Hi Gary-
Well, Coal City is near some cool outdoorsy stuff on the Illinois and Kankakee Rivers- well, cool for a Midwesterner ;-)
You're in the same situation as me(I'm 60 mi NW of Chicago)- centrally located, and far away, from a lot of caving. There's a lot of stuff to do in SW MN and NE IA, and the cave temps(46-48F) and conditions(wet and muddy) are probably close to what you had in PA?
So cast far and wide- IL, IN, IA, KY, MN, MO, and WI. The Wisconsin Speleological Society's annual Hodag Hunt is coming up at Crystal Cave, in Spring Valley, WI, on September 9-12:
http://caves.org/grotto/wss/hodag2010.htmlThe Illinois Speleological Survey will be doing some cave survey on the weekend of October 9-10 in Monroe County, IL. You can contact me directly if you are interested.
The Cave Research Foundation is having its annual meeting in Van Buren, MO, on the Current River, on October 22-24:
http://cave-research.org/crf_am_2010.cfmAnd there will be a week-long national expedition there following the meeting.
jl