It was a full moon right slap in the middle of the summertime. We were down there by the Suwannee River, camping out. Had us a fire going and some cold ones in the cooler. We were fixing to cook some chicken and taters. We’d brought the grill, but forgot to bring a cooking fork. My friend, Stevie, said “Don’t worry - them Indians didn’t have no forks.” So, he whittled us off a cooking stick. Then, we got the food on the fire and discovered we’d also forgotten salt. Of course, Stevie pointed out the fact that the Indians didn’t have any salt, either. We swam in the river and sat by the fire until supper got done. You can believe we were hungry by that time, as the fire kept going out. The potatoes never did get all the way done, but we ate them anyway. Then, we decided to jump off the rope swing. It’s funny what a full moon will make you want to do.
I like the feeling of swinging out there over that river. It’s the letting go that’s hard. But you have to do it. If you don’t, you’ll swing back over the rocks and get torn up when you let go. Then, we decided to take the canoe out, since the moon made it almost as light as day. We floated down the river awhile, just looking up at the moon and the white limestone river banks. Saw a deer run off and an owl fly by.
And pretty soon, we saw a big cave in that rocky bank. None of us could remember seeing it before, but the river had never been this low before, that any of us could recollect. So we paddled over to it and waded through the shallow water. The opening shimmered a bit in the silver light. It didn’t smell, so we knew it wasn’t an alligator den.
The moon was just right and we could see a good ways up in there. It had a wide, sandy floor, with big boulders scattered around inside. So we went in. After our eyes got adjusted to the dimness, we began to see something totally amazing - pictures! There were some kind of deer running along one wall, and a bear a little bit farther down. There were fish and people in boats and some kind of big animal we’d never seen or heard of. After a while, the moon changed places and we couldn’t see good any more. We figured we’d come back in the morning when we could see better, so we left. The current was a little stronger going back and we could hear thunder in the distance.
We dug a trench around the tent when we got back, as it had just begun to sprinkle. Sometime during the night, we were awakened with a strange feeling - water! Sure enough, when we looked outside we saw that our whole tent had slid down the river bank, right into the river. We got out and pulled our tent way up on the sandy slope, dried off, and went back to sleep. But in the morning, we were back in the river again. It was raining harder and harder, so we packed up in a hurry. Once home, we fell right into dry beds and slept all the next day.
It must have rained steadily for a month. The darn river overflowed and you couldn’t even get down the dirt roads, as they were flooded. We told everybody what we’d seen in the cave. Some folks were really interested and wanted to see it for themselves. But you can’t make the river go back down. There was nothing to do but wait.
By the next summer, we could see our sandbar where we camped and what was left of the rope swing. That river had moved limestone boulders around and shifted the trees. We got us a boat and went up there looking around for the cave, but the river was still too high. Stevie and his brother went up the river again once when I was gone to Georgia for a month. They didn’t see it either. I had to try again by myself or die wondering. Mabe the river had covered it up when it moved those boulders around. Mabe we’d never see it again. Those were my thoughts as I paddled back, disappointed at my fruitless search. Last time I saw Stevie, he said he thought it was a ghost cave of the Indians. Me, I think that old Suwannee River will get low enough to find it again one day. But you can’t rush the river. All you can do is wait.
