A Day At Red River Gorge

I spent Monday in an all-day seminar of intensive retirement training.  Two of my brothers and a nephew accompanied me to Red River Gorge.  It is a beautiful area located in the Daniel Boone National Forest near Lexington, Kentucky.  The fall colors were more intense than where I live and most of the morning was cool and breezy.  Being a Monday there were few other people around and at one point the only sound I was hearing was the wind blowing through the trees.  We eventually found our way to the Natural Bridge State Park Lodge where we enjoyed a delicious all you could eat buffet.  I especially liked the fried catfish and blackberry cobbler.  After lunch I rode on one of the most intense and scary ski lifts I’ve ever been on.  At times I was hundreds of feet off the ground.  The lift would stop and there I was just swinging in the sky.  I must admit that I said a few prayers and closed my eyes more than once.  Did I mention a fear of heights?  Near the end of the ride up the mountain you basically scale a shear wall of rock.  I felt like I was on the television show called “Running Wild with Bear Grylls”.  If you have never watched the show it involves a serious outdoorsman taking celebrities out to remote parts of nature and basically scaring the hell out of them.  Once you are on the natural bridge, there is no easy way back down except the ski lift.  When it was time to leave I took a deep breath, said another prayer, got in the chair and closed my eyes until I could open them without experiencing a full blown panic attack.  I am happy to report that I made it down the mountain alive.  The next time I think I will just walk in the woods and hope a bear doesn’t attack me. 

 

 

http://parks.ky.gov/parks/resortparks/natural-bridge/