Back to Franklin Mountain

After touring two museums, we drove back to this park to read and rest, but Gloria suddenly came up with a new idea (not unusual if you know her).

“Hey, let’s climb up to Aztec Cave,” said she. Boy! Was she in for a surprise. The path was long, precipitous, and rocky. “Gosh, I didn’t think it would take this long!” she puffed, after 45 minutes of uphill rocky climbing. We still had 15 minutes to go (the steepest part). We made it finally, and after we had explored the two-room cave, we heard horns blowing and saw car lights flashing in the parking lot way down below from which we had ascended. “Wow, wonder why are they doing?” we pondered. We soon discovered that it was the park police letting us know that we had better get back down there pronto. The park would be closing at 5:00 p.m. Fortunately, gravity worked, even on a difficult downward slope. We arrived at the parking lot at 4:55. The police strained to smile.