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Starr’s Cave

by Kenton Skarin, Copyright June 19, 2004, all rights reserved. 639 views

Friday

I arrived at 9 PM at the Bluedorn’s home after a long day at work and a four hour drive from the Chicago suburbs to find Greg, Doug, and Jill Wallace already visiting with the Bluedorn family.  A late game of “Imaginiff” served as an icebreaker.  It also gave rise to memorable answers to questions such as “Imaginiff Nathan were a sea creature. Which of the following would he be?”  Surprisingly, everyone except for Nathan was unanimous in agreeing that the creature would be “A Crab.”  In the “Imaginiff Kenton were a surgical procedure” category, everyone agreed that I would be a frontal lobotomy.  I’m not quite sure what to make of that. Completely embarrassed and more than a little tired, everyone went to bed around 11.  The guys somehow managed to talk until midnight.

Saturday

We awoke (some of us earlier than others and got ready for the day.  The girls prepared an excellent breakfast of biscuits and gravy which they served with fresh fruit, milk, and juice.  The drive to Starr’s Cave took about an hour.  The cave is in Iowa along the Mississippi River.

Arriving at the park around 10 AM, we met Adam and Jason Stanford as well as Kelli Hedding.  The three of them drove together from the Bloomington area to join us.  A short drive and a brief hike took us to a promising-looking opening high in the side of a cliff with an old staircase leading up to it.  Crouching inside, we proceeded to look for a room which the ranger had assured us would “hold a dozen people.”  The cave walls narrowed and lowered until we were crawling along the rocky floor.  Thankfully, the cave floor was dry except for perhaps three small, shallow puddles along the way.  Some of the larger people had difficulties squeezing down the small chute.  After perhaps 100 yards of crawling, we emerged into a “room.”  At least, that’s what the ranger had called it. There was standing room for perhaps four or five people on the floor and a ledge that ran at eye level with room for another three or four people to climb up and wedge themselves against the wall. We decided that the ranger’s “dozen people” must have been corpses stacked in the hole like cordwood.

From 2004-06-19 Starrs Cave, Dance

The Twelve-Man-Room as seen from the bottom.

A narrow tunnel led farther into the earth from the small room. I tried climbing down it and got perhaps 30 feet in. The tunnel got so small that I had to turn my helmeted head sideways to get through. Becoming a little claustrophobic, I gave up when I came to a place where the tunnel narrowed yet again and took a turn down and to the left.

Backing out on my belly, I gave way to Adam Stanford. He went farther down than I had, followed by Kelli Hedding. Eventually he got to a hole so small that he had to take the lights off his helmet and push his helmet through soft mud to get farther. It was shortly after that point that he gave up and slithered back.

From 2004-06-19 Starrs Cave, Dance

Jill Wallace in the tight crawl.

From 2004-06-19 Starrs Cave, Dance

Group photo outside the cave entrance.

We left the cave after somewhat less than an hour inside. Fortunately, the surrounding park was quite pretty, and after lunch we spent a couple hours hiking. There were high cliffs on either side of the river/stream that ran through the park, and we enjoyed climbing up the sides of these and sending showers of rocks sliding down the hillside to crash into the water below.

The terrain was varied, ranging from grassy fields to dense underbrush to open forest. We hiked, chatted, and relaxed on great boulders as Nathaniel’s ever-present camera documented the pretty surroundings. (“Only 148 pictures left!” he once assured us.) Seriously, though, it was good to have someone documenting the event and recording the rugged beauty of the park.

From 2004-06-19 Starrs Cave, Dance

Resting on a rock by the creek.

Fighting through squadrons of voracious mosquitoes and jungles of poison ivy (some of it grew higher than our knees), we finally returned to the cars. Hopefully no one has poison ivy. I don’t yet, but it’s only been three days since the trip as of this writing. Even if I do get poison ivy, it was completely worth the fun, though.

Saturday Evening

From Starr Cave, Adam, Jason, Greg, Doug, and Jill headed home while the Bluedorns and I took Kelli and headed on a 3 hour drive south of Springfield to a Civil War ball. There we met Leon and Lucas Hedding and danced until our feet were sore. The ladies all looked lovely in their swishing hoopskirts, and after four hours of dancing I started to get the hang of how to waltz. Special thanks go to Johanna Bluedorn who was especially patient while I tried to get my feet to do what I wanted them to do. I was reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s reported statement upon meeting Mary Todd when he told her, “I would like to dance with you in the very worst way.” I hope I did better than our 16 th president. At any rate, the dance was great fun. The building in which it was held was an old hall in a park with a wide porch wrapping around three of its sides. Four large carriage doors on each long side and one on the end opened to let the cool night air in. The floor to ceiling Confederate and Union flags adorning opposing walls gave a splash of color to the otherwise plain interior walls.

From 2004-06-19 Starrs Cave, Dance

Those of us who were in costume.

From 2004-06-19 Starrs Cave, Dance

From 2004-06-19 Starrs Cave, Dance

Nathaniel, Hans, and I left the dance, changed into 21 st century clothes, and were on the road back to the Bluedorn’s house by midnight. Frosties from Wendy’s helped shorten the trip. It’s a good thing that Wendy’s is “Open Late” because we needed it! We arrived back around 3 AM Sunday morning exhausted but after a very enjoyable set of adventures.

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