After two years of waiting, and 4 months of planning: meals, ticket sales, tee-shirt design, band, cave permissions, guide book printing, port-a potty rental, raffle, and area preparation–the March 4-6, 2022 weekend for the Florida Cave Cavort had arrived.

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According to the Britannica Dictionary, a Cavort (kəˈvoɚt) is:

1) to jump or move around in a lively manner.     

2) to spend time in an enjoyable and often wild or improper way.

How does one Cavort? Cavorting requires a good mood, lots of energy, and some running room. Children love to cavort, and so do parents when they win the lottery, or get together with other cavers.

The origins of the word are lost to history-as is when the first gathering of Florida Cavers was. Traditionally-the annual gathering of Florida Cavers rotates around to different areas (Tampa, Tallahassee, Gainesville) but in this area-it has always been known as a Florida Cave Cavort, and this year it was AWESOME!

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Now we’ve seen all these cave photos, lets see some Cavort’n going on.

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This was an awesome event! Great Caves, Great People, Great Band, Great Food, Great Raffle…This is just what we all needed. Thanks to everyone that came out. Also, thanks to all the following:

• Jerry and Shirl Johnson for the use of their beautiful farm.

• FSS Board and members for all the hard work.

• Fire Water Tent Revival Band.

• Vince Phelps for cooking a fantastic BBQ.

• OneRope1 and Inner Mountain Outfitters: for raffle items.

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After two years of Covid precautions-things are moving forward. Two things that had been put on hold were the Florida Cave Cavort and a new pole barn. Fortunately, now the time was right. The forecast was for a beautiful day on February 26, 2022. It was only one week before the Cavort, but the supplies finally arrived and the crew was ready. FSS members Sean and Doug Prior enlisted the help of their father: Jimmy Prior, who has no interest in caving, but knows how to plan and build. The Prior family went to work like a smoothly oiled machine-while the rest of us helped or did whatever to finish up the site.

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As morning turned to afternoon-the barn had made a lot of progress. The father and sons ‘Prior’ team worked like clockwork.

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Who knows what they did prior to today, but today (Feb 26th) the entire Prior family worked their $#&*! off!

Thanks to everyone that came out and helped for the day. The Florida Speleological Society (FSS) and all Florida Cavers owe Jimmy Prior and his two sons Sean and Doug a huge thanks for dedicating an entire weekend to building the pole barn. Also, thanks to the River City Grotto (RCG) for doing a fundraiser and donating the money for pole barn parts and materials. We now have a great structure out on Jerry’s Farm for bands, camping, and climbing classes.

Story by Philip Walker