Thursday, August 4, 2011

Pine Mountain, Kentucky

It is hard to write a post after such a long absence.  But I wanted to put up some things about my trip to Pine Mountain, Kentucky.  Not too many pics, I was kept pretty busy.

Chapel at Pine Mountain Settlement School

I left Portland, OR  on Sunday July 24th.  I took the redeye to Phoenix and then had a connector flight to Charleston and then onto Knoxville.  We ran into a huge thunderstorm in Phoenix and my plane was diverted to Las Vegas.  I missed my connector by 3 hours.  So I slept in the Phoenix airport since the soonest flight to the East Coast was not until noon the next day.  I was cursing Sky Harbor Airport by the end of it.  More bad storms caused my flight into Philadelphia to be a bit late therefore I was running hard to meet my little puddle-jumper plane to Knoxville.  I finally rolled into my final destination at midnight (Knoxville time) but it felt like only 9:00 so I got into my rental car and drove north toward Kentucky.  It didn't take me long to realize that I needed to pull off and get a hotel room; fog was moving in.  
After 2 hours sleep and a shower I was off again.  Through the morning light I made my way up to the Cumberland Gap.  I was very excited to go through this historic region of the country and it didn't disappoint.  I think it was the longest tunnel I have ever been in.  I soon turned off the main highway and made my way into the Appalachia country.  Lots of coal, even on the side of the road.
I made it to Pine Mountain Settlement School in time for breakfast.
The Summit was fabulous!  I met so many great people that I hope I know for a long time to come.  I am very excited about the Standards document.  We hope to have it out by the end of the year.

Some interesting fungus.


Lots of big moths.

I will not soon forget evenings on the front porch of Big Log, my first fireflies and those terrible biting insects.  Thanks to the Founders for setting-up such an amazing event.  I feel honored to have been part of it.

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