THE TRUCK PULL

Just about every county fair has a truck pull competition. Not only is there money on the line but a lot of bragging rights as well. Pulling has nothing to do with speed but is about pulling a weighted sled 300 feet down a straight course. It might look easy but there are as many things that can go wrong as you might find at any car race. One mistake and your day is done. The noise is deafening and there's plenty of dirty and smoke in the air and it's expensive if something breaks, but you can ask any driver.......it is fun.

ROLLOVER

I told you about some of the different events you find at different county fairs in my last post. Well, the Harrison County Fair in Southern Indiana also has one of those special events. It's the rollover competition during the big car demolition derby on Friday night.

Now the guys who do this aren't high paid stunt drivers like you see in the movies. They're plain people like you and me who simply like to get upside down in a car. They do make sure they have all the safety features needed to do this right, the roll cage, safety harness, window netting, everything you need to tumble a car and then be able to get out and walk after tearing it up.

Now there is a true art in getting one of these cars to go upside down and back on its wheels. You have to have the right speed and it helps if you've got the right kind of car. Most of those who competed used the smaller cars with a high center of gravity making them easy to turn over. You have the hit the ramp just right and also yank the steering wheel at the right time for a little extra pop. If you put all of these combinations in the order needed and get your timing right you can easily make one of these cars do a standup jig. Now the car you see in this picture didn't have everything quite right when he made this attempt. The one thing wrong here is the wheels are straight. On this attempt the car simply came back down on all fours and didn't land on its side or the roof.

Now the driver of this car shows how to get it done. He came into the ramp carrying a lot of speed and got the car to do a little shake and bake on it's nose. Scoring is done by how you land, so many points if you're on your side, on your roof and it adds up more the more you roll. If you can get it to roll more than once then even more points are tallied in.....plus it sends the crowd into a frenzy....always a plus. One driver hit the ramp almost center and instead of getting upside down, ripped open his oil pan spilling the contents onto the track....never a good thing if you want to keep the car running. Anytime you can get the car on its nose, however, is a grand crowd pleaser and I can promise you they will let you know it.

Of course getting a car to roll over and over is the best thing. The driver of this car knew exactly what he needed to do. Not only did he roll this car once but he made it fly again with another complete rollover. Anytime you can get a car to do a dance routine like this one you're going to get a good ovation from those in the stands. The sound of sheet metal scrunching into scrap metal seems to push the adrenal gland to its max.

And everybody likes a good flier. I remember a car a few years ago that launched his car more than 8 feet off the ground as he rolled it on its roof and then on its wheels. And what did the driver think when he got out??? He jumped on what was left of the roof and pumped both fists in the air finishing off with a primordial scream.

And there's one person I don't want to leave out in all over this. That is Kentucky's own Mealy Brown, otherwise known as the Tin Man. Brown has been rolling over cars for more than 30 years. The big thing is he's 69 years young and loves what he does. His car is named after the Tin Man from the story The Wizard of Oz and comes complete with smoking tin hat. In this competition Brown didn't fare as well as he has in other competitions but he still loves throwing that little car on its roof. A couple of years ago he missed the ramp altogether and slammed into a concrete barrier. The car was damaged enough it couldn't finish that competition but it didn't stop him. He came back the next year and rolled it twice onto its wheels and kept going.

THE HARRISON COUNTY FAIR

Each fair has its own personality. I know because I've been to more than 40 county fairs across Indiana. You might find a few things similar like with chores and things in the animal barns but if you go to enough of them you begin to see little differences. In some cases there are major differences with events on one end of the state totally different than the other end. Two counties in Indiana have combine demo derbies. One fair I went to has garden tractor races. Another one had pig wrestling where a team of three girls try to put a 60-pound pig on a tire on a 55-gallon drum filled with sand in a mud pit. Everywhere you go you'll find something just a little different than the other. It's the same way with the Crawford County fair, which I just showed you, and the Harrison County fair, which I'm going to show you now. So just simply refill that cup of lemonade (and it's really good right now when it's hot), get something to feed your face, and have another good ol' time.

THE COUNTY FAIR

Aaaahhh the county fair....a place we can kind of kick back, have some lemonade, some cotton candy, maybe a good ribeye steak and simply just relax.....well maybe.

There are two county fairs near here every summer that I cover for our local paper, in Crawford and Harrison Counties. Both have lot to offer and both have some things you might not see anywhere else. I figure the best way to do it is to just let you see the sights. I could do a lot of talking but I think the picture will tell more than any words I could put on here. This first set of pictures comes from the Crawford County fair this summer. So just sit back, smell the popcorn......or grilled steak, suck on that lemonade, and enjoy the sights.

GOING UNDERGROUND

Well.....after spending a week with the cavers of the NSS I knew the only way to close out the week was to have my own underground adventure. So I took up an invitation by Wyandotte Cave tour guide Cassi Binkley to go on a crawling tour of Wyandotte Cave in Southern Indiana along Highway 62 near Leavenworth.

The group Cassi would be touring was from a girls camp from Cincinnati, Indiana ranging in age from 16 to 19 years old. Their camp counselor, however, was from Liverpool, England and yes she said, "The home of the Beatles." We got a little bit of a late start and the air was warming up quite a bit but once we got underground the air temp of about 55 degrees felt very good. The first part was walking through one of the larger tunnels but it wasn't long before we got to our first interesting squeeze.

It's called The Animal Pit and is about a 20 foot drop. I had taken this trip one other time but I must admit it was my first trip into the pit. There's a bit of a squeeze to get to a ladder that is handily near the top but you still have to watch your step as you can make a little slip and bop your head on the way down. But overall it's not bad. I apologize for the picture not being better but I forgot about the bill on the crash hat I was wearing overunning the camera's flash. The hat, however, would prove its usefullness later on.

Following the drop into the pit came a very narrow passageway for about 30 yards or so. I must also admit to a little poundage since my last time here so it was a bit of a squeeze for me to get through it...and a little slower. I did drop off to the side to get a few pictures of some of the girls squeezing their way through the tunnel. When they all went by me then I pushed my backpack in front of me to come out into a larger room where the others were waiting. Caving is in a way the same as hiking only you're underground. You still have to have some of same items as you might carry on a hiking trip, water, food, first aid kit. You have to have a good light and a backup light is a must in case your main light goes out. Trying to find your way out of a hole like this can be pretty much impossible and you can find yourself falling into a hole so deep you might not hit the bottom.

We came up one one of Cassi's favorite spots on this particular trip, which by the way is the route to the Pillar of Constitution. At this particular spot there is bit of a slide you can save a few steps on. I took the lower route through a tunnel to the other side so I could get pictures of the girls at recess. This was one of the more enjoyable spots as they got to have a little fun on this one. Of course Cassi had take a different approach to the whole thing when she did a headfirst slide.

A little later Cassi took a few of the girls through another narrow passage while I took a detour to catch them coming out on the other side. Cassi has been caving for about 10 years now and if there's a hole she can crawl through you'll probably find her in it somewhere. She told me she hasn't got around to mastering the vertical parts of the sport yet but plans to learn that later so she can get into some of the best caves in the country. One thing is for sure. She was having fun getting dirty on this trip.

Some of the other girls found the squeeze game a little more challenging, however, and some found it very intimidating and talked about how they'd rather be back outside. But with a little coaxing from both Cassi and myself they pushed on. Following that bit of tunneling we started a series of ups and downs up and over several large hills. They were also pretty steep and could give you a few problems if you didn't watch yourself. (The picture at the beginning of this post is one of them.) There was a lot of breakdown rocks on some of these hills and you had to watch your step. You also had to watch for rocks you might be knocking loose.

One of those rocks did cause a problem. I looked up to see a rock about the size of a golf ball whiz about a foot past my head. Not two seconds later it went by the girl behind me and missed. The girl behind her, however, wasn't quite as lucky as the chunk of limestone caught on the bridge of her nose right between the eyes. Needless to say she was stunned and dazed somewhat. The injury itself was minor but could have been much worse had it hit her in eye. Like a trooper, however, she continued on. Another problem came a few minutes later as another girl sat down and froze up, saying she was going no farther. It took a good 15 minutes to coax her into moving on to the Pillar room, which was only a few yards away, but finally she was moving again and we were on our way. We had one more small squeeze through a place called Saddle Rock. Cassi, meanwhile, took an even small route and came out a side tunnel.

This picture here does in no way give justice to the room which holds the Pillar of Constitution. As you can see by the scale with the girls the room is very large and the Pillar, which I did not get all of, stands about 30 feet tall. It's a place you really have to be there to get the full pleasure of. After spending several minutes there we worked our way back toward the entrance. Two of the girls had really gotten into the whole caving thing and stayed step for step with Cassi through whichever tunnel she crawled into. On our way out we met another larger group going in. I'm sure somewhere in that bunch would be a caver like the two with Cassi, ready for the underground.

A MOST UNUSUAL BANQUET

So...where do you hold a banquet for more than 1,400 cavers? On top of mountain? In a big convention center? Perhaps in a large circus tent? The NSS had the perfect place for this year's convention ending banquet...the Marengo Warehouse and Distribution Center, an underground facility used by both the government and a variety of different commercial companies.

The cavers were shuttled to the facility by way of school bus from the 4-H campground. The night before for the photo salon I rode one of the buses in and I can tell you there were a lot of OOHs and AAHs as we traveled inside the large tunnels once used to haul out tons of limestone rock. What makes the facility so unique is its constant temperature of 55 degrees, just like what you would find inside a cave. For the cavers, having the banquet underground was like being at home.

Inside the underground room tables and chairs were set up like you would see inside a regular convention center only in this case the walls were mostly natural limestone rock. While no real bats were seen flutter around, rubber bats were hung from the walls to help make the cavers feel more at home. Bottles of fine wine were on the tables waiting for the cavers arrival and a very tasty meal was provided before the main program began.

I have to admit I was most impressed, well maybe overwhelmed is the word I should be using in this case, by the people that I had met during the week. But before I could wrap it all up I felt like there was one thing I had to do to put it all in perspective. I had to take my own trip underground. That is what I bring you next time.

GOING VERTICAL!!!

If you're a caver one thing you should seriously learn is vertical climbing. Not all caves have got an easy entrance like some of the commercial caves like Mammoth Cave, Marengo Cave, and others where you just walk in for an easy stroll. Some of the best caves in the world need a good long rope to be seen.

Vertical climbing is one of the more technical aspects of caving. There's are at least five different methods and systems for climbing. Some are more basic in nature and take a little more work while the more mechanical systems can get you in and out of a hole very quickly. They also take a wee bit longer to learn too.

First of all age doesn't matter when it comes to vertical climbing. I've already told you about Bill and Mariam Cuddington, who are 73 and 64 respectively and do climbs all over the country. Here I'm showing you 9 year old Melannie Chenier, of Canada, who became the youngest person in the world to do a 120 meter climb using the 'frog' or sit-stand method. Chenier climbed more than 370 feet of rope in just over 21 minutes. One man, who was 33 years old and more physically fit, did a 30 meter mechanical climb in just 30.5 seconds. The only limit you give to this is the limit you give to yourself. With the right gear a person can sit, or even sleep on a rope and feel very comfortable. Some of those that have made the climb on El Capitan have even spent the night on the side of the rock wall using a hammock system, not that I would feel that comfortable sleeping at more than 2,000 feet off the ground with only air between me and the Earth below.

The best climbers will tell you to take classes before making the big climbs, learn from a certified climber and use the best gear. During the vertical climb class at this year's convention nearly 50 people showed up to learn from the best of the best. They learned the proper use of a cable ladder. They learned how to used one of the most basic three-knot systems, which looked the most difficult to me, although for some of the most experienced it is a good way to stay fresh. Others practiced on the 'frog' system while even others learned to used two different mechanical systems, the Rope Walker and the Mitchell system. One man told me he was afraid of heights but said you spend so much time concentrating on what you're doing you don't have time to be afraid.

Oh....one last thing. I had one man come down and sit next to me and was telling me about the different systems he had used. He also told me he would be going to a pit in Georgia in a few weeks that was 240 feet deep. You might ask what's so unusual about that. The man is 83 years old. We should all be so lucky.