This particular shot was a bit tricky to get because those beetles are fast when you don’t want them to be. He was definitely feeling the pressure to hide and get out of sight. After about five shots I finally got one I was happy about. I actually wanted the beetle facing the camera but it was not to be. Apparently stink beetles have fairly good vision. When I placed batman at the right spot it would abruptly change direction. Basically it didn’t want to cooperate with me.
My boys were somewhat fascinated, but their attention was quickly steered towards the mine shaft we had hiked up to and the “mysterious” rock door that blocked the entrance.
I bet they felt they were on some Indiana Jones adventure. When I was a kid I had many Indiana Jones adventures.
One such adventure was exploring the Old Ohio Mine in Milford, Utah with my brother. My grandfather had given us our very own black lights and had told us we could find many examples of fluorescent stone down inside the mine. He told us not to go there because it was dangerous and susceptible to cave-ins.
We drove out the following Saturday. We followed directions from grandpa scribbled on lined paper. We arrived near the base of the mountain dump and hiked to the entrance of the mine. The old Ohio mine has several different shafts. The main opening was large enough to walk through without needing to duck. We broke out our flashlights and entered the dark abyss. As we ventured deep into the mine we saw a steep angled set of rail tracks exiting the ceiling high above us and entering near the floor. We shined the flashlights done that shaft but it spooked us when the light didn’t reach the end.
We crept along until we reached a large underground cavern that could’ve been natural but was most likely dug out. We turned on our black lights and were met with an amazing glow of vivid fluorescent colors. Pinks and greens, blues and purples. It was as if bright paint had been splattered everywhere! When we turned off the black light – darkness.
This caveman batman got me to thinking about caves and bats and all this random meandering down my memories of deep mineshafts. Thanks batman! Thanks Lego!