More hiking at Cumberland Falls

This weekend, my good friend came down to visit. It was so nice to be able to show him where I live and work! I introduced him to life in the trailer, wonderboard, and of course Soup Beans. We also did some hiking at Cumberland Falls, Eagle Falls and Natural Arch. Below are a few pictures from our adventures.

Cumberland Falls

Eagle Falls

An overlook on Falls Road

Our Trail Guide at Natural Arch

Enjoying the weekend at Dollywood!

This past weekend, I finally had the opportunity to go to Dollywood. For those of you unfamiliar with Dollywood, it is a theme park located in Pigeon Forge, TN and is literally in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. The park is filled with numerous roller coasters, amazing shows (my favorite was the Smoky Mountain Christmas, food (the cinnamon bread is the best), and of course plenty of Dolly memorabilia. 

While the weather was less than desirable and I didn’t get to see Dolly, I had a great time. Dollywood is now celebrating the Christmas season and has all of its decorations up and all of the shows are now Christmas themed, which of course I absolutely loved! It totally got me into the Christmas spirit  

Thanks to my BFF for hanging with me and showing me around the Dollywood town- you rock my friend!!

Here’s a youtube video of part of my favorite show at Dollywood – The Smoky Mountain Christmas. The picture quality is not that great, but it still works:

 And then of course, I couldn’t leave Dollywood without a picture:
 

Me at Dollywood

The signs of poverty

Almost everyday, I am amazed at the poverty I see here in KY, but the other day has had to of been one of the worst situations that I have seen in quite some time. It involves a 23 year old girl with two small children. She has a 2 year old son and a 7 month year old daughter (they are the cutest little things – I just wanted to hug them all day long). The mom does not work and the dad is currently in another country trying to get citizenship so that he can come back to the states. What blows me away is that the mom and the children are living in a trailer that is slowly falling apart. There are multiple holes in the ceiling and some of the walls are caving in. The family also has no running water and only has a small electric heater to try and heat the place. The children have no where to sleep but on the couch in the living room and there is barely enough space for them to play. I could go on, but I will spare you the details of the other things I saw.

Anyway, what the family needs desperately is a new home, but of course they can not afford that since neither the mom nor the dad work. So they will spend this winter, just as they spend every other winter huddle up next to their small electric heater hoping for warmer days.

And here, I sit in a warm trailer with running water typing on my laptop with a wireless Internet connection. It’s funny how life works sometime.

On the bright side, CAP is going to try and help this family. I am going to work with them to at least get the holes in the ceiling patched up and we are going to try and fix up the walls. It won’t do much, but hopefully it will make the winter a little more bearable.

So for all of you reading this post, please toss up a few prayers for this family – they could certainly use them!

It’s not a rat, but still…

I thought when I left Chicago that I would also be leaving behind all my furry friends (aka Mr. Rat), but boy was I wrong. Now, I haven’t seen any rats as of yet, but we have already had two mice in our lovely home. And of course, they were in my room – ick!! We have set up traps and did catch the two little furry fellows – sadness for them, but happiness for me!! Now Ann tells me that last year they caught about 5 mice, so I have at least 3 more to look forward too .

However, for my sake, I really hope I don’t see any more. These little things just creep me out.

WonderBoard – Neither wonderful nor a board!

Today was my first time picking up WonderBoard for a family here in KY. Before coming to KY, I had no idea what WonderBoard was…but now I know! This is a 50lb concrete based sheet material that is nothing more than a conglomeration of cement particles bonded with cement and captured between two layers of fiberglass fabric. They are 5′ x 3′ and either 1/4″ or 1/2″ thick. Who knew?? The people here in KY use it to help board up the underneath of their trailer, so that the wind can’t whip through the trailer and freeze the pipes.

Anyway, today I had to pick up 30 of these so called ‘boards’ and load them into my truck. That is over 1,500 lbs that I lifted today!! Of course, I had help from my roomie Ann, but still – 1,500 lbs!!! I am definitely building up my arm muscles here in KY

Oh and to top off the day, our local gas station was giving away free coffee in celebration of the election – good times!

I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

The view from my backyard..

I wanted to share some pictures of Cumberland Falls which are located here in KY. This National Park is literally 5 minutes from my trailer. It is a great little spot to get away and enjoy nature. Cumberland Falls has been referred to as the Niagara Falls of the South. It really is beautiful up at the park. Not only does it have some great spots to just sit and relax, but there is a ton of hiking that can be done. Although, I have yet to find any good running trails at the falls.

Cumberland Falls is also home to the famous Moonbow, which occurs when light from a full-moon refracts off of the water from the falls which then creates a prism of light in the mist of the falls. There are only a few places in the world that this can be seen and Cumberland Falls is one such place. How lucky am I to have it in my own backyard! Below are some pics of the falls, someday, I hope to post some pics of the moonbow.

A view of Cumberland Falls

Another picture of the Falls