When I flew home from Richmond last Saturday, I had no idea I would be boarding a plane to return only three days later. But what a great trip! I arrived in Richmond Tuesday afternoon when a friend picked me up at the airport and drove me to Lynchburg, Virginia, where we joined my sister and brother-in-law and their two dogs in their Hyundai Accent only to drive another eight hours to Monticello, Kentucky. We got in at about 2 a.m. and woke up five hours later to spend the day on Lake Cumberland. We filled the day with jet-skiing, tubing, diving off the top of a double decker pontoon, and eating Dale's famously seasoned steaks. After a day in the sun and little sleep the night before, we were exhausted but all too easily persuaded to make a Wal-Mart run with my sister so she could make a birthday cake for her father-in-law. I fell asleep that night to the aroma of a golden layer cake flooding my nostrils from the oven only five or six paces from the couch that was my bed.
Friday found us exploring only a few of the 365 miles of underground rock formations at Mammoth Cave National Park. Frozen Niagra was definitely worth the drive. We spent most of the evening working up an appetite in those caves, which made the stop for Mexican on the way home even more appealing than usual. We spent Saturday lounging around the lake again and playing some two-on-two basketball. The afternoon brought in a pretty intense thunderstorm, and we ended up spending a good portion of it watching the lightening over the rolling hills of Kentucky from a rocking front porch swing. It was a relaxing way to end the trip, especially before piling back into the backseat of the Hyundai Accent with my sister and her two dogs to drive back to Lynchburg through the night.