Sky Bridge at Red River Gorge, Kentucky

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain drops hitting against the hotel window. So I turned on the Weather Channel and they indicated that it would be rainy for the next two days. My goal today was to photograph the Kentucky hills and horse farms and those plans were quickly changed.

I drove to downtown Lexington, KY from my hotel (about 5 miles away), got coffee, and then went to the tourism office on the main street. The lady that greeted me was full of charm and of course had a wonderful southern accent. I asked her what people do when the weather is lousy, and she said other than getting a good book to read, there wasn't much else to do other than visit a couple of mansions (which were closed) or visit the local arboretum.

I drove out of town and stopped at a Waffle House and had three eggs over medium, bacon, and raisin toast. While my breakfast was being made, I did some Google searches to see if anything turned up that the tourism office missed - It did not...

Since the weather was miserable, I decided to start heading back home. I got about 20 miles down the highway and had to pull off because the visibility was down to almost zero. I stopped and got some coffee and pulled up my location on the Weather Channel to see what the hourly forecast was. They said that there would be a brief dry spell between 1 - 3 PM. Since it was already close to 11 a.m., I took my chances and took a two lane road through the countryside to Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky. I'm glad I decided to do this because even with the rain, the place was just magnificent. I got to the park about 1:15 p.m.

A ranger at the Red River Gorge welcome center suggested that I go see Sky Bridge as that would hopefully allow me to get some good pictures. So off I went, parked the car, and then hiked 1.5 miles through the woods to get to this bridge. Fortunately the Weather Channel was right and I was able to get through the entire hike without getting more than a sprinkle here and there.

This is probably my wordiest blip yet and hope I didn't ramble too much - It is 10:30 p.m. and I am absolutely wiped. I'm staying in a hotel in southwestern West Virginia and will get up early and complete the last 6 hours of my journey home.