20130816 - Traveling Partner

20130816 - Up before the sun and D&I on the road to Kentucky.  Our first stop was McD's and then the highway.  We had the sun to our backs and our adventure ahead!  The travel was good and we made good time down through Cincinnati and into KY.  Only one mishap when I spilled coffee all over my pants :-(  But we had some extra time so I searched for some places to dry off. One of the stops was an old gas station where the office was the World's Largest Metal Teepee!!!  D was SO EXCITED!!!  A bit further into KY and we came to the Kentucky Horse Park.  Here we got to see the graves of Man Of War and Secretariat.  One cool display had a starting post and then markers showing how long one stride of the horse was.  It was amazing how far these animals move in one leap.

A bit further down the road and we made it to Lexington and found our way to the Lexmark world headquarters.  I had a QBR here at 10am and D came right in with me.  Kurt the guy I had the meeting with brought us in, got D situated at his cube and we got down to business, while D listened to what life is like in a cube farm and played on his iPad.  The meeting went well and D was offered some doughnuts, he fit right in.  After the meeting Kurt took us to a local place where we all tried deep fried parmesan crusted corn on the cob, YUM!!!

We sampled the local beverages and had a fantastic home cooked meal and great conversation!  Kurt is a gun guy so D and him had a lot to talk about.  After lunch Kurt suggested we check out the Natural Bridge.  D&I were on the road again... but not for long before tragedy struck at work...  I had to find a hotel along the road and get to the internet quick to fix a file we had to send to a customer.  No worries a Hampton Inn was close and we were up and running in no time.  Problem solved and on toward adventure.  We found the natural bridge and it was only a 3/4 mile hike so we decided to have a look.  No one bothered to tell us the 3/4 mile was narrow and STRAIGHT UP!!!  We hiked for what seemed forever to reach this natural wonder, and it was worth it.  The view was spectacular!



I was a bit nervous walking across the top of it, but D was looking down over the edge. If L was here she would have fainted... I did get as close to the edge as I was comfortable to get this pic taken with D, my 13yr old boy that is a great kid and a lot of fun.

Legs sufficiently rubberized we though going down would be a breeze and we would go another route to see the balancing rock.  It was only another 674,291 steps...  Well we didn't have a choice but to keep going or die there on the trail, so we kept at it... After what felt like hours of decline we finally came to the balancing rock.  It was pretty cool and D tried to push over :-o


Eventually we did make it to the car where we each drank a 32oz bottle of Gatorade...  Back on the road and we found the place where we are going to climb tomorrow.  A bit further we found a stand that sold beer and Ale8, the local pop, not too bad, but not our style.  We got directions to a food place and went there to get some sandwiches.  These sandwiches were 4 inches thick on regular slices of bread packed with meat.  With dinner in hand we found the camp site at the Land of the Arches campground.  We got our site set up quickly and met one of the locals that took us on a hike to the edge of a 200' cliff with a small waterfall.  Why is everything here so high up???



After our exploration our guide, James, sat by the fire with us and we told jokes, talked and had a good time by the fire eating our huge sandwiches and relaxing.  Right before bed we explored the hanger on the campsite and it was huge and cool and had ping pong and air hockey and wheelchairs to race and recliners and internet and bathrooms and a barrel stove all put together in some sort of chaos that just worked...  D&I decided GpaW would love this place...  Off to bed with already sore legs...  How are we going to make it through tomorrow?