Hello, new guy from Illinois

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Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby JR-Orion » Aug 28, 2009 2:54 pm

Hello,

I’m in the Quad Cities, Illinois / Iowa area, near the Mississippi River. I just joined the NSS, but I haven’t got my membership info yet, so I haven’t really looked into finding any local grottos so far.

As for caving experience, not so much. I’ve been through Maquoketa Caves (Iowa) a few times and really enjoyed the place. I hear there are some more adventurous caves in the park, and I’d like to check them out in the near future. Also went to Spook Cave (McGregor, Iowa). That whole tour takes place on a boat, as you check out an underground river.

Illinois Caverns sounds fantastic, but you need four people, and I’m not sure if I can come up with three other friends who think that crawling around underground would be fun. :) We’ll see.

Anyway, I have two books on order (Iowa Underground and Wisconsin Underground) and some basic equipment headed my way. I also just caught a Naj Tunich documentary called "Journey to the Center of the World" on DVR, and have seen it three times now.

What got me into this? There’s the odd-but-true answer, and the other answer.

The odd answer is The Descent. I saw that movie in the theater and it hit me pretty hard. It’s a brutal, creepy horror movie that had me on edge. But when I bought the DVD, I noticed that I was more intrigued with the parts of the movie that take place before the creepy stuff starts to happen. The look of the cave, from the huge chambers to the tight squeezes, and the exploration aspects were really something. Then I checked out The Cave, which wasn’t as good of a movie, but it still had some great underground scenery. But the special features on The Cave got me. It’s all about cave diving, and the folks from Karst Productions show off some incredible images. And some sobering ones, like the grim reaper sign at the entrance to an underwater cave.

The other answer is that I’ve been into astronomy for many years. Could there be a more opposite pastime? One's up and one's down, but that hobby also has the exploration aspects, and the “seeing things most people never see” vibe that I get from reading up on caving. To know that there’s so much unknown territory here on our own planet, really makes me wonder what could be up there- Valles Marineris on Mars is much bigger than the Grand Canyon, so how big are the caves on Mars?! Also, some of the most alien images I've seen have been from caves here on Earth- draperies, canopies, bottlebrushes, flowstone- I saw some really wild stuff on the Virtual Cave website.

So that's my story.
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones / there is water underground.
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JR-Orion
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby Chads93GT » Aug 29, 2009 10:11 pm

Hello from a former Illinois resident for 29 years before moving 5 years ago. My wife is actually from Eldridge, IA, 10 miles north of Davenport on 61. She took me to Maquoketa caves on our 2nd or 3rd date. Interesting place, but I haven't been back since then, and i have done a LOT of caving since then in southern Missery ;) I lived in Macomb, IL for 10 years as well.

Anyway, illinois Caverns, you do have a minimum group of 4, and the cave is only open from 8am to 2pm, which isn't a whole lot of time. That is of course my opinion, 6 hours may seem like a long time to others. I personally don't know of any grotto's in your area that I can speak for, but I recently met members from the Near Normal Grotto in Bloomington and led them on an 11 hour trip through Crevice Cave, missouri's largest.

You will definately need to hook up with a grotto to get into more private caves, unfortunately most of the caves in southern illinois are closed due to WNS (Shawnee National forest). JOining a grotto will get you into other caves on private lands that arent closed. Good luck!

on a side note, i noted the last part of your name is Orion. one of my companies satellite offices is in Orion. Not MY company, but the investigations firm that I work for I should say. I swing through there to visit with my old boss every time I go up to visit the inlaws.
Last edited by Chads93GT on Aug 29, 2009 10:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby Cheryl Jones » Aug 29, 2009 10:25 pm

:kewl: Welcome!
If The Descent :yikes: made you WANT to go caving, then you must be made from the right stuff. :clap: :cavingrocks:

Cheryl
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby JR-Orion » Aug 31, 2009 9:19 am

Thanks for the welcome.

Looks like the Near Normal Grotto and the Iowa Grotto out of Iowa City are the two places that are closest to me. I'll get with one of them soon.

Chads93GT- Yep, I live in Orion. Nice little town. Woo Dogs Pub n Grub makes a great cheeseburger. :)
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones / there is water underground.
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JR-Orion
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby Billy » Sep 9, 2009 7:56 pm

I'm with the Near Normal Grotto (and the guy who missed going on Chad's trip back then which made me want to pull what little hair I have out :hairpull: ). The NNG centers around Bloomington/Normal, with members primarily ranging from Champaign/Urbana to B/N to Peoria, to Kankakee, but we have several members farther out than that. We used to have a very active group out by your way cave hard for a while, then dropped out - does the name Bluedorn ring a bell? If you go to our grotto web page http://www.caves.org/grotto/nng/ and click on the 2005 Picnic link, you can see his/their handiwork and them. I thought they were from the Orion area (I used to work on the Edwards River there), perhaps New Boston. I think they may have moved to Muscatine, IA now.

Anyway, I'd have to say that the Iowa grotto is probably closer, but if you'd like to meet us, our annual picnic is over near Utica, IL (Starved Rock area) this Sunday, which is fairly close for you. We do cave in Missouri and Illinois, as well as other areas, but I'd have to say our primary area is southern Indiana. Go through the contacts on the web page as far as further information.
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby Joseph W. Dixon » Sep 13, 2009 12:03 am

Here is the website for the Iowa Grotto

http://www.caves.org/grotto/iowa/

Our next meeting is Wednesday the 23rd in Iowa City (directions and location are on the website).
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby JR-Orion » Sep 14, 2009 2:22 pm

Thanks for the information. I was leaning more towards the Iowa Grotto, since it is closer to me (75 miles). But I don't want to miss out on seeing things in my home state, so Near Normal (115 miles) is looking good too.

Does anyone ever join more than one grotto?
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones / there is water underground.
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JR-Orion
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby Squirrel Girl » Sep 14, 2009 6:03 pm

Hokey Smokes, talk about bringing back memories! I was born and raised in Davenport and Bettendorf (or Davendorf and Bettenport as we sometimes called them). I took a tour of Mammoth Cave and was hooked at 13. Boy was it hard to find the NSS. No internet back in 1973. I found a book that said there was a "Quint Cities Grotto" (such an old book that it pre-dated the"Quad Cites") but it was defunct. My mom took me to Maquoketa Caves (fun!) Back then, you had to be sponsored to join the NSS. But the annual convention was in Iowa the next year (Decorah), so my mom drove me there.

I hung out with the Iowa Grotto. :bananabat:

Now I've caved around the world, gotten big into cave diving. It's been a fun adventure!

Best wishes to you and good luck! Perseverence is worth it!

Welcome to CaveChat!
Barbara Anne am Ende

"Weird people are my people."
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby Chads93GT » Sep 14, 2009 9:37 pm

I am a member of 2 grotto's. Most people I know support both grottos in the southern illinois/missouri region, mainly because we all cave in the same place.
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Re: Hello, new guy from Illinois

Postby Joseph W. Dixon » Sep 17, 2009 10:48 pm

JR-Orion wrote:Does anyone ever join more than one grotto?

As long as you're willing to pay the membership dues I think every Grotto you want to join would welcome you :big grin:
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Joseph W. Dixon
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