We arrived at the park, tour tickets in hand. We stood in line and the rangers asked if we would like to exchange the tickets for a self-guided tour, or just leave. It was the very early days of COVID. We traded the tickets in for a self-tour and stood in a long line to get into the cave. The self-guided tour is one-hour walkable and does not go into the better loops in the cave. Being post-Carlsbad experience, the cave is plenty cool back also completely water tight which means little to no decorations. We knew we were missing the ‘good stuff’, but at this point, it was becoming clear that this COVID thing was real. By the time we were leaving the cave, the park was closing all together. We figured out real fast that we had better hurry up and find a safe place to stay for what we though would be a week or two while the Nation got ahead of COVID. Little did we know that we would huddle in Shreveport, LA for three months.