Thirty Bluegrass Region members and Two Central Indiana Region members meet in Lexington Saturday morning for a drive southeastward to the Breaks Interstate Park in Virginia, just east of Elkhorn City, KY.
The Breaks Park is known as the Grand Canyon of Appalachia and is a spectacular view from the lodge deck or from several overlooks throughout the Park (or as Larry McVey calls it, a bunch of trees!).
The drive down included a drive through Red River Gorge (and for some of us, a couple miles on the Mountain Parkway). After a break we then on to Hazard, where we stopped for lunch at Applebee’s. After lunch, we headed on to Whitesburg, then through Elkhorn City finally crossing into Virginia and arrived at the Park.
Everyone checked into their rooms, except for George & Cindy Woolwine and Bill & Carol Larkin whose rooms were still being cleaned. The Manager apologized and said they had two housekeepers fail to show and they were working to get them done. We all met for dinner in the lodge restaurant. After dinner some of us visited overlooks, then we met back on the lodge deck to enjoy the evening and for some, wine.
Sunday, we had breakfast at the park restaurant, (Key & Felicia Willson were staying an extra day, so they didn’t join us). and then we lined up in two groups for the drive to Whitesburg and a break stop. Then it was onto KY-7, a very “Eastern Kentucky Highway” that twisted through Coal Country. The weather was great Saturday and Sunday it was fine until we got close to Garrett, KY, where we stopped to put our tops up. Luckily the rain didn’t spoil the weekend. There were lots of turns (and a few extra, when the group 1 leader missed a couple) but we finally made our way to Saylorsburg and the Mountain Parkway for the last leg of the trip to Natural Bridge State Park for a late lunch.
Article written by Larry Dukes
