Cumberland Falls

A very beautiful stake park in near Corbin, Kentucky about 3 hours from where we live.  "Known as the 'Niagara of the South,' the 125-foot wide curtain of water is dramatic day or night. But it's only at night during a full moon that you can see the moonbow, a phenomenon not found anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere(copied from the brochure)." Ew, Ahh! Sounds wonderful, huh? Yes, we thought so too. We were invited by Dave's brother, his wife, and their son Lars to go to Cumberland Falls on a camping trip for a couple days. We planned it to be there to see this famous moonbow.  Which I actually had been reading about for years during 4th grade writing portfolio time.  I was dazzled by many a persuasive essay on "Why Kentucky is a great place to visit". This moonbow was a definite selling point in these 10 year olds essays. "Imagine a wall of water falling 60 feet into a boulder-strewn gorge, a whispering mist that kisses the face and a magical moonbow visible on a clear night under a full moon(brochure again)."  So needless to say it was with much anticipation that I was looking forward to this trip.

Now Dave and I used to be well, I won't say "big" campers that would probably be a lie. But we did go camping quite a bit before we had kids.  We actually camped along the way driving out to Kentucky during our move from Utah more than 5 years ago.  This camping trip was our first time with kids (ages 3 and 1 - no TV, no toys, by a cliff, no cribs, no beds), in Kentucky(located in the south - lots of bugs, lots of Thunderstorms in the summer (it was 97 degrees with 70 -90 percent humidity), where we would be staying more than one night(I have no idea what we were thinking), cooking all our own food(I miss my kitchen complete with stove and refrigerator).  No problem, right?  What could possibly go wrong?

Day 1

We just arrived and put up our tent. Our air mattress is still inflated. We slept well the night before. We have not locked our car keys in the trunk of our car. I am wearing make-up and everyone had a shower that morning. The bugs are not out yet. My children are not covered in dirt. My husband's nose is not stuffed up, his eyes are not watering, he can hear out of his ears and definitely does not have a head cold. It is hot, true, but we are going swimming.

Notice Dave and I are still smiling and our family seems to really like each other, we are standing close by each other, etc. all in all I would say we look like a pretty happy family. Possibly fun to be around, you know all that good stuff.

Day 1 night

 Our keys get locked in the car.

 I wonder how many times a person can wake up during the night and have it still be night? There has to be some sort of record.  I need to look that up.... and I am baffled yet again how Luke can sleep through Lynnea's crying, Daddy's snoring, and cars driving by to set up their camper at 5:30 in the morning.

Day 2

Dave walks to ranger station.  Nice man come and unlocks our car door with special Macgyver looking tools (Dave is taking notes). Our car alarm goes off. Other campers look at us funny. We try to avoid eye contact and fork over our 40 bucks. 

 

Beautiful Hike - I really do love nature.

Luke is so grown up.  It was so cute to see him walking along the trails, looking at all the trees, asking what the forest sounds were, and, of course, taking a break.  Then riding on daddy's shoulders.

Lynnea was being carried in a hip hammock by me and she took a nap. I guess she was overcome by the beauty of the wood.

We went to Laurel Lake.  It was fun to grill hot dogs and swim in the lake.

We see Cumberland Falls in the daylight. Very Beautiful. Got ice cream - this day is looking up.  Plan to come back to Falls for the moonbow tonight.

Day 2 afternoon

It starts raining. While hanging out in our tent. I start to hear a whizzing sound of escaping air.... our air mattress has a hole in it.

Luke finds a friend.  They play together all evening. Lynnea and Lars have fun walking around and picking up rocks.

Day 2 night

Fact: There is no moonbow if there is no full moon because it is cloudy from the rainstorm.

Fact: Duct tape does not fix everything, including holes in air mattresses. By 11pm I am on the ground with Lynnea on me for padding.  Dave decides to sleep in the car. Luke is sleeping like a baby? How does he do that? 

Fast Forward to Day 3 Camping.... uh, no pictures, sorry.

Luke wakes up and asks: "Mommy, what happened to your bed?"

Dave says: "We are going home!"

I think I could never have been a pioneer. 

So I felt so bad that for Dave's brother and his family.  They ended up staying longer and we were totally lame and bailed. I don't think they will ever ask us to go camping with them again and I don't blame them we weren't very fun. My hope for them is that they will find some fun camping friends and we can be their fun-stay-at-home-where-we-all-get-to-sleep-in-our-own-beds-in-our-nice-houses-that-we-are-so-grateful-for-friends.  We really did have a good time at Cumberland Falls, despite all the adventures along the way.  Thanks for putting up with us Corey and Amber!