Nature: Only a Camping Trip Away

Before I even considered coming to Transy for school, my family was introduced to Red River Gorge through my dad's father's family reunion. The first time we went we spend the morning awkwardly meeting family that we'd never heard of before and the afternoon hiking the Gorge. I remember my parents, my sisters and I encountering a herd of bison and thinking that we must be out in the middle of nowhere because I'd never seen anything like the wildlife or the Gorge before. Little did I know that the Gorge and all of it's natural beauty was only a short 45 minute drive from Lexington and Transylvania University for that matter.

Me, my Grandparents, and a Great Aunt at the Family Reunion last year

I don't think I've ever told you, but I'm a fiend for camping. I love packing up all the food, sleeping bags, and tent and getting away from everything every once in a while. My love for camping stems back to my childhood where we would camp where ever the best IndyCar race happened to be during the summer. Interestingly enough, I don't have a lot of friends at school that are too crazy about going off the grid for any extended period of time but I finally talked up a camping trip to the Gorge enough that I had some of my best friends, Erica and Emily, (and boyfriends) agree to go. We picked the weekend before May Term even began and started the countdown for the big weekend. We watched weather.com carefully as it detail the thunderstorms and rain that was planned for our weekend and we bravely loaded the car with our supplies for the weekend. (Tent, tarp, blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, chairs, 1 big jar of pickles, 48 hot dogs, and assorted Great Value food items.) The sky was overcast so we hurried to set up our tent and the rest of the site before rain had a chance to get everything wet, but the sky cleared up some and we passed the night making a fire and roasting hot dogs.

Chris, Tommy, me and Emily in front of our [almost] set-up tent

Early the next morning, I was awaken by the birds squawking and I got up and putted around until the rest of the group woke up. We had a light breakfast and looked over the maps of the area to pick out the best trails for our hike. We decided to hike up to Natural Bridge through a series of paths in the area. Unfortunately we ended up on a trail that we hadn't intended and on the map it even had a warning that it was an intense trail where the hiker would be faced with many stairs. We struggled through the stairs and marveled at the rock formations and other beautiful aspects of the trail, and finally we made it to the top and to the Natural Bridge. The Natural Bridge is exactly what it sounds like a big huge rock formation that bridges two parts of the mountain together and you can walk over it.

Me, Tommy, Erica, Chris, and Emily on top of the natural bridge

We loafed around on top of the area and explored some and then went back down and back to our campsite. The campground was really cool in that part of the river ran through the middle of it, so at our campsite we had the road across from us and the river on the other side of the road. It was clean and shallow and we played in it during the hottest part of the afternoon and then lay of the shade on the bank of the other side napping and reading and just enjoying the area. Later, as we were cooking our dinner (hot dogs) it started to rain so we grabbed some snacks and hung out in the tent for the night playing card games.

Wilderness Women (Me, Erica and Emily) hanging out in the tent during the rain

We woke up early to still wet conditions and decided to pack up and leave; we were back to Transy in time for brunch in the caf. The thing that amazed me was how close to Lexington this amazing geological area was and how far away we felt. I know several people ask about the size of Lexington. Is it too big? Is it too small? And in my opinion, it's just right. You have some really cool cultural opportunities that are typical to bigger cities like Festival Latino de Lexington or the Roots & Heritage Festival and you have malls and shopping and good food but you also are surrounded by horse farms and the rolling hills of central Kentucky and just a little further away you can find amazing wilderness like Red River Gorge and the rest of Daniel Boone National Forest.

Wilderness Women survey the wilderness

Lexington seems to be situated perfectly in the middle of big cities and big country, and neither is too far away for a day or weekend trip. There are orientation programs that travel around the state to work with people in Appalachia, students frequently take weekend adventures camping, and there's even a couple of mountain climbers hanging around campus. Keep it in mind, the world is just at Lexington's doorstep and Transy likes to hang out on the front porch.

Adventure is out there!

Hello Dear Blogging World! We haven't heard from one another in quite some time so I figured I'd stop by to say hello. We've entered that wonderful time of the year known as May Term, a time where we only have one class everyday for a month, yet it seems that I've been as busy as ever. Since May Term started I've only been on campus for one weekend day otherwise I've been running around adventuring, I'm going to rewind and take you through the adventures I've been on since we've last talked.

Boat Formal
One of my best friends, Luke, is a member of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and each year during May Term Break their whole fraternity takes a trip to Knoxville, TN (only about three hours away) for an overnight formal that takes place on a riverboat. I went my freshman year with the guy I was seeing at the time, but this year I got to go with a group of friends and it was fantastic. Luke and I shared a room with our other good friend Jerry and his two Dates so we all loaded up into the car and drove down early Saturday afternoon to Knoxville, we got there early enough to do some exploring of the city and we found a street festival and passed the afternoon wandering through the booths.

Luke and I exploring Knoxville

After that we all went to dinner with a couple more friends at a restaurant on the river and then came back, showered, and got ready for the dance. Even with threats of tornadoes, the fraternity members and their dates danced the night away on the river. The boat docked early because of an impending storm and we all got back to the hotel, I talked a friend into sitting out under the awning and watching the storm with me. We came back Sunday and rested for our next adventure on Monday.

Jerry, Me and Luke at the formal on the boat

Indianapolis with the Kentucky Boys
On the Monday of May Term Break, I convinced Jerry and Luke to travel another three hours in the opposite direction to visit my home in Indianapolis. I had a couple of bargaining chips including their fraternity's national headquarters are in downtown Indy, there's good shopping there, and they love me. So we took the trip up to Indy in my VW Beetle (Luke got the back seat and refers to my car as a bubble now) and we got there Monday afternoon, I took them around the town to see the sites and then back home to just be lazy around the house for a little bit. We went to dinner and finished the night in the hot tub looking at stars and relaxing before hectic May Term started. The trip was short, but nice and we returned Tuesday to get ready for classes on Wednesday.

Jerry and Luke at the Solders and Sailors Monument in the middle of downtown Indy

The Kentucky Derby

Another of my best friends, Erica, and I were presented with the opportunity to attend the World Famous Kentucky Derby with her mom and some of their family friends. I jumped at the opportunity because I'd never been to a horse race at all, let alone had the opportunity to go to the derby. So Friday after class we drove to Erica's house in Mead County to meet her mom to go to the Derby the next day. We enjoyed a relaxed night of talking and stargazing (she lives in the middle of nowhere so the stars were especially good) and then we were up the next morning for the Derby. We had both planned our outfits, complete with hats, but the weather disappointed us with overcast skies and plenty of rain. We ditched our hats and heels and went for jeans and rain boots instead.

Erica and I in our intended fancy-wear

The day was fun and we experienced it all, from the Mint Juleps to the mud in the infield to leaning over the rail for a race. We didn't get to see the actual Derby but we snuck up to the rail for the race following the Derby once most people had left to find drier places to be. We were exhausted by the end of the day but we had more fun than we had anticipated.

Us at the end of the day: Muddy, Wet, and Happy

Mom, RN, CNS
When I left for college, my mom started a new chapter in her life in pursuing her masters and it's been fun comparing course loads and talking about paper writing or research for classes with her. Two weekends ago she graduated from her masters program as an Adult Critical Nurse Specialist. Not only that she was inducted into a nursing honorary and recognized for her accomplishments in her program. She's been very excited about it all and next week my little sister, Maggie, is graduating from high school so the two of them and my dad are all going to take a celebratory trip to France this summer while I slave away at my computer all day... but that's a rant for another time. :) So I drove home to celebrate my mom for her graduation and for mothers day and I was able to spend some time with my extended family in their Mother's Day celebrations as well.

Maggie and my mom in their graduation robes

As this post is getting lengthy and I have oodles to say about my most recent adventure I'll leave you all now with this little gem about Transy. It's unique that during the last month of classes any student has freedom to do little more than study, but at Transy May Term gives you not only the opportunity to travel abroad (see my Adventures in Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia from last year) but it also gives you the flexibility to have weekend adventures in the surrounding area.

I hope that it's not been too rainy wherever you might be! Hasta Luego!