glass and radar detecting equipment.

In addition to Sean and his tank, a weather researcher who designed the DOW (Doppler On Wheels) is helping him. The DOW is the team's primary radar vehicle, and can spot tornadoes and signs of possible tornadoes with efficiency. They also have scout, a normal truck, but the truck carries stationary probes, which the driver and passenger of the truck deploy. The probes are full of scientific equipment which will allow scientists to learn more about tornadoes, if a tornado hits a probe.