While I'm away...

I had no idea there were so many fans of the 80's out there. I loved the eighty's, there were, of course, some not so fun times, but all in all, they were great. That being said, more pictures from the eighty's are in order. Let's start with "The Cave... 1987"

I may have posted this before, but as a reminder, I met my Darling Hubby in 1987 at one of the local watering holes. He was so cute. The following morning I told the girls I worked with that I had just met my future husband. It was more than love at first sight, it was also like, "babe, where have you been, I've been waiting on you, so glad you're here" kind of moment. I knew, (I mean I really knew in my mind and heart) right then, and there that he was the one for me. Knowing that bit of background, here are some pictures of one of our first dates together. Spelunking. Yes, me, the Queen of Claustrophobia, a very youthful 34 years old, was so crazy about this guy that I immediately agreed to go caving, sight unseen, to an area I was totally unfamiliar with.

There is a cave right outside his old stomping grounds. He said they had done this many, many times and even showed me pictures of previous trips. Looked ok to me. These are not tourist attraction type caves, these are the enter at your own risk type caves.


There is a hole that you drop/slide down about six feet to enter into the first area, what I will call the Great Room. It has a hole above it and the sun shines down into it like a heavenly beam. There is evidence of plenty of people having been there before us, note the names and dates on the walls.



After you leave that main room, there is no light. I mean complete mind numbing, breath taking, blackness. We all had flashlights and I was dragging all my 35 mm camera equipment with me. There was one area where we actually had to crawl on our hands and knees and then drag ourselves along the ground to get to the next opening. Try to picture this... DH is leading the way, I am in the middle and his brother, whom I had only known several days, is bringing up the rear. In the midst of trying to stay focused and not panicking, pushing the camera bag, dragging myself, I realize my jeans are coming off. I had no choice but to stop everyone's forward motion-several times- to readjust those jeans. That may be why I am so dirty in these pictures.



This flat tunnel lead to several rooms, where we stopped and smoked cigarettes and talked and took lots of pictures, including this one of me posing with a formation. It was so dark we had to use the flashlight to focus. After starting up again, we got to an area that had an old dirty, frayed, skinny rope, somehow anchored over the top of a mud covered incline. Things seemed really wet, and for good reason I finally start to get really scared. I say, "Let's get out of here. This muddy incline and a rope to go to the next chamber??? No way, I am not going, push me up on that rock, I am out of here, meet you out front". Rightly so, his brother joins me in this "mutiny" and we head back out. After a while, we make it to an area that we, do not remember, at all. DH and Brother, with poorly disguised uncertainty in their voices, point the last working flash light to the ground and put their hands on me and say "Stand right here, do not move at all", while we figure out where we are. They were gone for a while and I am in total blackness. I forgot and turned my head, touching a hanging formation. My natural reaction is to do what? You guessed it! I moved. I stepped to the side about six inches and whoosh, I went straight down into a cylindrical hole. God looks after the innocent and blessedly, I am still alive to post this. The hole was only about six feet deep. The guys said they heard me go "humph" and were close enough that they turned the light on me and were there immediately. One got on each side of the hole and put their hands under my armpits and lifted me straight up to solid ground. They then, quickly figured out which way to exit and we made it back. Good thing I didn't weigh that much, because it certainly took a lot of lifting and pushing to get this quivering mass of jelly back out into the light and the hope of seeing another day.

Needless to say, I never went back into a non-tourist attraction cave again.

That's my 80's story for now. I will be gone for the next five days, and will not be taking my laptop. So while I am coping with blogger withdrawal, I hope you enjoy this account and the pictures and that they hold me in your thoughts, until we get back with lots of great photos of our trip to the desert.

Have a good week and we'll talk soon.