TAG Fall Cave In

There was a point over the weekend that I was very tempted to pull out my laptop to write a new post, but we had no WiFi where we were and this weekend is the one time of year we all but disconnect from the "real world". At the point I was tempted to blog, I was sitting in a place called "Pat's Diner" that was literally a trailer, eating deviled eggs and chicken fingers, listening to pretty bad karaoke versions of Coal Miners Daughter, with Bella asleep across two chairs, and completely covered in mud. This was Friday night TAG weekend.
For those of you who don't know TAG is basically a caving convention. It is an annual event that we never miss if we can help it. It is on top of a mountain on some beautiful property near Trenton Georgia. We camp for the weekend. There are some really great facilities like a bath house that most of the time has hot water, port a potties, and a playground. It's three days of camping, caving, and just hanging out with other cavers. There are vendors, muchie stand, and a band for Saturday night. The highlight is a HUGE bonfire. When I say huge, I am not kidding. This year I believe the wood was stacked 30 feet high.
We got there late Thursday night and set up our campsite. We woke up fairly early on Friday and made breakfast and caught up with friends until about 1 then we headed to our first cave of the weekend. We went to Stewards Spring Cave. ( I am sure that's not the correct name, but close enough) There were I think 20 total that were on this trip. All adults except Bella. I have never been so proud of her. Joe's Sister Jjane and her husband Peter lead the trip. Bella loves them and wanted to be right along side them. She was tough and held her own. In caves I never try to push her. I never have had to. She loves it. She did get a little "creeped" out at one point this trip because there was water we had to walk through. She was not used to that. The water was thigh deep on adults and for Bella it got a little over waist deep. It was a brief part. She had on a little wet suit. After the water the was all smiles. We were underground for about 3 1/2 hours. When we came out we were exhausted and soaked. That's when Pat's Diner came in. We eat there at some point in the weekend every year, but it still cracks me up that it is a trailer. Trailer or not, they have the best pork chops. Saturday, we woke up sore and tired, but we headed out for cave number 2 at 10 am. This one is Howards's. I think this was Bella first cave when she was one years old. We have been here a lot, but it's a great kids cave and this trip there were 14. I think 7 kids and 7 adults. There were some pretty tight squeezes. i am not kidding like flat "pancake" squeezes where you had to turn your head sideways for your helmet to fit. They were brief and you just popped up on the other side, but the kids just did it like it was nothing. It was a wonderful trip and it was so neat to see Bella caving with 6 other kids her size. We were underground for about 2 hours that time. We headed back to camp for showers. This is getting long so i am going to wrap it up. Sat. night was just a big party. Joe and I gave Bella a dollar to buy something from vendor row. We looked at a couple of things and I pointed out a cross made from stone. She said she wanted to keep looking so we walked on. She then told Joe and I not to watch her. (we hid and watched her) she went back to the tent and bought the cross. She came back to us with it behind her back and said "it's for you. It's the best thing i could buy" I wanted to cry. So We gave her another $5 so she could get something for herself.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend. We had some ups and downs with some family. But, more ups than downs. So, I think we came out ahead. I'll post pictures later.