The Long Ride Home.

I left Charlotte late, I was determined not to drive straight home to NJ. I figured by forcing myself to stop for sleep, I would be well rested and definitely find a roadside attraction before my final leg of the journey. I made it to Pennsylvania, two and a half hours away from home, before calling it a night. Living in NJ, I have a stigma about hotels being so expensive. I always laugh when I stop during a road trip and realize hotels everywhere else are so reasonable.

After a good nights sleep and breakfast the next morning, I decided I would stop at Crystal Cave. It was along the way and I saw the sign for it on the way going. I really like caverns/caves and this one was, “Pennsylvania's Greatest Natural Wonder.” according to the road sign.

Well forty-five minutes and several scary back roads later, I was there. The place was really well organized and the gift shop was amazing. I couldn't believe how reasonable the prices were. The man selling tickets to the cave explained that they purposely kept the prices low because it was a family friendly attraction. I wish Disney was family friendly enough to use this logic.

To get to the cave entrance, you have to climb a steep path. Once there, you meet the guide and watch a 13 minute movie about how caves are formed. It was actually, really good. So good, in fact, that I wish I had gone to this cave before I had gone to the other caves and caverns.  It would have saved me research time.

After the movie, it was time for the cave. Two couples took the tour with me and the guide was as informative as he was friendly. He was a really nice guy. In fact all of the people that worked there were extremely friendly. The tour was great and the way the path followed the cave and was not 'cut into' the cave made it more interesting than most of the other subterranean tours I've taken. This meant lots of steps and interesting footing.

Even though a lot of their attractions were closed, I really enjoyed the movie, cave and gift shop. So much so that I think I'll take the kids back there, with me, in a few weeks.