Robber's Cave tour

Ever wonder what it would be like to turn a hobby / passion into a side-hustle, and later at least a "Summer job", but more likely, year-round?  This guy is doing it. 

Joel Green, author

Fascinated by Nebraska's one and only cave... he researched and wrote a book.  He conducts tours of the cave.  

Now you have to understand that this cave has a long local history.  I went there as a kid.  The way my wonky memory works, it was when I was a Brownie Scout, which tracks with the history of the cave being open.  Because it closed for quite a while, and has only reopened for tours the past seven or eight years.

My observation as a kid was that most of the cave was way too "civilized", but there was this back part that was a bit more wild, and fueled our imaginations as kids. It's the part beyond the yellow chain in that photo.  I opted out of that loop of the tour, because he indicated how large a step might be in parts of it, and that it was kind of muddy down there.  It got flooded back in 2018 when most of Nebraska was flooding.

Anyway, the kids and her parents took that "challenge" loop, and I'll bet it would have triggered more of my childhood memories had I chosen to do it.  I took a later "challenge" passage, but it was going UP, not down, so I wasn't as intimidated by it.

Above, a "selfie attempt" to catch the five of us.  I gave up after just one such, because I wasn't feeling secure in the footing.

A vein of iron ore in the general sandstone walls of the cave.  The guide made a joke to the kids about the video game "Minecraft".  

This was a modern kind of tour, complete with tablet photos (from the book collection) of historic use of the cave.

Our guide would have the tour group line the sides of the passages and show those photos around.

Robber's cave has gone by various names through the years.  Being close to the state penitentiary it was once called Penitentiary Cave.  But it was also used as storage for a brewery, as a gaming den, as a concert venue, with dancing included, and currently it is rented out as a venue for Weddings and such.  The football and vollyball teams from the University of Nebraska took some tunnel walk photos in the cave.  

But the tour we took was all about history.

Lots of graffiti on the walls, which have dates on them going back to 1901.  

There is a spot, where the "stage" used to be for the bands, where someone had carved the word "Brownie", and our tour guide had me stand under it while he snapped my photo.  

My DIL took a shot of me posing... it's got one of those fake grins on my face, but it's me.  The word "Brownie" did not make it into her photo.  It's above my head on my left.

A part of the cave is netted over, because... bats.  And the tour guide had a great video that he saved for the end of the tour to show us of a twilight zone moment he experienced where the electricity in the cave did some pretty freaky things.

He said he saved it for last so that we wouldn't refuse to enter the cave.  But then again, remember, modern day.  Most of us were carrying phones that include flashlight, which of course those of us worried about the uneven footing in the darker parts of the cave used in spots.

The afterparty:

Dueling cell phone photos of the 4 oz. beers.  

This was before the food arrived... let's see, they had a dark lager with chocolate at the front, the Peach flavored one is at the back left, and a couple of lagers in the middle.

I'm being educated by the younger generation, even though I don't drink myself.  This is responsible sampling!  Four people, four four-ounce beers.

The food was provided by Porkalicious, and was indeed pork... pulled pork tacos and nachos, and they were delicious.

Over the meal we were swapping info about our various smart watches (both Lacey and I had acquired new ones in the past week, and my son is shopping for his next one).  Three or four different brands and features, with each person choosing what's most important to him or her.  We also looked at the features of the various fitness apps on our phones that interact with these watches.

That's about it from Saturday.  Sunday morning, we have rain... ahhh!  We do need this rain.  May it be gentle and soak in to the parched ground, and maybe move us another step down the drought monitor chart (we're down to Severe as of last Thursday's update).

Life is good.  Spark on!