We went out and set up the signs so people could find our road, drove out to the other side of the land and walked down to the cave. I sent Tom in first to check it out to make sure that no animal was there. He wanted to know why he had to go first. I pointed out to him that he can move much faster than I if it was necessary to get out fast. He argues that it wouldn't make that much difference because you can't get out of this cave that fast. But he went in first any way and checked it out, looking back into nooks and crannies that an animal could fit into. When he declared it ok I worked my way in. I found it far more difficult to get in than ever before. There is a slide down into a low room. I tried to squat and move that way but my knees won't do it any more. So I finally sat and inched forward on my butt. I must say that is much harder than it looks. Getting into the cave turned out to be painful for me. Then we checked it out and I was nervous about disturbing an animal in its lair because of the animal droppings in the cave. Tom thought that some rocks had fallen and it looked like a lot of water had moved through it. It was rather fun though to shine a flashlight and see a rock with a painted symbol on it, left from last year's BelSummer. Getting out was a little easier since I just crawled out though equally painful. At first I thought I would not be going into the cave any more but I realized if I just get garden kneepads so that my knees aren't hurt, I can keep doing it.
We also used a manually operated weed whacker to clear the trail to the cave. I think it was more fun last year. This year Tom is in the midst of this project with a deadline of this weekend so is frantically working on that program while trying to squeeze in getting ready for BelSummer. So he was on edge and in his focused, let's just get this done mood, instead of a more relaxed exploratory mood. I am not happy that he will be working through most of our festival.
Sam was the first to arrive and it was good to see him but I think he was disconcerted about being here with us before things had really gotten started. But he was pretty laid back about it all. In fact no one else showed up until it got closer to evening. It was a gray and damp afternoon and evening. By evening the local members of StarSpring had shown up and set up camp. And a first time visitor dropped in to meet us with her daughter. I think she was a little uncertain about coming out here for the first time and coming when there were less people here gave us a time to sit and talk quietly while the others were setting up. She seems like a lovely young woman with an adorable daughter, who drew me a picture of an air snake/dragon. I have it up on my refrigerator right now. I hope we will be seeing more of her as she is somewhat local.
Copyright © 2001 Kyril Oakwind