Another Waiting Game

Well, we are playing the waiting game once again, but we are in a much nicer place to do so :-). Here at Green River Lake S.P. we have several miles of hiking trails to explore, and the dogs, especially Casey, have enjoyed romping through the woods. I am also finding that the hills here that busted my buns last year are much easier to climb up and down this year! I guess I'm in a bit better shape, and there's much more oxygen down here than there was at 7700 feel and higher :-).

I do have a start date at Amazon, 10/22. Yay! And Al is awaiting his super-duper background check to be done, as he needs more rigorous checking than I do...he will be dealing with 'injured" people after all. We are hoping that it gets done as quickly as possible, so he can start at the same time that I do.

In the meantime, we are doing a little exploring and hiking. Last Thursday we visited Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, about 1 hour 45 minutes away from here. We were talking to our friend Joy, and she suggested this as a pleasant place to spend some time. And it certainly was. The main entrance to the park is lovely, and deserves kudos for being accessible to disabled folks. There are a couple of very well maintained paths that are paved, enabling anyone to have a great view of the falls.

Cumberland Falls, sometimes called the Little Niagara, the Niagara of the South, or the Great Falls, is a large waterfall on the Cumberland River southeastern Kentucky. This is the top of the falls, at the first viewpoint. 

The view downriver from the falls.

Continuing down the paved paths, you can view the falls from the level of the river. Cumberland Falls are also known for a unique feature called a "moonbow". The 125 foot wide waterfall has a 68 foot drop that showers onto the boulders below. The mist rising from these falls creates this unique natural phenomenon that is not visible anywhere else in the Western hemisphere on a predictable schedule. The falls are situated in such a way, facing north and flowing north, as to reflect the light of the moon and make a rainbow-like arch, an optical phenomenon called a moonbow. The moonbow can be seen here on clear, strongly-lit nights, usually the full moon.

We decided to hike to Eagle Falls, on the other side of the falls. This is the top of the falls from that side.

It was quite an uphill climb for awhile, and we ended up high above the falls!

The trail wound around and under several large rock ledges.

The trail went close to the river at one point, and it was beautiful with all the rocks and the leaves starting to change.

We reached peaceful Eagle Falls, and just sat and rested for awhile admiring the scenery. They weren't nearly as awesome as Cumberland Falls, but beautiful as well. 

We finally headed back to the truck. I was glad it wasn't warmer than it was, in the low 60's, as the hills definitely gave us a good workout, and we need to get adjusted again to the humidity levels of this part of the country :-). As we drove home we made a well-deserved stop at Culver's for some frozen custard :-).

Over the weekend we've been exploring some more trails in the park, and doing some geocaching. Geocaching doesn't seem really big here, there aren't too many caches and some haven't had finds since spring! We have dropped a couple of trackables though, and replaced some wet logs, so we're doing our part :-). An interesting thing happened yesterday though. As we were coming off the North Trail near Green River Stables, a truck approached, and then slowed down. Al and Casey were ahead of me and Chelsea (pokey puppy) and I saw him lean in and start laughing. As I approached, I saw it was Miss Vicky, who I worked with at Waldenwoods in 2011! It was so nice to see her again. Vicky and her husband Tim are working at Amazon this fall as well. They're staying at the Stables campground, so they'll be close to us. We visited for quite awhile, and hope they come over to see us again. One of those random meetings on a backroad that could only have been meant to be...we had to be coming out of the woods at the exact moment she was driving by, otherwise we probably wouldn't have crossed paths. 

Today its very windy, and a possibility of thunderstorms tonight. We hope they go around us! In the meantime, as we have another week to wait before starting, we are doing some projects, and trying some recipes we haven't had time to try. We'll let you know how the meals come out, and as for projects, hopefully at the end of the week we'll have a Mickey Mouse light pole to show everyone :-)!