I totally forgot to tell you all about the crazy-awesome thing that happened right as we were driving to our campsite at Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky. The state park has a little riding stable near the campgrounds. They have about 12 horses there that give people rides all day long. The stable for the horses is located a few hundred yards away from the paddock where the horses spend the day. We happened to drive on the road at the exact same time the horses were let loose from the paddock to head back to the stable for the evening. All 12 horses trotted right by our car. If that's not a perfect welcome to Kentucky- I don't know what is.
Our night in our little tent wasn't quite as comfortable this time. We were on a slight hill so everything - including our bodies seemed to be gradually sliding all night. It was also a colder night for me. I couldn't figure out why until Brandon told me that he didn't sleep with his hoodie on that night. Usually he keeps me warm all night, but this time he'd been trying to get warmth from me.
Veronica woke up pretty early and since she has no concept of whispering the other kids were soon awake too.
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We kept them happy with snuggling on the air mattress for a while.
Some how I ended up laying in the kids' area.
While Charlotte and Lydia stole my spot.
Eventually we gave up on the whole trying to relax in the tent and got up for the day. The morning was misty and Brandon built a fire to warm us all up.
Here's a picture of our nice little secluded campsite.
We were down hill from a parking lot. The closest other campers were on the other side of the parking lot. It was great to have little privacy.
We had scrambled eggs and some pre-cooked sausage for breakfast. Brandon did an experiment and attempted to cook pillsbury cinnamon rolls over the fire.
They were a little burned on the bottom, and a little doughy on top, but the frosting made up for that.
Veronica decided that she'd woken up way too early so after I'd rolled up all the sleeping bags she decided to go back to bed. Too bad it was too late for the rest of us.
After breakfast I went over to the bathhouse and took a wonderful shower. It felt amazing. Then I got dressed and helped all kids get dressed. Charlotte wanted to take a shower too. No one else did, but they weren't that dirty so that was okay. After they were dressed they went outside and played with the tractor toy at the playground.
Brandon got everything loaded up on top of the car and then he went to take a shower while I finished loading up the inside stuff. Oh and I just remembered the coolest thing that Derrick did. On our first morning with the tent he'd been super helpful with taking the pillows and blankets from the tent to the car. He went back and forth carrying everything. He'd always say, "Thank you mommy, You're Welcome" when ever I handed him something. He did that again as we cleaned up the campground this time.
When he came back from the shower we called this kids back from the playground and hoped in the car. Then we drove about 1/2 a mile to the parking lot for the waterfall area of the park.
Honestly I had no idea what to expect. I had never heard of Cumberland Falls and I only booked this campsite because I'd thought it was close to the Cumberland Gap. (It's really about 60 miles away.) I'd read that the waterfall was known as the "Niagara of the South" so I figured it would be worth a stop anyway.
So as we started walking toward the waterfall area I wasn't expecting much. Before we got to the waterfall we read an information sign about the waterfall and the Moonbow that is created in the waterfalls mists during a full moon. Apparently a moon bow is a rainbow made with the moon. A Moonbow only has white in it rather than all the colors produced by sunlight. And guess what? Cumberland Falls is the only waterfall in the Western Hemisphere where you can see a Moonbow on a consistent basis.
I thought this was all pretty cool, but Brandon was super excited. "This is
that waterfall!" he exclaimed. He'd read about this waterfall when he was in 5th grade in a book called "Fabulous facts about the 50 states." This waterfall was the fabulous fact for Kentucky. (As a funny side note: The Boll Weevil Monument in downtown Enterprise was the fact for Alabama - it's the worlds only monument to a bug.) The book had never mentioned what the waterfall was called or where exactly it was located and Brandon had always wondered. He was thrilled to have found it. I was happy that I could inadvertently make one of Brandon's dreams come true.
So after that we were both really interested to see this famous waterfall. We were able to walk over to an overlook area that was almost on the edge.
And we got a pretty great view of the waterfall.
And we could see a real rainbow extending from the bottom of the falls. I have a movie of it, but I guess I lost movie maker when Brandon reformatted my computer and I don't want to take the time to put it back on right now.
Cute picture of the kids all lined up.
There was a trail leading to what looked like more overlooks so we went for a walk on that.
And found some giant rocks.
We did find another overlook with a stunning view of the waterfall.
The trail kept going so we followed that. It went along a huge rock wall.
Then there were stairs cut out of the rock.
The stairs took us down to a sandy beach. Charlotte pretended this big log was a cinnamon roll.
The beach was really pretty. We would have gone in the water, but there were signs telling us not to go wading.
The kids had fun finding rocks and throwing them in the water. The rocks were really flat and round so they were perfect skipping rocks.
There were some large boulders blocking our view of the falls. I was certain there would be an awesome view of the falls from on top of the boulders so we went to check them out.
I was right. It was like I'd found a secret lagoon with a waterfall.
And then the girls had to go and make the shot even more perfect.
We couldn't pass up the chance to attempt a family picture.
Lydia and Charlotte had a lot of fun climbing on the boulders. Here's Lydia.
And Charlotte.
And here they are making a motivational poster about teamwork.
Brandon ended up taking the twins on a little "rock climbing" adventure all over the boulders. I took Derrick and Veronica back to the water. They spent a lot of time throwing rocks in. I sat on the beach and played with some of the rocks. They were surprisingly light. Some people nearby speculated that they were made of either coal or shale.
Brandon and the twins rejoined us and we spent some more time on the beach. Then we decided to go back up the trail to the waterfall. The walk back looked like something from a fairy-tale.
The kids liked this "cave."
Check out that rock wall. Brandon was wishing for his climbing equipment.
The kids all wanted to take a turn in this funny little rock chair. Here's Lydia.
Charlotte
and messy little Veronica.
We decided to walk down to the part of the trail that went near the bottom of the falls.
The view was great down there too.
Quick selfie with Brandon.
And then someone offered to take our picture.
We went back to the top for a little bit.
On our way back to the car we discovered this hollow tree.
Each kid wanted a turn in it. Here's Charlotte.
Lydia.
Derrick.
And Veronica
Then Daddy had to get in there too.
And Mommy too.
The area had one of those panning for gem stones things. Derrick liked watching the water run down it. The twins wanted to pan for gem stones, but I was sure it was way too expensive for us. Brandon later saw a sign that said it was $25 for a little bag of dirt and some uncut stones. Ouch!
We weren't ready to leave such a pretty place yet so we decided to have a picnic on the banks of the river upsteam from the waterfalls.
Beautiful pictures happened here too.
Everything was so perfect. I was so happy. I couldn't believe our luck at deciding to visit this place. Brandon told me this was basically how he imagined heaven.
We could see a pretty bridge upstream from where we were.
Cute Derrick.
We still weren't ready to leave so we went out on a big rock and threw more rocks in the water.
Then after spending almost 4 hours at the Cumberland Falls area we decided that we had to get going so we could make it to our destination for the day. We crossed over the bridge and continued heading west.
We had a campsite booked at a place called Bailey's Point near Mammoth Cave. We didn't really have any stops planned along the way. We saw a sign for a Railroad museum in Stearns. Derrick had been asking to see a train all day so we decided to go there. However, most of the kids were asleep by the time we drove down there.
Charlotte was still awake so Brandon let her play games on his phone while the rest of us took a nap. We napped for about an hour. That nap was very much needed after our early morning. And then it was time to hit the road and drive. Kentucky is amazingly beautiful, but unfortunately I didn't take many pictures from the car.
We crossed from the Eastern Time Zone back into the Central Time Zone during our drive. We arrived at the Bailey's Point Campground around 5 or 6.
This was another place that I'd booked without really researching. I'd wanted to stay at the Mammoth Cave Campground, but there were no spots left to reserve. Reserve America recommended Bailey's Point. It was by a lake and the little picture of the campsite looked nice so I decided we might as well stay there. Also it was only $18 a night.
I was completely unprepared for how pretty the campsite would be. We were on top of a hill with a 180 degree view of the lake.
Our campsite was covered with gravel which meant it would be level. Yay.
Everyone set to work getting things ready. Charlotte helped Brandon make noodles and sauce for dinner.
And Lydia helped me with the tent.
After dinner we went for a walk down to the water.
We were just in time to see the gorgeous sunset.
Lydia proudly showed me how she could blow a bubble. She'd been working on that all weekend.
Then we went back up the road to our campsite at the top of the hill.
Veronica helped me get the blankets laid out in the tent.
Brandon lit a fire and Derrick was in heaven.
We sat around the fire and told jokes and sang songs. I sang some girls camp songs and Charlotte and Lydia really liked the "Spider's Web Song." The night was just perfect.
Soon the kids were getting sleepy so I helped them change into their pajamas in the tent. Brandon and I let them fall asleep where ever they wanted while we got thing ready for the next day. We were going to have an early start the next day so we made sure everything was as prepared as possible. Then we sat by the fire and talked. We both couldn't believe that we'd managed to find not one but two amazingly beautiful places without doing any prior research. We decided that the whole state is so pretty that anywhere is beautiful. Brandon told me that he was perfectly fine adding Tennessee and Kentucky to the list of states where we want to live.
When it was bed time we lined up the kids in their little alcove of the tent, and blew up the air mattress. This would be our last of three nights in this little tent. I was pleasantly surprised by how well we'd all fit in this little tent.
Brandon and I crawled into bed and fell asleep. I couldn't believe what a perfect day it had been.
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