Big crowd for Crawlathon

From the Herald Dispatch

Article by David Lavender

OLIVE HILL, Ky. -- For the past seven years, Christy Board, and her 12-year-old son, William Seiter, of California, Ky., have made the two-hour trip from Northern Kentucky to Carter Caves State Resort Park to get back to the Earth -- literally.

This weekend, the mother and son were two of a record-breaking crowd of 740 cavers from all over the country that came together at Carter Caves to take part in the 26th annual Crawlathon.

"It's about being able to be on a guided trip but one that's not lighted and that has crawling that lets you get down in the Earth," Board said of the lure of the wild caving event.

Like the ultimate backstage pass to Carter County's wealth of caves, the three-day Crawlathon, which just wrapped up Sunday, is a family friendly affair that offers educational programs from some of the country's top biologists and cave experts, unique indoor sports from the Squeezebox and the Mammoth Corrugated Cave and about every type of cave trip imaginable from canoeing and advanced cave pit plunging trips to simple walking tours.

"It's an experience you really can't get in other parts of the country," said Linda Pollock of Anderson City, Ky. Pollock and her husband, Don, who have been involved with Crawlathon from the beginning, would know.

She started bringing her daughter Leia Curphey, 28, when she was just a child, and this weekend Curphey was there with her husband and two kids, including 3-month-old Fiona.
"This is the most family-oriented caving event that you will find from the bat crafts to the Caving Let's Do It Right program," Pollock said. Hanging at the Lewis Caveland Lodge on Saturday, Pollock couldn't wait to have her fun on Sunday when she got to try out her latest creation, a 3-D cavers version of the board game "Clue" in Cascade Cave, a live murder mystery to find out who killed Sir John Karst.

That kind of creative spirit pervades Crawlathon.

In the basement of the Caveland Lodge, Steve Duncan's cardboard masterpiece, the Mammoth Corrugated Cave, stumped even the best cavers with its maze of boxes twist-tied together in a giant maze that had two levels, fake cave formations, bats and even a live cam that folks could watch by the fireplace upstairs.

"That was a lot of work you all put into that," said a tired Jennifer Tislerics, 33, a Detroit-area resident who was the first person to get through the cardboard cave on Saturday morning.

In the Fields Room, the famous Squeezebox, a wood box to test your crawling skills, drew a large crowd on Saturday night to see how low they could go. Although he stands 6'5" and weighs over 201 pounds, Marshall student Jamie Dzierzak won his third straight heavyweight division in the Squeezebox competition. Somehow, Dzierzak, who doesn't look like he could fit comfortably in the front of a regular-sized car, pulled himself through the Medieval-looking contraption at 71/2 inches height. If you're wanting a visual, that's just a wee bit higher than a dollar bill's length of six inches.

Dzierzak was just one of the 28 people associated with Boy Scout Troop 762 out of Bates Memorial Presbyterian Church on East Pea Ridge Road that was attending Crawlathon.
The Cabell County crawlers did a number on the Squeezebox with sisters Sarah Thacker, 9, and Erin Thacker, 11, winning first place in their age division with squeezes of 61/2 inches and 61/4 inches, respectively. Beth Thacker took third place in the 126-157 pound division, and Seth Spurlock took second place in the 7-year-old division.

Park naturalist Sam Plummer has been at Carter Caves for 25 years and has been a part of all 26 Crawlathons. Plummer said he contributes good organization and publicity and a good time as factors to why Crawlathon is topping record numbers. "The word has finally gotten out after 26 years," Plummer said, laughing. "I think part of it too is that the fall of the year and the first part of the winter have been very mild. We just have a lot of people who just want to get out and explore."

On Saturday, Lisa Pruitt-Thorner, president of ESSO Grotto and a veteran caver, guided two dozen cavers through the sopping wet passages of Rimstone, Horn Hollow and Laurel Caves.
"This is the fun part. Now we get to crawl on our bellies backward," Pruitt-Thorner said teasing the group of mostly Boy Scouts from Troop 111, out of Lexington, Ky., after they just completed a 50-foot crawl called the Connection. John Alcorn, the troop leader, said they brought 41 kids this year after getting hooked on the event that is geared for all skill levels, that teaches so much about the ecology of caves and that is just so much fun.

Alcorn burst into laughter as his scouts emerged soaked from the Surprise Dome Passage, a short but extremely wet crawl. "I knew if anyone would have to get completely wet it would be you," Alcorn said to Nick Thompson, 11.

"It was worth every second of it," Thompson said.

Albino Bambies and Sackfuls of Bugsies

Jerry and I went to GSP and camped in the cold (25 degrees). We had an electric blanket and it kept us pretty warm. We hiked on Saturday in the bright winter sunlight and saw a blue heron.

As we were leaving Sunday evening, we saw a white or albino deer. It was like a ghost deer, almost ethereal. It was about 6:00 p.m. and there was still a little twilight left. We each had our own cars and were following each other on a quiet, rural gravel road. Once a local resident warned Jerry that there were "haints" on the road. Jerry was in the lead and first spotted the deer, about 15 feet back in the trees.

He quickly manuevered his jeep to capture the ghostly creature in his headlights. The deer lept toward the right, which happened to be toward my car. I couldn't make it out well but I could see it's shape and glowing white skin. It lept deeper into the woods and Jerry continued on down the road. As I was about to do the same, I noticed the deer standing at the top of the hill. It seemed to almost cast off it's own light, beautiful. It just stood there, it seemed to be looking at me. I sat there watching it until Jerry turned around and came back to me. When his jeep approached, the deer moved on.

One morning on the same roadway, Jerry and I witnessed a bombardment of bunnies, a rain of rabbits, a hail of hip-hops, a copious quantity of cotton-tails. It was early summer and every two or three hundred feet of so as we drove, three or four bunnies could be found in the road. They hopped to safety in every direction. I imagine that by the end of our journey, we had encountered more than 50 bunnies.

Some Christmas Memories

Photo at left - my original family. From left: my dad, my brother Ian, my sister Heather, me in blue, my mother.

Photo above: my beautiful daughter, Camille, at Hocking Hills

Photo at left: my beautiful daughter, Chloe, swinging up into the trees. Jerry, his children, and myself, went to Hocking Hills for a weekend in December. The weather was wonderful so Jerry rigged us up a tree swing. It swung up over a ravine. Chloe's about 25 feet off the ground here.

Good morning

It's Thursday morning at 8:40 a.m. I'm sitting here, drinking mocha latte coffee out of my Titanic White Star Line mug. I have bed head. I am wearing mismatched pajamas and a ratty red robe.

I'm trying to decide whether I shall hide my heart from my life today or go into the pain. I'm trying to remember what I need to do at the office today. I am looking forward to getting my girls back after they spent last night with their dad.

Once I post this, I will clean up my living room and then take a shower. I will drink another cup of coffee. I may fold the laundry. I may cry, haven't decided. I will have to attend the school's PTA meeting tonight because my daughter is singing.

My heart is heavy. I need to escape from it.

Corrugated chest cold

I've had a chest cold, which I can't seem to get over. Jerry and I went caving in Carter County, Kentucky a couple of weeks ago. We were putting on our gear when a friend came by. He told us he was waiting for a couple of mutual friends and they were going caving too. Jerry and I really like these two, so we decided to wait for me. After we were ready; Jerry with his carbide lamp charged, our knee pads adjusted, gloves on, we decided to drive up to the lodge; see if our friends ever showed up. We when arrived, we found out that everyone was working on the corrugated cave for Crawlathon instead.

We went to check on the corrugated cave's progress and ended up getting drafted for the construction. What is corrugated cave? It's an artificial cave, built entirely from cardboard. There are a couple of thousand feet of cave once construction is completed. There are small crawlways, an upper level, formations, mazes. It's pretty fascinating. The cardboard boxes are joined with plastic click ties. A drill is used to make corresponding holes through the two boxes and then the ties hold them together.

We worked on the HP survey, so named because our boxes came from Hewlett Packard printers. The passage, once competed, was about 40 feet long. It was about two feet tall by 18 inches wide. My job was usually to get inside the passage and grab the plastic ties as they were shoved from the outside, redirecting the tie and pushing it back through the other hole. I lay on my back, just below the drill as it poked its way into my cocoone, about 8 inches above my face sometimes. When the drill emerged into my enclosed space, cardboard dust and particles rained down on me. I began having breathing problems after hours of this.

At the time, I thought my chest congestion was from the cardboard but it turned into a real chest cold, my cough sounding just like that of my little girls. I guess it was just a coincidence.

I am still plodding and plugging away at my New Year's Resolutions. I have lost one pound (I know, it's not much, but it's better than nuthin), I have met about 80% of my exercise goals and I have been reading self help books. I need more positive thinking.

A Refrain in Repose

She breathes, sighs contentedly
Slides her bare legs through the soft sheets
Feels his warmth in the night
Reaches for him
His arm draws around her waist
Like two question marks, side by side
She rubs his arm, slides her bare feet along his

Smells him
Tobacco, trees, spring air, soap
Senses him
His confidence, capability
Feels him
His strength, his capability
Hears him
His sleepy voice say "I love you"

She closes her eyes
Dreams
Dreams of him
Opens and sees
His is still with her
Such a gift
A gift unmatched
His warmth, his love, himself

How am I doing?

I have been at the "me" renovations for about 24 hours. For dinner last night I ate South Beach turkey roll ups with cilantro mayonnaise and a salad. For breakfast this morning, I ate a cheese stick. For lunch today, which was absolutely fantastic, I ate salad (iceberg, romaine, red peppers, tomato, fake crab, light ranch). I've had 2 cups of coffee and a small amount of water. I'll be reporting my weight tomorrow.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, pray, find me a 4 leaf clover, whatever works. Compete with me. Report your efforts.

Read and comment.

A Makeover

Okay, folks. Things have been pretty tough for me lately. I've decided to engage in a makeover, not makeup, hair and clothes necessarily, but a makeover of my mind and body. I will read motivational books, exercise and eat better.

What's my plan?

1. A diet - I've done the South Beach Diet before. I have decided to do it again. Once I lost about 15 pounds on it and I felt pretty good. I will do it now, beginning at lunch today. I will be eating lots of egg substitute, chicken, and only alcohol on the weekends.

Why a diet? Because I have become a butterball. Really. I am not happy with my physical state. So that I can shame myself, I will admit my weight right here, right now. I weighed myself this morning. I weigh 130 pounds. The holidays put 10 pounds on me, Halloween to New Years. What's my goal weight? 112. I can do it. I will try to post updates several times a week. I will post my official weight on Thursday mornings.

Hey, I suck at this stuff but I'm getting too old to be fat and out of shape. Getting old is hard enough. If you add fat and inactivity, it's that much harder. If I can do it, you can too. Jump in there. Post your results, compete with me.

I want to lose around 1 1/2 pounds a week. I've done this often enough. In the beginning, it will be faster. By the end, a struggle.

2. Along with this diet, I will also exercise more. I want to decrease body fat, increase muscle mass. How will I do this? I will start gently, don't want to get sore, find it too hard, quit. My goal for this next two weeks is simply to exercise 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Hey, that's way more than I've been doing. I will keep you updated on my progress. On Thursday, I will measure my body fat on the Tanita scale and post that too. Two years ago, I was working out hard, running and weight lifting, doing the Firm workouts. My body fat percentage was 12%. This isn't necessarily my goal but I want my body fat percentage to be squarely within an optimum level.

3. Find a measured, regular, happiness. Read motivational books, study things which I am interested in, be a better person to those I love, do fun things with my children and boyfriend. I've got to have some level, comfortable, regular routines.

This will begin at lunch today. (I ate 6 choc. chip cookies for breakfast so, I obviously wasn't starting then. Those are my last for some time now.) For lunch today I will have some kind of small salad and meat. Turkey roll ups perhaps.
This is where I am. Here I go.