Part III - Pictures From Carter Caves State Park

Here is one more set of pictures from our week at Carter Caves. I will start today's post with a few more pictures of our walk to the Fern Natural Bridge.

There is a huge bluff in the picture below and the rock we are standing on is separate from the bluff and has trees growing right out of the top of it. You have to step over a small chasm to get on the rock and it is best not to look down.

Saturday evening after the reunion some of us took another walk to the Smokey Natural Bridge. Here I am with Solomon, Van and Andrew.

And the rest of the hiking crew.

Solomon and Van are on the rock in the picture above and I am on the same rock taking a picture of everyone in the picture below. It was a long way up there.

It was pretty steep coming down and I had worn most the tread off my Crocs so Andrew came up and held my hand on the way down. He said, "I am helping you like a soldier helps people." His older brother is a soldier over seas right now and he wants to be just like him. It was touching.

Me, Andrew and Van "explored" some caves.

Sunday morning we drove the BoggsMobile to toward Grayson and sang at the Gregoryville Christian Church. My Cousin George's middle daughter Michelle attends church there with her husband and she bribed, blackmailed, begged, convinced, coerced, talked the Pastor into inviting us to come. We had a great time and they treated us very kindly. 

This is Michelle with Odie below.

Pastor Ron Arnett and Davy

We counted at least 28 of us Boggs' in service that morning and only two of that number attend there normally. It was a special treat for us to be there and a real special honor to have so many of our family attend with us. I had them all stand up at one point and I wish I had whipped out my trusty iPhone and taken a picture of them from the pulpit.

Faithful readers have seen this picture several times before.

This is my Dad Eugene Boggs sitting in the creek at Carter Caves in 2009 the day after the Boggs Reunion. Most of our immediate family sat in the creek that hot August day and ate KFC while cooling our feet in the cold, cold water. It was one of the favorite days in my life and the picture above captured it perfectly. I have had a hankering to get back to that creek for a long time.

Sunday afternoon we finally did it. Carter County has been really, really dry so the creek was not rushing in cold water as it normally is. We had to move down the creek from where we were in 2009 to find water deep enough to dangle our feet in but it was cool, wet, the chicken was excellent and I had my Dad, Mom, both brothers, my sister, all their spouses and most of the grandchildren. Plus we had Cousin Reva, her husband Lynn, one of her daughters Wendy, her husband and some of Reva's grandchildren.

It was a day that will live in my memory for a long, long, long time! Here is another picture to prove it.

After a few hours Tommy, Theresa and their families left for Ohio and Cousin Reva and her family went to the campground. That left the "Original" family.

There was a steep wash right behind where we sat in the creek that led to a vertical rock cliff. The wash begged to be climbed before we left.

I started slowly working my way up.

Just as I got to the top I looked behind me and my 71 year old Dad was steady climbing behind me.

He made it all the way to the top!

There was an awesome rock between the creek and the road. My Mother and Kelly Jo scampered to the top of it like a couple of mountain goats!

After all that climbing we were hungry again so we ate a little snack at a greasy spoon near the park entrance.

That pretty much wraps up our week in eastern Kentucky and what a great week it was. We left for Illinois Monday and have been here since. I should have more to post on that tomorrow. I will leave you with one last picture of Hadessah and Aalyah telling me good-bye in the campground Monday morning. 



We watched Cousin Reva, her husband Lynn, my parents and Steve and Karen pull out a few minutes ahead of us Monday. Cousin George and his wife Diana were staying a few more days so we bid them good-bye as well.

I hated to leave everyone behind. That is one of the hard parts about traveling the way we do for a living. It is hard to leave friends and family behind. But looking on the bright side, if we did not travel we would not know 1/10 of the people we know. We soothe the hurt in our hearts as we drive away with the knowledge that time and the providence of God will probably bring us back together again.

Thanks for reading.

Davy