Ken-Plucky! (Part I)

Well, B. had a whole 2 weeks off before summer session of school started, so we packed up the camping and climbing gear, threw the dog in the car, and headed down to Red River Gorge, Kentucky.

Whiskey is an excellent car dog - of the 14 hour trip, she spent two hours doing this:

And 12 hours doing this. She's quite the sleeper.

We stayed at a place called Miguel's Pizza, which is quintessential dirt bag camping. Miguel lets climbers stay in his goat pasture for $2/night, and in return he makes a lot of money selling pizzas to hungry dirty climbers.

There's no real rhyme or reason to the camping - just pick a spot and throw your tent down. If more people come, just squeeze in tighter. This photo was taken later in the week - a paltry showing compared to the crowd on Memorial Day Weekend.

There's a covered area for cooking if it rains (and it rains every day), and there's lots of cool wood carvings that Miguel does on the off season.

This part of Kentucky (called "The Red" if you're in the know) is green green green, thanks so the bounty of rain they receive. Here's a few shots of the area:

Rain, and more rain

The Nada Tunnel - this long crazy tunnel blasted through a rock wall. Even crazier, it's single lane, so before you proceed to have to make sure someone else isn't already in the tunnel. Apparently Van Halen took his tour bus through the tunnel once.

Local architecture

Thus concludes Part I - stay tuned for Part II, which actually includes the climbing!