Cave City, Kentucky: Big Mike's: Mystery House, Rocks, and Big Mo

Big Mike's appears to be going strong. According to the staff, the summer season was good. They have an astonishing array of decent and expensive minerals placed right along side the poorest rock chips and glass slag. The cement Mosasauraus makes it easy to find and the fossilized skull is in the main building up stairs in a clean, nicely lit case making it easy to see.

They only charge $1 to tour the Mystery House -- which is quite a bargain, because you would feel cheated if it cost any more. Built in 1970, the Mystery hHuse was originally the main attraction, reflected in the "crazy" out-of-square front windows. It's been Big Mike's Rock House since the mid '80s, they couldn't remember the year.

The Mystery house is mostly black light posters and some aliens hiding in fake foliage. The highlights are the classics -- chair on the wall, billiard balls uphill, leaning off a table. The Water Uphill was not working -- as the guide explained, "Someone knocked over the bucket of water." Why no one had managed to refill a five gallon bucket of water since went unsaid. Their optical illusion room worked very well, well-lit and clean.

I recently visited this amazing place -- Cave City -- talk about your vortex of weirdness. And I found out that they don't give tours on Tuesdays or Wednesdays for the Mystery House (during the school year, but resume tours all week during the summer). Updated phone number and admission price.

We were in town to see Mammoth Cave -- however, we might not have bothered checking out Big Mike's Mystery House, if it weren't for the enormous, cement Mosasaur that now sits out front. "Big Mo" is Big Mike's name for the "World's Largest Fossilized Mosasaur Skull" (The T Rex of the Sea, 65 Million Years Ago) which is on display, for free, inside Big Mike's Rock and Gift Shop -- you do have to walk past an astonishing array of trinkets and junk to get to it, though.