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The Road Less Traveled

Cave of the Winds
by Rosalie Robison

Schmoozing in the Smokies
by Sandy Summers

Spell of A River Town
by Diana Moes VandeHoef

Getting There Can Still Be Half the Fun
by Chandler Perdue

Discovering Bhutan
by Anna Stewart

A Mystical Trip to Mexico
by Barbara Hilal

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The Road Less Traveled

july 2002

Cave of the Winds
by Rosalie Robison

"If you don't care for my sick humor, you can leave before I begin this tour," said our tour guide for Cave of the Winds in Colorado.

I stay, walk on plaster spattered boards atop a perfectly smooth paved floor. Fluorescent bulbs that run close along the walls blend into the limestone cavern.

Stalagmite and stalactite formations that rise and fall like stone icicles have been broken off by previous cave visitors. Cement steps, slick like ship stairwells, have been installed with metal railings to reach the upper caves. In the Mysterious Temple of Silence, artificial green, amber, red and blue lights switch off and on, obliterating the natural gray and tan shades of the formations. The guide ignores pointing out the small cave canals, tunnels, and outlets that reach to the open sky as we walk through. I notice some of the stalagmites and stalactites are polished and as glossy as tiger's eye stones from numerous hands gliding absently over them.

Against a cave wall, a section of endless hair pins is stacked. Coins of all kinds gather here as well, having been tossed into the bunch like wishes at a fountain. Our guide tells us this wall began as a myth by an unmarried woman who confidently claimed, "If you stuck a hairpin in the pile you will be married within a year; if you removed a hairpin from the heap you will be divorced within a year!" From the back of the group, a man yells, chuckling, "I'll take three!" I reach into the pile of coins and take a dime instead.