Well I was making some oatmeal one morning and I forgot that I ran out of milk the night before.....just kidding (that was for you Jim). I got an email from a guy named Otis. He had been doing some research online about Airman's and he had always wanted to go. He found my site and sent me an email. He said he wanted to go and bring a couple people. It sounded good so I started letting everyone know we were going on Sunday at 1pm. I had about 15 people or so that were interested or pretended to be interested in going, so I thought I'd be lucky if half of them decided to go. I knew I could count on Jim and Jennifer though.
So on Sunday morning I got all my things together and started calling people to make sure they are going or not. Ty and Mario and Hector were gonna meet me at my place so we could go over to Home Depot and Lowe's to get some stuff. We took awhile once we got there getting kneepads, cameras and headlamps and it was 1pm by the time we left. Hopefully Otis and Jim and everyone else were still there.
We finally got down there about 1:20 and they were there waiting for us. It was Jim and Jennifer and Otis and his friend Kristin. Mario was on his way with Anna, who wanted to go. So we waited around 15 more minutes. They still didn't show so I called him and told them to just meet us at the entrance to Airman's. So off we went.
Along the way I was telling Otis and Kristen about Airman's and all the other caves in Austin. I was telling him about Buttercup Creek and how we needed get in that one again sometime. We got to the entrance and everyone started to get ready. Hopefully Mario and his friend would get there in time.
Otis was the first to go in. Then me, Robert, Hector, Ty, Jennifer, Jim, Kristen and Mario finally came in. We all gathered in the big passageway to wait for everyone. Jim decided he was gonna go back out and explore Bullet Cave. Mario decided to go back out as well since his friend was outside and decided not to come in. So we lost 2 people. There were some bats on the ceiling as usual, and they were pretty small. After everyone was ready, the journey began....
The first crawls weren't that bad. We got to take breaks after each one, so everyone rested. At the end of the long crawls, where you turn left, I actually made a wrong turn, so we had to go back a little ways. For a second I thought people had moved rocks or the cave had actually collapsed, so that was a little scary. But then I found the right way.
A little further and we got to the One-Legged Man rest stop. I showed Otis where it was and he went to check it out. He actually went through a little ways and I thought he was gonna go all the way, but then he decided to come back out. It was a no-go. After a little rest, we were all ready to take the longer way around One-Legged Man. There's actually a little draft you can feel as you get to the tight spot where you have to turn your head sideways. This usually means it's coming from more cave that is not visible. Of course, digging here would not be a good idea. However, right after One-Legged man there are a bunch of rocks on the side of the passage that could be removed and which might lead to where that air is coming from.....
So everyone made it through the One-Legged Man bypass and we took a break. Hector was the last one in line so I think he was getting the least breaks out of everyone. Sorry Hector. Ty wanted to know how much further it was. I told him about 25 minutes or so, smiling and laughing at Jennifer. I didn't know for sure because with this many people, it takes longer. It was about 25 minutes or so when Jim, Jennifer, Mario and I went. Everyone was ready and we left. Over the ball buster and through the winding corridoor, we made it to the "Crossroads". The shovel was still there. There were two ways from here. A quicker, tighter way to the right, or a longer, rockier way to the left. We took the quicker way.
After this was the crawl up and over into the room right before the Art Gallery. And then we made it into the Art Gallery......
We probably spent a good 30 minutes here making sculptures and goofing around. I made a heart, Ty and Jennifer made their names, Kristen made Spongebob Squarepants and a Greenbay Packers symbol, Robert made a devil, Hector made a ________ and Otis made a _________. It was time to leave. We were just gonna go to the Walking Passage and then turn back. It was nice to actually stand up and stretch out once we got there. We stopped right before you have to start crawling again. Robert was starting to get on everyone's nerves so we knocked him out and threw a boulder on top of him. We even took a picture as proof. After awhile we decided we couldn't just leave him there because he was buying us dinner so we woke him up and told him to shut up for the rest of the trip. OK so I made the last 3 sentences up......
We turned around after taking some pictures. Time for the return journey. After the crawldown point, we took a right through the rocky part. Jennifer, Ty and I could hear everyone going "Ow!" and yelling after banging their heads and whatnot. I did a bit of this myself. So on and on through the One-Legged Man bypass and past the rest stop. Jennifer and I decided to just keep going. We kept going until we got to right before the crawls. We would definitely need the rest before we did this. I think everyone else took a little rest because they didn't get here for at least 5 minutes. Once they joined us, the torture began....
The long crawls back are really the hardest parts I think because you are so tired already. The last one was a killer, but everyone made it alright. I got everyone's picture as they were coming out of the last crawl. And we still had the keyhole....
No time for rest so I was the first to go. Jim was waiting for us at the beginning of the keyhole. I made it through pretty quickly. Then I turned around and got everyone's pic coming out.
Well we all made it out, safe and sound. Jim took a picture of us, and then I think everyone was about ready to get the heck outta Dodge. We walked back to the cars and said goodbye to Kristen and Otis as well as Robert and Hector. Ty, Jim, Jennifer and me were gonna go eat at the new Freebirds in Westlake Hills. Which we did. We were all dirty and the girl behind the counter asked me what concert we came from......