Mermet Springs

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The whole point of our trip was to head to Mermet Springs, IL, to go scuba diving.  What’s so special about Mermet Springs you ask?  Have you ever seen the movie U. S. Marshalls with Tommy Lee Jones?  Well the 727 airplane that they are flying on in the first 15 minutes of the movie… has been purchased by Mermet Springs and now sits in the query.  Oh… and you can dive it!  Along with many other treasures.

Mermet Springs sits just outside of Metropolis, IL.

As you first enter, you drive straight into the sight.  You keep to the right which will bring you up the building.

You must check in the minute you get there.  You give them your C-card and they’ll keep it the whole weekend (allotted time you plan on being around).

This is the office where you check in.  This would also be where you can get stuff to save a dive, rent equipment, get shirts, etc.  Oh and the AC was on which was nice 🙂

The cool thing is they have a great system set up for getting your tanks refilled with air, which was a good thing because my first 2 dives and pretty much all of hubby’s dives, we were air hogs.  Woops.  They say as you get better/more experienced at diving, you’ll use less air.

Bathrooms and showers on sight.

Are you hungry?  No problemo!  They’ve got you covered!  Drinks.  They have you covered there too!  And trust me you need to drink water every time you come up out of the water due to the dehydration factor!  It’s weird, I know but it’s still there.

On Sunday before we headed home, we got burgers.  Let me tell you, these burgers were fabulous.  We also had Gatorade.

They had tables set up under lean to’s so that you can get your equipment set up, but if it’s raining, you can set your gear up in the dry conditions.  How cleaver.

Then it’s time to head to the water.  Don’t worry, that weird red thing is the upper half of my wet suit.  I also had a dive skin on… yes, it’s what you think it is… like having a second skin 🙂  The wet suits are warm, especially on warm days so we took them down but they are a PITA (pain in the @$$) to get back on once they’re wet so it’s just easier to cool off your upper half and walk around with them half on.

There are many treasures to be found at depths of 15 feet down to 115 feet.  Definitely stay in your comfort zone though.  Oh and the water at the 115 foot mark was around 39 degrees…. I didn’t venture that far, but a bunch of our group did.  I’m not big on cold weather or being cold… so I stuck more to the warmer temperatures.

There was a map you could actually hook on your BC to take down with you, try to help keep yourself located under water.  Hubby and I sooooo should have invested in one of these, especially since this was our first outing to Mermet Springs.  I think one of our people told me they were $10, but don’t quote me on that….

Here is the fish feeding platform.  Can you believe it is 15 feet down?

And that, ladies and gents is Mermet Springs.  Y’all come back now, ya hear?  Oh wait… that’s the Beverly Hillbillies, but I’ll bet the sentiment is the same here! 🙂

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5 thoughts on “Mermet Springs

  1. That is so cool, I never knew that stuff like this existed. I thought people just went diving out in the ocean and that was about it. Well since I actually like by the salt water, that might be all there actually is around here.

  2. How fun is that! So fun that you not only got certified but now are putting it to good use. That water would be cold!

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