#destinationkentuckyredrivergorge
Day Three
11 years ago on Fathers Day 2010 two months after my daughter turned 1 I got separated from my ex-wife and scared and with a feeling of defeat I got in my car and with nowhere to go I made the trip from Ohio back to my parent’s house in NC. 2 hours into the trip I got a call from a company I had had 3 interviews with and they were calling me with a job offer exceeding the salary I was asking for.
I told them I needed 3 weeks to get my affairs in order and I will be there. I got to my parents and looked for an apartment signing a lease sight unseen and made my way back in a few weeks.
I say all that to say that today is a celebration of being a father to an amazing little girl but it is also so much more. 11 years ago I was on the road running away and here I am today on the same exact road ironically in KY heading towards my greatest Destination Unknown.
I took back the power of this day and grew from its significance. So no matter where you are or what you are going through or however world-ending life can seem, don’t run from it, run through it!
Happy Fathers Day to all my Fellow BadAss Warrior Dads!
I have been feeling an unbelievable connection to nature and the ground under my feet. As if we are in a constant conversation. The silence and solitude have actually allowed me to listen to the silence and turn up the volume on the messages my inner voice and the universe are sending my way. When I got to the top of the gorge I walked right up to the edge and I had an unbelievable emotional wave sweep over me. My eyes focused like the lens of my camera trying to consume the entire picture in front of me. Think Simba in the gorge when there is a stampede coming towards him in the original animated version and the entire frame zooms into focus. Yeah, that’s exactly how it felt but paired with the comfort and bliss of beauty reaching down and touching my soul.
And despite me doing this trip solo I made a friend on the way back from my hike to the trailhead. A lizard, I called him Rex because he walked with the confidence of a trex but with the grace and curiosity of a child. He walked by my side for an hour, it was unreal. I also talked to him the whole time, Thank God for earbuds because people might actually catch on to how crazy I really am.
It started getting dark and I realized that I was not going to have time to set up camp and cook dinner so I was in an area at the top of the gorge all by myself and decided to do it tailgate-style and cook on my propane stove and arrange my car for some good ole car camping. You see, I made an assumption that turned out to be spot on.
I recently bought a Ford Escape SEL with a Panoramic roof, recently as a week before the trip started. And I knew that if i laid in the back under the panoramic sunroof it would be like I was 7 years old again laying in my bed under a sea of glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceiling. And as high up as I was with zero light pollution. I could lay there with my head on a pillow looking straight up and practically see the entire milky way. So my first of many Car camping nights and I fell asleep under a Sea of Stars. This is truly the adventure of a lifetime!
I have been feeling an unbelievable connection to nature and the ground under my feet. As if we are in a constant conversation. The silence and solitude have actually allowed me to listen to the silence and turn up the volume on the messages my inner voice and the universe are sending my way. When I got to the top of the gorge I walked right up to the edge and I had an unbelievable emotional wave sweep over me. My eyes focused like the lens of my camera trying to consume the entire picture in front of me. Think Simba in the gorge when there is a stampede coming towards him in the original animated version and the entire frame zooms into focus. Yeah, that’s exactly how it felt but paired with the comfort and bliss of beauty reaching down and touching my soul.
And despite me doing this trip solo I made a friend on the way back from my hike to the trailhead. A lizard, I called him Rex because he walked with the confidence of a trex but with the grace and curiosity of a child. He walked by my side for an hour, it was unreal. I also talked to him the whole time, Thank God for earbuds because people might actually catch on to how crazy I really am.
It started getting dark and I realized that I was not going to have time to set up camp and cook dinner so I was in an area at the top of the gorge all by myself and decided to do it tailgate-style and cook on my propane stove and arrange my car for some good ole car camping. You see, I made an assumption that turned out to be spot on.
I recently bought a Ford Escape SEL with a Panoramic roof, recently as a week before the trip started. And I knew that if i laid in the back under the panoramic sunroof it would be like I was 7 years old again laying in my bed under a sea of glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceiling. And as high up as I was with zero light pollution. I could lay there with my head on a pillow looking straight up and practically see the entire milky way. So my first of many Car camping nights and I fell asleep under a Sea of Stars. This is truly the adventure of a lifetime!
“Fear not the unknown. It is a sea of possibilities.”
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